![]() Brisk, Capt A. F. R. de Horsey drawn in 1860 | |
History | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Name | HMS Brisk |
Ordered | 25 April 1847 |
Builder | Woolwich Dockyard |
Cost | £47,482 |
Laid down | January 1849 |
Launched | 2 June 1851 |
Completed | 24 August 1853 at Devonport Dockyard |
Commissioned | 24 May 1853 |
Decommissioned | 19 January 1869 |
Honours and awards | Pacific 1854–55 |
Fate | Sold on 31 January 1870 |
General characteristics as built | |
Type | Screw sloop (corvette from 1862) |
Displacement | 1,474 long tons (1,498 t) |
Tons burthen | 1,086 90/94 bm |
Length |
|
Beam | 35 ft (10.7 m) maximum, 34 ft 6 in (10.5 m) reported for tonnage |
Draught | 14 ft 8 in (4.5 m) forward, 16 ft 8 in (5.1 m) Aft |
Depth of hold | 20 ft 5+1⁄4 in (6.2 m) |
Installed power |
|
Propulsion |
|
Speed |
|
Complement | 170 to 175 |
Armament |
|
HMS Brisk was a 14-gun wooden-hulled screw sloop designed by the Committee of Reference as part of the 1847 program. She is considered an enlarged Rattler with the design approved in 1847. [1] She was ordered on 25 April 1847 from Woolwich Dockyard as a 10-gun sloop, [2] but the guns were later increased due to the Russian War, to 14 guns by increasing the number of 32-pounder guns. She was launched on 2 June 1851 from Woolwich Dockyard. [3] She served in the Russian War of 1854- 55 and as part of the Southern African anti-slavery patrol, with a final commission on the Australian Station. She was sold in 1870 for use in an pioneer, but unsuccessful, telegraph service.
Brisk was the fourth vessel of the name, since it was introduced for a 16-gun sloop launched by Jacobs of Sandgate on 6 May 1784 and sold in May 1805. [4]
Brisk's keel was laid in January 1849 at Woolwich Dockyard and she was launched on 2 June 1851. [2] Her gun deck was 193 ft 7.25 in (59.0 m) with her keel length reported for tonnage calculation of 169 ft 10 in (51.8 m). Her maximum breadth was 35 ft 2.25 in (10.7 m) reported for tonnage was 34 ft 8.25 in (10.6 m). She had a depth of hold of 20 ft 5.25 in (6.2 m). Her builder's measure tonnage was 1,086 tons and displaced 1,087 tons. Her minimum draught was 14 ft 8 in (4.5 m) forward and 16 feet 8 inches 16 ft 8 in (5.1 m) aft. [1]
On 26 June 1851 she arrived at Greenock to have her machinery fitted by Scott, Sinclair & Company. [5] She shipped two rectangular fire tube boilers. Her engine was a 2-cylinder horizontal single expansion (HSE) steam engine with cylinders of 52 in (1,320.8 mm) in diameter with a 42 in (1,066.8 mm) stroke, rated at 250 nominal horsepower (NHP). She had a single screw propeller. [2] Brisk arrived at Devonport from Scotland on 21 May 1852. [6]
In 1864 her engine was replaced by a Miller, Ravenhill & Salkeld engine with two cylinders of 45 in (1,143.0 mm) diameter pistons with a 24 in (609.6 mm) stroke rated at 200 NHP. [2]
Her initial armament consisted of two Dundas 1853 68-pounder 87 hundredweight (cwt) muzzle-loading smoothbore (MLSB) 10-foot solid-shot gun and eight Monk's 'C' 1839 32-pounder 42 cwt MLSB 8.5-foot solid-shot guns on broadside trucks. The 32-pounders were increased to twelve guns for the Russian War. In 1856 she was rearmed with a single Dundas 1853 68-pounder MLSB of 87 cwt 10-foot solid-shot gun on a pivot mount and fourteen Monk's 'C' 1839 32-pounder 42 cwt MLSB solid-shot guns on broadside trucks. [1]
During steam trials her engine generated 505 ihp (377 kW ) for a speed of 7.35 kn (13.61 km/h). On her trials after the engine change, the engine generated 637 ihp (475 kW ) for a speed of 9.989 kn (18.500 km/h). [1] [7]
Brisk was completed for sea on 24 August 1853 at a cost of £47,482 (including hull of £20,677). [2]
She was commissioned on 24 May 1853 under the command of Commander Frederick Beauchamp Paget Seymour for service on the North America and West Indies Station. [1] [8] During her transit to Jamaica she carried the new governor to Port Royal, Jamaica. With the Russian War, she returned to Home Waters and joined Captain Sir Erasmus Ommanney's Squadron for service in the White Sea. [9] The squadron searched for Russian ships then bombarded the port of Kola on 24 August. The squadron withdrew from the White Sea before the winter freeze up. [9] With Commander Alfred J. Curtis, RN, taking command on 20 October 1854 she was sent to the Russian Pacific Coast to blockade Russian ports. [1] [10] On 1 June 1855 the squadron entered the harbour of Petropavlovsk, but found it abandoned. The batteries and magazines were then destroyed. On 7 June an eruption of Kozelsky was witnessed. Upon the sessation of hostilities, she returned to Home Waters, paying off at Plymouth on 13 June 1857. [1]
