HMS Cruizer (1852)

Last updated

HMS Cruizer (1854).jpg
HMS Cruizer at Malta in 1894 (as HMS Lark)
History
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgUnited Kingdom
NameCruizer
Builder Royal Dockyard, Deptford
Cost£25,213 [1]
Launched19 June 1852
Renamed
  • HMS Cruiser, 1857
  • HMS Lark, 1872
FateSold at Malta in 1912
General characteristics
Class and type Cruizer-class screw sloop
Displacement960 tons [1] [Note 1]
Tons burthen747+5194 bm [1]
Length
  • 160 ft (49 m) (gundeck)
  • 140 ft 1.75 in (42.7165 m) (keel)
Beam31 ft 10 in (9.70 m) [1]
Depth of hold17 ft 6 in (5.33 m) [1]
Installed power
Propulsion
  • Two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion geared steam engine [Note 2]
  • Single screw [1]
Sail plan Barque-rigged
Speed6.6 knots (12.2 km/h; 7.6 mph)
Armament
  • (Removed 1872)
  • One 32 pdr (56 cwt) pivot gun
  • Sixteen 32 pdr (32 cwt) carriage guns

HMS Cruizer was a 17-gun wooden screw sloop, the name-ship of the Cruizer class of the Royal Navy, launched at the Royal Dockyard, Deptford in 1852. The spelling of her name was formally altered to HMS Cruiser in 1857. She became a sail training vessel in 1872 and was renamed HMS Lark. She was eventually sold for breaking in 1912.

Contents

History

Her first years of service were spent on the China station, during which a party of her crew took part in the Battle of Fatshan Creek in 1857. Her commander, Charles Fellowes, was the first man over the walls of Canton when the city was taken, [2] and the ship saw further action in China, including the attack on the Taku Forts on the Hai River in 1858.

On 20 November 1858, she was in the company of Her Majesty's Ships Furious, Retribution, Dove, and Lee. The squadron were conveying the Earl of Elgin on the Yangtze River, when they had to engage with the Taiping rebels at Nanjing. [3]

Cruizer in action against the Taiping rebels. T.G.Dutton after F.le Breton Bedwell Engagement with the Tae-Ping Rebels at Nanking, 20 November 1858.jpg
Cruizer in action against the Taiping rebels. T.G.Dutton after F.le Breton Bedwell

In 1860, under the command of John Bythesea, she surveyed the Bohai Sea to prepare moorings for the Allied fleet to disembark troops for the advance on Beijing.

Cruiser was laid up in England in 1867, before being recommissioned for the Mediterranean station.

Cruiser at Fort Saint Elmo, Grand Harbour, Malta StateLibQld 1 142431 Cruiser (ship).jpg
Cruiser at Fort Saint Elmo, Grand Harbour, Malta

Disposal

In 1872, having had her guns and engine removed, she became a sail training ship and was renamed Lark, in which capacity she served until at least 1903. She was finally sold for breaking up at Malta in 1912.

Notes

  1. The rest of the class displaced 1,045 tons
  2. The rest of the class had non-geared engines developing 100 nominal horsepower

Citations

Related Research Articles

Thirteen vessels of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Mohawk, after the Mohawk, an indigenous tribe of North America:

HMS <i>Kingfisher</i> (1879) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Kingfisher was a Doterel-class screw sloop of the Royal Navy. She was built at Sheerness Dockyard and launched on 16 December 1879. She conducted anti-slavery work in the East Indies in the late 1880s before being re-roled as a training cruiser, being renamed HMS Lark on 10 November 1892, and then HMS Cruizer on 18 May 1893. She was sold in 1919.

HMS <i>Agamemnon</i> (1852) 1852 ship

HMS Agamemnon was a Royal Navy 91-gun battleship ordered by the Admiralty in 1849, in response to the perceived threat from France by their possession of ships of the Napoléon class.

HMS <i>Hornet</i> (1854) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Hornet was a 17-gun wooden screw sloop of the Cruizer class of the Royal Navy, launched in 1854 and broken up in 1868.

Eight ships of Britain's Royal Navy have been named HMS Eclipse:

HMS <i>Windsor Castle</i> (1858) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Windsor Castle was a triple-decker, 102-gun first-rate Royal Navy ship of the line. She was renamed HMS Cambridge in 1869, when she replaced a ship of the same name as gunnery ship off Plymouth.

HMS <i>Mercury</i> (1878) Cruiser of the Royal Navy

HMS Mercury was one of two Iris-class despatch vessels, later redesignated as second class cruiser built for the Royal Navy during the 1870s. The two ships were the first all-steel warships in the Royal Navy.

Eleven ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Cruizer or HMS Cruiser:

<i>Camelion</i>-class sloop

The Camelion class was a class of screw-driven sloops of wood construction, designed by Isaac Watts and operated by the Royal Navy. Eight ships of the class were built from 1858 to 1866 with another eight cancelled. They were initially rated as second-class sloops, but were later reclassified as corvettes.

HMS <i>Marlborough</i> (1855) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Marlborough was a first-rate three-decker 131-gun screw ship built for the Royal Navy in 1855. She was begun as a sailing ship of the line, but was completed to a modified design and converted to steam on the stocks, and launched as a wooden steam battleship.

Sixteen ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Lark or HMS Larke, after the bird, the lark:

<i>Cruizer</i>-class sloop Royal Navy ship class in service (1852–1912)

The Cruizer class was a class of six 17-gun wooden screw sloops built for the Royal Navy between 1852 and 1856.

HMS <i>Victor Emmanuel</i> (1855) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Victor Emmanuel was a screw-propelled 91-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, originally launched as HMS Repulse, but renamed shortly after being launched.

<i>Conqueror</i>-class ship of the line

The Conqueror-class ships of the line were a class of two 101-gun first rate screw propelled ships designed by the Surveyor’s Department for the Royal Navy.

<i>Rosario</i>-class sloop 1862 class of British sloops-of-war

The Rosario class was a class of seven screw-sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy between 1860 and 1862. A further six vessels were ordered and laid down, but were cancelled in 1863 before launch. This was the last class of purely wooden sloops built for the Royal Navy.

HMS <i>James Watt</i> Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS James Watt was a 91-gun steam and sail-powered second rate ship of the line. She had originally been ordered as one of a two ship class, with her sister HMS Cressy, under the name HMS Audacious. She was renamed on 18 November 1847 in honour of James Watt, the purported inventor of the steam engine. She was the only Royal Navy ship to bear this name. Both ships were reordered as screw propelled ships, James Watt in 1849, and Cressy in 1852. James Watt became one of the four-ship Agamemnon-class of ships of the line. They were initially planned as 80-gun ships, but the first two ships built to the design, HMS Agamemnon and James Watt, were rerated on 26 March 1851 to 91 guns ships, later followed by the remainder of the class.

The Greyhound class was a development of the Cruizer-class sloop, and comprised two 17-gun wooden screw sloops. They were both launched in 1859 and saw service with the Royal Navy until 1870. The class was reclassified as corvettes in 1862.

HMS <i>Jaseur</i> (1857) Gunboat of the Royal Navy

HMS Jaseur was an Algerine-class gunboat launched in 1857. She served on the North America and West Indies station for less than two years before her loss by stranding on the Bajo Nuevo Bank in the Caribbean on 26 February 1859.

HMS <i>Frederick William</i> Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Frederick William was an 86-gun screw-propelled first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy.

HMS <i>Encounter</i> (1846) Sloop of the Royal Navy

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.

References