Ships of the Royal Navy's Australia Station, moored in Farm Cove, Sydney, c.1880. Egeria is the left-most ship
HMS Egeria was a 4-gun screw sloop of the Fantome class launched at Pembroke on 1 November 1873. She was named after Egeria, a water nymph of Roman mythology, and was the second ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name. After a busy career in the East Indies, Pacific, Australia and Canada, she was sold for breaking in 1914 and was burnt at Burrard Inlet in British Columbia.
Egeria was constructed of an iron frame sheathed with teak and copper (hence 'composite'), and powered by a two-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine. This engine, provided by Humphrys, Tennant & Co.,[1] drove a single 11-foot (3.4m) diameter screw and generated an indicated1,011 horsepower (754kW). Steam was provided by three cylindrical boilers working at 60 pounds per square inch (4.1bar).
Perak War
In 1875, Egeria, commanded by Commander Ralph Lancelot Turton, proceeded to Perak (in modern Malaysia), as one of a squadron of six ships under Captain Alexander Buller with his senior officer's pennant in HMS Modeste, to take part in an expedition against the murderers of Mr James Birch, the British Resident in Perak. While the troops and a naval brigade advanced on the upper reaches of the Perak River simultaneously from two points, Egeria blockaded the Perak Littoral, and sent her boats up the Kurow River. These boats destroyed or carried off some guns, arms, and ammunition which might have been useful to the enemy. Severe punishment was inflicted on the natives, but the murderers were not brought to account for some time afterwards.[3]
One petty officer and one seaman of the Egeria were tried for attempting to make a mutinous assembly and for wilful disobedience to orders, and were sentenced respectively to five years' penal servitude and two years' imprisonment. Five other seamen were tried for disobedience, and sentenced to punishments varying from one year to six months' imprisonment.[7]
Survey of British Columbia
In 1898, Egeria arrived in British Columbia where she was engaged in coastal surveys for the Royal Navy until 1910, by which time coast surveying responsibilities had been transferred to the Canadian Hydrographic Service. The previous surveying ship, the steamship Beaver, had been paid off 28 years earlier in 1870.
Egeria was primarily involved in resurveying settled areas of the British Columbia coast to create modern charts on a larger scale. The last survey it conducted was of Welcome Pass off the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia.[9]
There is also an inscription carved into the rockface of a cliff overlooking Poets Cove on Pender Island, British Columbia. It says "1905 HMSEGERIA"
The galley and mess of HMCS Quadra at Goose Spit Site of 19 Wing Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Comox is named Egeria Hall after HMS Egeria. It was constructed in 1995.
1 2 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.
1 2 Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Egeria", p. 81).
Ballard, G. A. (1939). "British Sloops of 1875: The Smaller Composite Type". Mariner's Mirror. Cambridge, UK: Society for Nautical Research. 25 (April): 151–161. doi:10.1080/00253359.1939.10657329.
Bastock, John (1988), Ships on the Australia Station, Child & Associates Publishing Pty Ltd; Frenchs Forest, Australia. ISBN0-86777-348-0
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 (5thed.). Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-5267-9327-0.
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.
HMS Mildura was a Pearl-class cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the late 1880s. Originally named HMS Pelorus, she was renamed after an Australian town in April 1890. Per the Imperial Defense Act of 1887, she served primarily in Australian waters.
The Fantome class was a six-ship class of 4-gun screw composite sloops built for the Royal Navy during 1873 and 1874.
HMS Cordelia was an 11-gun Racer-class sloop of the Royal Navy launched in 1856 and sold in 1870.
HMS Fawn was a Royal Navy 17-gun Cruizer-class sloop launched in 1856. She served on the Australia, North America and Pacific stations before being converted to a survey ship in 1876. She was sold and broken up in 1884.
HMS Hecate was a 4-gun Hydra-class paddle sloop launched on 30 March 1839 from the Chatham Dockyard.