After almost two years in reserve, she was commissioned under Captain Algernon F.R. de Horsey for service on the Cape of Good Hope Station. [1] [11] Apart from anti-slavery patrols, she also searched for Dr. Livingstone on 15 September 1859 at the River Kongone. In November she picked up the survivors of the Barretto Junior which had run aground on Mayotte Reef while heading for Mayotte. [12] On 10 August 1860 she captured the clipper ship Emanuela in the Mozambique Channel with more than 800 slaves aboard. [13] With Captain de Horsey becoming invalid due to illness, he was replaced with Captain John P. Luce, RN, and assigned to the West Coast of Africa on 24 February 1862. [1] [14] She returned to Home Waters in 1863, paying off at Plymouth on 22 August. [1]
Brisk's last commission was on 30 August 1864 under Captain Charles W. Hope, RN, for service on the Australia Station. [1] [15] She was sent to relieve HMS Miranda. Sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, she arrived in Sydney on 15 January 1865. Once there she received orders to proceed immediately to New Zealand and join the squadron at Auckland. She arrived in Auckland on 5 February, with the Miranda departing the same day. The Brisk was to undertake escort duties during the New Zealand Wars.
Her first task was to take 300–400 troops of the 2nd Battalion, 14th Regiment, under Colonel W. C. Trevor from Manukau to Whanganui on 1 March 1865. Returning to Auckland she took Governor Grey to Kawau on 1 May. On 15 May she received news from the Dauntless of the demise of the clipper Fiery Star. She sailed for the Chatham Islands to search for the missing passengers and crew. [16] None were found and she returned to Auckland.
On 6 August she took 300 soldiers of the 70th Regiment from Taranaki to Napier and from there she was involved in the fighting around Ōpōtiki. In early 1866 she took soldiers of the 43rd Regiment to Taranaki. After this she left Auckland and sailed around the south sea islands, returning to Sydney on 26 September for a refit. From 10 January to 3 May 1867 she took Governor Grey on a tour around New Zealand's South Island.
In September 1868 she left the Australia Station. [3] [17] [18]
She was decommissioned on 19 January 1869, then sold on 31 January 1870 to the International Mid-channel Telegraph Company Ltd and registered under the same name at London (Official number 63570). [3] Anchored at 49°20′N6°17′W / 49.333°N 6.283°W on Admiralty Patch, 49 nautical miles (91 km) south southwest of Land's End in April 1870, Brisk was part of an experimental telegraph service based at Porthcurno, Cornwall. [19] [20] [21] Cable breakages and sea-sickness amongst the signallers ended the venture after two months, in June 1870. [22] [23] In August 1870 the telegraph company was bankrupt and Brisk was sold at London by the liquidators. [24]
Brisk Bay in Queensland, Australia, is named after her. [25]
Steam frigates and the smaller steam corvettes, steam sloops, steam gunboats and steam schooners, were steam-powered warships that were not meant to stand in the line of battle. The first such ships were paddle steamers. Later on the invention of screw propulsion enabled construction of screw-powered versions of the traditional frigates, corvettes, sloops and gunboats.
HMS Gorgon was a wooden steam paddle sloop of 6 guns, launched in 1837. In 1840 she took part in the bombardment of Acre, and in 1843 was part of the Royal Navy squadron stationed in the River Plate during the Uruguayan Civil War. She was converted to a troopship and in 1858 assisted Agamemnon in the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable. She was sold for breaking in 1864.
HMS Plumper was part of the 1847 programme, she was ordered on the 25 of April as a steam schooner from Woolwich Dockyard with the name Pincher. However, the reference Ships of the Royal Navy, by J.J. College, (c) 2020 there is no entry that associates this name to this build. The vessel was reordered on August 12 as an 8-gun sloop as designed by John Fincham, Master Shipwright at Portsmouth. Launched in 1848, she served three commissions, firstly on the West Indies and North American Station, then on the West Africa Station and finally in the Pacific Station. It was during her last commission as a survey ship that she left her most enduring legacy; in charting the west coast of British Columbia she left her name and those of her ship's company scattered across the charts of the region. She paid off for the last time in 1861 and was finally sold for breaking up in 1865.
