Active was 270 feet (82.3m)long between perpendiculars and had a beam of 42feet 1inch (12.8m). Forward the ship had a draught of 16feet 5inches (5.0m), but aft she drew 21ft 5in (6.5m). Active displaced 3,078 long tons (3,127t) and had a burthen of 2,322 tons. Her iron hull was covered by a 3-inch (76mm) layer of oak that was sheathed with copper from the waterline down to prevent biofouling.[1] Watertight transverse bulkheads subdivided the hull.[2] Her crew consisted of 340 officers and ratings.[1]
Active was ship rigged and had a sail area of 16,593 square feet (1,542m2).[1] The lower masts were made of iron, but the remainder of the masts were wood. The ship's best speed under sail alone was 12.5 knots (23.2km/h; 14.4mph). Her funnel was semi-retractable to reduce wind resistance[3] and her propeller could be hoisted up into the stern of the ship to reduce drag while under sail.[1]
HMS Active was laid down in 1867 and launched on 13 March 1869. The ship was completed in March 1871 at a total cost of £126,156. Of this, £85,795 was spent on her hull and £40,361 on her machinery.[1] Unlike her sister shipVolage, Active was placed in reserve after completion until 1873 when she was commissioned to serve as the flagship of the Commander-in-Chief, Cape of Good Hope and West Coast of Africa Station, CommodoreWilliam Hewett. The ship participated in naval operations during the Third Anglo-Ashanti War of 1874 and some of her crew were landed to reinforce the forces ashore. Commodore Francis Sullivan replaced Hewett in 1876 and he retained command until 1879 when the ship returned home to refit.[5]
In February, Active ran aground in Tugela Bay whilst assisting HMSTenedos, which had also ran aground. They were refloated 36 hours later.[9] During the campaign, Active's crew suffered only one man killed, and nine wounded in action against the enemy, while nine died of disease during the siege, and one man drowned while crossing the Tugela.[6] In 1881 the South Africa Medal was awarded to those members of Active's crew that had served there.[10]
Active was rearmed and refitted in 1879 and placed in reserve until she was selected in 1885 to be the commodore's flagship in the newly formed Training Squadron. Active was the last square-rigged naval ship to leave Portsmouth Harbour under sail. She was paid off in 1898[5] and was sold for scrap on 10 July 1906.[1]
Hms Active monument in Portsmouth
A memorial to the men of Active who lost their lives during the African campaigns can be found in Victoria Park, Portsmouth.[11]
Notes
↑ "cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 64 cwt referring to the weight of the gun.
↑ Hall, D.D. (January 1979). "Artillery in the Zulu War 1879". Military History Journal. The South African Military History Society. 4 (4). Retrieved 3 January 2012.
Ballard, G. A. (1937). "British Corvettes of 1875: The Volage, Active and Rover". Mariner's Mirror. Cambridge, UK: Society for Nautical Research. 23 (January): 53–67.
Winfield, R.; Lyon, D. (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC52620555.
Fort Tenedos was a large earth-walled fort constructed on the Zulu side of the Tugela River in January 1879, opposite Fort Pearson, to support the British at the start of the Anglo-Zulu War.
HMS Agincourt was a Minotaur-class armoured frigate built for the Royal Navy during the 1860s. She spent most of her career as the flagship of the Channel Squadron's second-in-command. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, she was one of the ironclads sent to Constantinople to forestall a Russian occupation of the Ottoman capital. Agincourt participated in Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee Fleet Review in 1887. The ship was placed in reserve two years later and served as a training ship from 1893 to 1909. That year she was converted into a coal hulk and renamed as C.109. Agincourt served at Sheerness until sold for scrap in 1960.
HMS Minotaur was the lead ship of the Minotaur-class armoured frigates built for the Royal Navy during the 1860s. Minotaur took nearly four years between her launching and commissioning because she was used for evaluations of her armament and different sailing rigs.
HMS Iron Duke was the last of four Audacious-class central battery ironclads built for the Royal Navy in the late 1860s. Completed in 1871, the ship was briefly assigned to the Reserve Fleet as a guardship in Ireland, before she was sent out to the China Station as its flagship. Iron Duke returned four years later and resumed her duties as a guardship. She accidentally rammed and sank her sister ship, Vanguard, in a heavy fog in mid-1875 and returned to the Far East in 1878. The ship ran aground twice during this deployment and returned home in 1883. After a lengthy refit, Iron Duke was assigned to the Channel Fleet in 1885 and remained there until she again became a guardship in 1890. The ship was converted into a coal hulk a decade later and continued in that role until 1906 when she was sold for scrap and broken up.
HMS Audacious was the lead ship of the Audacious-class ironclads built for the Royal Navy in the late 1860s. They were designed as second-class ironclads suitable for use on foreign stations and the ship spent the bulk of her career on the China Station. She was decommissioned in 1894 and hulked in 1902 for use as a training ship. The ship was towed to Scapa Flow after the beginning of the First World War to be used as a receiving ship and then to Rosyth after the war ended. Audacious was sold for scrap in 1929.
HMS Defence was the lead ship of the Defence-class armoured frigates ordered by the Royal Navy in 1859. Upon completion in 1862 she was assigned to the Channel Fleet. The ship was paid off in 1866 to be refitted and rearmed and was briefly reassigned to the Channel Fleet when she recommissioned in 1868. Defence had short tours on the North Atlantic and Mediterranean Stations, relieving other ironclads, from 1869 to 1872 before she was refitted again from 1872 to 1874. She became guard ship on the River Shannon when she recommissioned. The ship was transferred to the Channel Fleet again in 1876 and then became guard ship on the River Mersey until 1885. Defence was placed in reserve until 1890, when she was assigned to the mechanical training school in Devonport in 1890. She was renamed Indus when the school adopted that name and served there until sold for scrap in 1935.