HMS Blanche was a 1760-ton, 6-gun Eclipse-class wooden screw sloop built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1860s by Chatham Dockyard.
HMS Virago was a Royal Navy Driver-class wooden paddle sloop launched on 25 July 1842 from Chatham Dockyard.
HMS Penguin was an Osprey-class sloop. Launched in 1876, Penguin was operated by the Royal Navy from 1877 to 1881, then from 1886 to 1889. After being converted to a survey vessel, Penguin was recommissioned in 1890, and operated until 1908, when she was demasted and transferred to the Australian Commonwealth Naval Forces for use as a depot and training ship in Sydney Harbour. After this force became the Royal Australian Navy, the sloop was commissioned as HMAS Penguin in 1913. Penguin remained in naval service until 1924, when she was sold off and converted into a floating crane. The vessel survived until 1960, when she was broken up and burnt.
HMS Royalist was a Satellite-class composite screw sloop of the Royal Navy, built in 1883 and hulked as a depot ship in 1900. She was renamed Colleen in 1913, transferred to the Irish Free State in 1923 and broken up in 1950.
HMS Rapid was a Satellite-class composite screw sloop of the Royal Navy, built at Devonport Dockyard and launched on 21 March 1883. She was later reclassified as a corvette.
HMS Katoomba was a Pearl-class cruiser built for the Royal Navy, originally named HMS Pandora, built by Armstrong Whitworth, Elswick, Tyne and Wear and launched on 27 August 1889. Renamed on 2 April 1890, as Katoomba as the flagship of the Auxiliary Squadron of the Australia Station. She arrived in Sydney with the squadron on 5 September 1891. She was damaged in a collision with the tug Yatala in Port Adelaide on 29 December 1891. She left the Australia Station on 16 January 1906. She was sold for £8500 on 10 July 1906 and broken up at Morecambe.
HMS Boomerang was an Sharpshooter-class torpedo gunboat of the Royal Navy, originally named HMS Whiting, built by Armstrong Whitworth, Elswick, Tyne and Wear and launched on 24 July 1889. Renamed Boomerang on 2 April 1890, she formed part of the Auxiliary Squadron of the Australia Station.
HMS Ringarooma was a Pearl-class cruiser of the Royal Navy, originally named HMS Psyche, built by J & G Thomson, Glasgow and launched on 10 December 1889. Renamed on 2 April 1890, as Ringarooma as part of the Auxiliary Squadron of the Australia Station. She arrived in Sydney with the squadron on 5 September 1891. She was damaged after running aground on a reef at Makelula Island, New Hebrides on 31 August 1894 and was pulled off by the French cruiser Duchaffault. Between 1897 and 1900 she was in reserve at Sydney. On 15 February Captain Frederick St. George Rich was appointed in command. She left the Australia Station on 22 August 1904. She was sold for £8500 in May 1906 to Forth Shipbreaking Company for breaking up.
HMS Wallaroo was a Pearl-class cruiser built for the Royal Navy, originally named HMS Persian, built by Armstrong, Mitchell, Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne and launched on 5 February 1890.
HMS Flying Fish was a Fantome-class sloop of the Royal Navy, built at Chatham Dockyard and launched on 27 November 1873. Originally intended to be named Daring, she was renamed Flying Fish before launch on 14 January 1873.
HMS Danae was an Eclipse-class sloop of the Royal Navy, built at the Portsmouth Dockyard and launched on 21 May 1867.
HMS Sapphire was an Amethyst-class corvette built for the Royal Navy at Devonport Dockyard and launched on 24 September 1874.
HMS Sappho was a Fantome-class sloop, of the Royal Navy, built by Wigram & Sons, Blackwall and launched on 20 November 1873.
HMS Goldfinch was a Redbreast-class gunboat of the Royal Navy, built at Sheerness Dockyard and launched on 18 May 1889.
HMS Ringdove was a Redbreast-class gunboat of the Royal Navy, built at Devonport Dockyard and launched on 30 April 1889.
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