HMS Rattler was a 9-gun steam screw sloop of the Royal Navy, and one of the first British warships to be completed with screw propulsion. She was originally ordered as a paddle wheel 4-gun steam vessel from Sheerness Dockyard on 12 March 1841. She was reordered on 24 February 1842 as a propeller type 9-gun sloop from HM Royal Dockyard, Sheerness, as a new vessel. William Symonds had redesigned the ship as a screw propeller driven vessel.
HMS Miranda was a 14-gun wooden screw sloop of the Royal Navy. As part of the 1847 Program, she was designed by John Fincham, Master Shipwright of Portsmouth ,and is considered an improved Rattler, with the design approved on 3 November 1847. She was ordered on 25 April 1847 with the name Grinder from Royal Dockyard, Sheerness. On 3 November 1847, she was reordered as Miranda from Sheerness Dockyard. Launched in 1851, she was completed to see action in the Crimean War. In 1854 she was in the White Sea and participated in the bombardment of the Port of Kola. She then served in the Sea of Azov during 1855. Two of her crew were awarded the Victoria Cross for their bravery. Towards the end of her career she transported troops during the New Zealand Wars. She was reclassified as a corvette by 1862. She was sold for breaking in December 1869.
The Cruizer class was a class of six 17-gun wooden screw sloops built for the Royal Navy between 1852 and 1856.
HMS Niger was originally slated to be built as a Sampson designed sloop; however, she was ordered as a First-Class sloop with screw propulsion on 20 February 1845 to be built at Woolwich Dockyard, along the design developed by Oliver Lang and with a hull like the Basilisk designed paddle sloops. Her armament and engine were to be like the Encounter Design building at Pembroke. A second vessel (Florentia) was ordered on 26 March 1846 but after her keel was laid at Pembroke Dockyard, her construction was suspended on 6 October 1846 then cancelled three years later, on 22 May 1849. Niger She conducted important propulsion trials, finally proving the superiority of screw propulsion and served in West Africa, the Crimea, China, the East Indies and Australia. She took part in the New Zealand wars in 1860 and was sold for breaking in 1869.
HMS Salamander was one of the initial steam powered vessels built for the Royal Navy. On 10 January 1831 the First Sea Lord gave orders that four paddle vessels be built to competitive designs. The vessels were to be powered by Maudslay, Son & Field steam engines, carry a schooner rig and mount one or two 10-inch shell guns. Initially classed simply as a steam vessel (SV), she was re-classed as a second-class steam sloop when that categorization was introduced on 31 May 1844. Designed by Joseph Seaton, the Master Shipwright of Sheerness, she was initially slated to be built in Portsmouth, and was changed to Sheerness Dockyard. She was launched and completed in 1832, took part in the Second Anglo-Burmese War and was broken up in 1883.
HMS Phoenix was a 6-gun steam paddle vessel of the Royal Navy, built in a dry dock at Chatham in 1832. She was reclassified as a second-class paddle sloop before being rebuilt as a 10-gun screw sloop in 1844–45. She was fitted as an Arctic storeship in 1851 and sold for breaking in 1864.
HMS Basilisk was a first-class paddle sloop of the Royal Navy, built at the Woolwich Dockyard and launched on 22 August 1848.
HMS Barracouta was the last paddle sloop built for the Royal Navy. She was built at Pembroke Dockyard and launched in 1851. She served in the Pacific theatre of the Crimean War, in the Second Opium War and in the Anglo-Ashanti wars. She paid off for the last time in 1877 and was broken up in 1881.
HMS Malacca was a 17-gun wooden sloop of the Royal Navy. She was ordered on 9 November 1847 from Moulmein, Burma to be built of teak. As a Surveyor's Department design, Malacca was based on the Conflict designed sloop which was approved on 9 December 1848. After launching in April 1853 she was commissioned the following month to be sailed to England for the fitting of her engine. She entered British Naval service in 1854 and served three commissions including action in the Russian War 1854 - 55 before being sold in 1869. Her resale to Japan, she served in the Japanese Navy as a training ship until broken in 1906.
HMS Encounter was ordered as a First-Class Sloop with screw propulsion on 5 February 1845 to be built at Pembroke, in accordance with the design developed by John Fincham, Master Shipwright at Portsmouth. Her armament was to consist of 8 guns. She was to have a more powerful steam engine rated at 360 nominal horsepower. In 1848 she would be altered abaft and lengthened at Deptford prior to completion. A second vessel (Harrier) was ordered on 26 March 1846 but after her keel was laid at Pembroke Dockyard, her construction was suspended on 9 September 1846 then cancelled five years later, on 4 April 1851. Encounter had her armament radically altered in 1850 and she was broken up at Devonport in 1866.