HMS Ocean was the last of the Royal Navy's four Prince Consort-class ironclads to be completed in the mid-1860s. She was originally laid down as a 91-gun second-rate ship of the line, and was converted during construction to an armoured frigate. The ship spent the bulk of her career on the China Station and served as flagship there for a time. Upon her return to Great Britain in 1872 her hull was found to be partly rotten and she was placed in reserve until she was sold for scrap in 1882.
HMSZealous was one of the three ships forming the second group of wooden steam battleships selected in 1860 for conversion to ironclads. This was done in response to the perceived threat to Britain offered by the large French ironclad building programme. The ship was ordered to the West Coast of Canada after she was completed to represent British interests in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Zealous became the flagship for the Pacific Station for six years until she was relieved in 1872. She was refitted upon her arrival and subsequently became the guard ship at Southampton until she was paid off in 1875. The ship was in reserve until she was sold for scrap in 1886.
HMS Lord Warden was the second and last ship of the wooden-hulled Lord Clyde class of armoured frigates built for the Royal Navy (RN) during the 1860s. She and her sister ship, Lord Clyde, were the heaviest wooden ships ever built and were also the fastest steaming wooden ships. They were also the slowest-sailing ironclads in the RN.
HMS Alexandra was a central battery ironclad of the Victorian Royal Navy, whose seagoing career was from 1877 to 1900. She spent much of her career as a flagship, and took part in operations to deter the Russian Empire's aggression against the Ottoman Empire in 1878 and the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882. She was affectionately known by her crew as Old Alex.
HMS Inconstant was an unarmored, iron-hulled, screw frigate built for the Royal Navy in the late 1860s. Upon completion in 1869, she was the fastest warship in the world and was assigned to the Channel Squadron. Two years later the ship was transferred to the Detached Squadron for a brief time before she was paid off into reserve in 1872. Inconstant was recommissioned in 1880 for service with the Flying Squadron that circumnavigated the world in 1880–82. On the return voyage, the ship was diverted to Egypt during the Anglo-Egyptian War of 1882 and played a minor role supporting operations ashore. She was reduced to reserve again after her return and was served as an accommodation ship in 1897. Inconstant was hulked in 1904 and became a training ship in 1906. She continued in that role, under a variety of names, until she was sold for scrap in 1955 and subsequently broken up, the second-to-last surviving Pembroke-built warship in existence.
HMS Powerful was the lead ship of her class of two protected cruisers built for the Royal Navy (RN) in the 1890s. She was initially assigned to the China Station and then provided landing parties which fought in the Siege of Ladysmith of 1899–1900 during the Second Boer War. After a lengthy refit, the ship was placed in reserve until 1905 when Powerful became the flagship of the Australia Station. Upon her return home in 1912, she was again reduced to reserve for a brief time before she was reclassified as a training ship. The ship remained in this role until 1929 when she was sold for scrap.
HMS Terrible was the second and last of the Powerful-class protected cruisers built for the Royal Navy (RN) in the 1890s. She served on the China Station and provided landing parties and guns which participated in the Siege and Relief of Ladysmith in the Second Boer War in South Africa. A few months later she did much the same thing to help suppress the Boxer Rebellion in China. During this time, her captain was Percy Scott who trained his crew to a high standard in gunnery and had his training methods adopted by the entire Royal Navy.
HMS Rover was an 18-gun iron screw corvette built for the Royal Navy in the 1870s, the sole ship of her class. The ship was initially assigned to the North America and West Indies Station until she returned home in 1879. She was transferred to the Training Squadron when it formed in 1885. Rover was not really suitable for such a role and she was placed in reserve four years later and then sold for scrap in 1893.
HMS Druid was a Briton-class wooden screw corvette built for the Royal Navy in the late 1860s. She spent her service life overseas on the Cape of Good Hope and North America and West Indies Stations and was sold for scrap in 1886.
HMS Miranda was a Doterel-class sloop of the Royal Navy, built at Devonport Dockyard and launched on 30 September 1879.
The Volage class was a group of two screw corvettes built for the Royal Navy in the late 1860s. Both ships spent the bulk of their active service abroad. Volage spent most of her first commission assigned to the Detached or Flying Squadron circumnavigating the world and then carried a party of astronomers to the Kerguelen Islands to observe the Transit of Venus in 1874. The ship was then assigned as the senior officer's ship in South American waters until she was transferred to the Training Squadron during the 1880s.
HMS Volage was a Volage-class corvette built for the Royal Navy in the late 1860s. She spent most of her first commission assigned to the Flying Squadron circumnavigating the world, and later carried a party of astronomers to the Kerguelen Islands to observe the transit of Venus in 1874. The ship was then assigned as the senior officer's ship in South American waters until she was transferred to the Training Squadron during the 1880s. Volage was paid off in 1899 and sold for scrap in 1904.
HMS Amethyst was the lead ship of the Amethyst-class corvettes built for the Royal Navy in the early 1870s. She participated in the Third Anglo-Ashanti War in 1873 before serving as the senior officer's ship for the South American side of the South Atlantic. The ship was transferred to the Pacific Station in 1875 and fought in the Battle of Pacocha against the rebellious Peruvian ironclad warship Huáscar two years later. This made her the only British wooden sailing ship ever to fight an armoured opponent. After a lengthy refit, Amethyst again served as the senior officer's ship on the South American station from 1882 to 1885. She was sold for scrap two years later.
The Briton class was a group of three wooden screw corvettes built for the Royal Navy in the late 1860s. All three ships of the class only served overseas during their brief service lives. Between them, they were assigned to the China, East Indies, African, North American, and the Pacific Stations. All three were regarded as obsolete 15 years after they were completed, and they were sold in 1886–87.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
United Kingdom
