HMS Albatross (1873)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Albatross.

HMS Albatross's sister ship, HMS Egeria
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Albatross
Namesake	Albatross
Builder	Chatham Royal Dockyard
Laid down	1872
Launched	27 April 1873
Completed	February 1874
Fate	Scrapped, February 1889
General characteristics
Class & type	Fantome-class sloop
Displacement	949 long tons (964 t)
Tons burthen	727 bm
Length	160 ft (48.8 m) (p/p)
Beam	31 ft 4 in (9.6 m)
Draught	14 ft (4.3 m)
Depth	15 ft 6 in (4.7 m)
Installed power	838  ihp (625 kW)
Propulsion	1 shaft 1 × 2-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine 3 × cylindrical boilers
Sail plan	Barque rig
Speed	10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Range	1,000  nmi (1,900 km; 1,200 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	125
Armament	2 × 7-inch rifled muzzle-loading guns 2 × 6.3-inch 64-pounder rifled muzzle-loading guns

HMS Albatross was a 4-gun Fantome-class sloop built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1870s.

History

In May 1886, she was driven ashore at Hong Kong whilst going to the assistance of the British ship Dafila, which had also driven ashore. ^[1] Both vessels were refloated, and HMS Albatross towed Dafila in to Hoikow, China. ^[2]

Figurehead

This carving is not a true figurehead but a scroll designed for a sloop’s vertical bow.

The carving was still at Chatham Dockyard in 1938 but 11 years later, it had been moved to HMS Ganges in Shotley, Suffolk. This establishment closed in 1984 and the carving was transferred to the collections of the then Royal Naval Museum. ^[3]

The carving can be seen in the Figureheads Gallery at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth. ^[4]

Notes

1. "Latest Shipping Intelligence". The Times. No. 31762. London. 18 May 1886. col F, p. 10.
2. "Latest Shipping Intelligence". The Times. No. 31763. London. 19 May 1886. col E, p. 12.
3. Pulvertaft, David (2009). The Warship Figureheads of Portsmouth (1st Colour ed.). UK: The History Press. p. 105. ISBN   978-0752450766.
4. "Discover the Royal Navy like never before | National Museum of the Royal Navy". www.nmrn.org.uk. Retrieved 14 July 2025.

Bibliography

• Ballard, G. A. (1939). "British Sloops of 1875: The Smaller Composite Type". Mariner's Mirror. 25 (April). Society for Nautical Research: 151–61.
• Colledge, J. J.; Wardlow, Ben & Bush, Steve (2020). Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present (5th ed.). Seaforth Publishing. ISBN   978-1-5267-9327-0.
• Roberts, John (1979). "Great Britain and Empire Forces". In Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M. (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905 . Conway Maritime Press. ISBN   0-8317-0302-4.
• Winfield, R.; Lyon, D. (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN   978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC   52620555.