This group of vessels were originally slated to be built to the Sampson designed steam vessel; however, the Admiralty on 9 May 1845, ordered the first pair as First-Class screw sloops to be built from a design of Sir William Symonds, Surveyor of the Navy. This design would become known as the Conflict-class sloop. These would be 10-gun vessels with 400 NHP engines. The second pair of vessels were ordered on 26 March 1846 but after their keels were laid at Pembroke Dockyard, their construction was suspended in September 1846 then cancelled five years later, on 4 April 1851. Both completed ships served in the Baltic during the Crimean war, and Desperate briefly served as a store ship to Edward Augustus Inglefield's Arctic expedition. They had both been broken up by 1865.
HMS Reynard was part of the 1847 Program, she was ordered on 25 April as a steam schooner from Deptford Dockyard with the name ‘Plumper’. However, the reference Ships of the Royal Navy, by J.J. College, © 2020, there is no entry that associates the name Plumper to this build. The vessel was reordered on 12 August as an 8-gun sloop as designed by John Edye. She was launched in 1848, conducted anti-piracy work in Chinese waters and was wrecked near Pratas Island in the South China Sea on 31 May 1851.
On 26 March 1846, two vessels were ordered from Deptford Dockyard as Rifleman-designed gunvessels named Archer and Parthian. However, on 9 September 1846 the orders for both vessels were suspended prior to the vessels being laid down. On 25 April 1847 two vessels were ordered to the improved Rattler-type screw sloops as designed by John Edye of the Surveyor's Department from Deptford Dockyard. The first vessel, Archer may have been the change of the build from the Rifleman type to the sloop design. The second vessel, Wasp, appears to be a new vessel as the build for the Parthian remained on the books at Deptford until June 1849, when it was cancelled. Archer received the machinery from the gunvessel Rifleman, which resulted in an increase of speed over Wasp. Wasp's hull was sheathed in Muntz metal to retard marine growth. Their armament would increase from 12 to 15 guns over their careers. Both vessels would participate in the Russian War of 1854–1855. Both would be broken by 1869.
HMS Dee was the first paddle steamer ordered for the Royal Navy, designed to carry a significant armament. She was ordered on 4 April 1827 from Woolwich Dockyard. She was designed by Sir Robert Seppings, Surveyor of the Navy and modified by Oliver Lang. This vessel was considered as new construction as a previous vessel ordered as a flush deck Cherokee-class brig in 1824, had been renamed African in May 1825. She was initially classed as a steam vessel (SV), and in 1837 reclassified as a steam vessel class 2 (SV2). She was converted to a troopship in May 1842 and as a second class sloop in 1846. She was converted into a storeship in 1868. She was broken at Sheerness in 1871.
HMS Rhadamanthus was one of the initial steam powered vessels built for the Royal Navy. On 10 January 1831 the First Sea Lord gave orders that four paddle vessels be built to competitive designs. The vessels were to be powered by Maudslay, Son & Field steam engines, carry a schooner rig and mount one or two 10-inch shell guns. Initially classed simply as a steam vessel (SV), she was re-classed as a second-class steam sloop in 1846. Designed by Thomas Roberts, the Master Shipwright of Plymouth. She was launched and completed in 1832, She was converted into a transport in 1841 then in 1851 she was a troopship and by the 1860s she was a transport again. Her breaking was completed in February 1864.
HMS Medea was one of the initial steam-powered vessels built for the Royal Navy. On 10 January 1831 the new First Lord Sir James Graham, 2nd Baronet gave orders that four paddle vessels be built to competitive designs. The vessels were to be powered by Maudslay, Son & Field steam engines, carry a schooner rig and mount one or two 10-inch shell guns. Initially classed simply as a steam vessel (SV), she was re-classed as a second-class steam sloop when that categorization was introduced on 31 May 1844. Designed by Oliver Lang, the master shipwright of Woolwich. She was launched and completed in 1834, took part in the Syrian Coast Campaign and was broken up in 1867.
The Bulldog-class steam vessels (SV2) later reclassed as First Class Sloops, were designed by Sir William Symonds, the Surveyor of the Navy. Designed from the Driver class by Admiralty Order of 26 December 1843, the design was approved in 1844. The changes included lengthening the bow by 10 feet to provide 6 feet of extra space in the engine room. Three vessels would have a single funnel whereas Scourge would have two and be completed as a bomb vessel. In July 1844 it was queried if Fury was to be completed as a screw vessel, however, since her construction was well along she would be completed as a paddle steamer. Four vessels were ordered and completed.