HMS Harrier (1854)

Last updated

HMS Cruizer (1854).jpg
Cruizer, sister-ship to Harrier
History
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom
NameHMS Harrier
Ordered18 July 1851 [1]
Builder Pembroke Dockyard
Laid downNovember 1851 [1]
Launched13 May 1854
Commissioned3 November 1854 [1]
Decommissioned1866
FateBroken up at Portsmouth in 1866
General characteristics
Class and type Cruizer-class screw sloop
Displacement1,045 tons [1]
Tons burthen747 51/94 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 steam engine
  • Single screw [1]
Sail plan Barque-rigged
Speed8.3 kn (15.4 km/h)
Armament
  • One 32-pdr (56cwt) pivot gun
  • Sixteen 32-pdr (32cwt) carriage guns

HMS Harrier was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class screw sloop launched in 1854. She took part in the Crimean War, served on the Australia Station and took part in the New Zealand Wars. She was broken up in 1865

Contents

Construction

Harrier was launched on 13 May 1854 from Pembroke Dockyard. [2]

Service history

Crimean War

Boats of the Harrier and Cuckoo destroying Russian shipping at Nystad, in 1855. Illustrated London News from a sketch by John Wilson Carmichael Boats of the 'Harrier' and 'Cuckoo' destroying Russian shipping at Nystad - ILN 1855.jpg
Boats of the Harrier and Cuckoo destroying Russian shipping at Nystad, in 1855. Illustrated London News from a sketch by John Wilson Carmichael

From 1854 to 1856 Harrier took part in the Crimean War as part of the naval force in the Baltic Sea. She served on the South Atlantic Station before refitting in Portsmouth in 1860. [3]

Australia station

She recommissioned on 29 October 1860 for the Australia Station. She undertook a punitive action against Fijian natives in 1863.

New Zealand Wars

The action for which Samuel Mitchell was awarded the Victoria Cross Victoria Cross Winners- Pre 1914 Q82630.jpg
The action for which Samuel Mitchell was awarded the Victoria Cross

She took part in the rescue operations when HMS Orpheus was wrecked in Manukau Harbour, New Zealand and was also grounded but was refloated. She undertook operations during the Invasion of Waikato and the Tauranga Campaign in New Zealand. Her captain, Commander Edward Hay, was killed on 30 April 1864 during the storming of Gate Pā, [3] and his coxswain, Samuel Mitchell, was awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery.

Fate

Harrier paid off at Portsmouth on 31 March 1865 and was broken up the next year. [1]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Winfield (2004) pp.213-215
  2. Bastock, p.34.
  3. 1 2 "HMS Harrier" . Retrieved 17 March 2010.

Related Research Articles

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.

HMS <i>Hyacinth</i> (1829) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Hyacinth was an 18-gun Royal Navy ship sloop. She was launched in 1829 and surveyed the north-eastern coast of Australia under Francis Price Blackwood during the mid-1830s. She took part in the First Opium War, destroying, with HMS Volage, 29 Chinese junks. She became a coal hulk at Portland in 1860 and was broken up in 1871.

HMS <i>Miranda</i> (1851) Sloop of the Royal Navy

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.

HMS Highflyer was a 21-gun wooden screw frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built on the River Thames by C J Mare and launched on 13 August 1851. She spent twenty years in service, including action in the Crimean War and the Second Opium War, before being broken up at Portsmouth in May 1871.

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

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 <i>Eclipse</i> (1860) Gunvessel of the Royal Navy

HMS Eclipse was a four-gun Cormorant-class first-class gunvessel launched in 1860 from the shipyard of J. Scott Russell & Co., Millwall. She served on the Australia Station, took part in the Second Taranaki War, including contributing men to a naval brigade which attacked the Maori stronghold at Gate Pā. The entire class were never satisfactory as gunvessels, partly due to their excessive draught, and Eclipse was broken up at Sheerness in 1867, only seven years after her launch.

HMS <i>Curacoa</i> (1854) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Curacoa was a 31-gun Tribune-class screw frigate launched on 13 April 1854 from Pembroke Dockyard.

HMS Esk was a 21-gun Highflyer-class screw corvette launched on 12 June 1854 from J. Scott Russell & Co., Millwall. She saw action in the Crimean War, the Second Opium War and the Tauranga Campaign in New Zealand, and was broken up at Portsmouth in 1870.

HMS <i>Brisk</i> (1851)

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. She was ordered on 25 April 1847 from Woolwich Dockyard as a 10-gun sloop, 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. 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.

HMS <i>Salamander</i> (1832) Sloop of the Royal Navy

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

HMS Falcon was a 17-gun Royal Navy Cruizer-class sloop launched in 1854. She served in the Baltic Sea during the Crimean War and then in North America, West Africa and Australia. She was sold for breaking in 1869.

HMS <i>Virago</i> (1842)

HMS Virago was a Royal Navy Driver-class wooden paddle sloop launched on 25 July 1842 from Chatham Dockyard.

HMS <i>Cossack</i> (1854)

HMS Cossack was a Cossack-class corvette which was laid down as Witjas for the Imperial Russian Navy. She was seized due to the Crimean War breaking out whilst she was under construction and taken into service with the Royal Navy.

HMS <i>Basilisk</i> (1848) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Basilisk was a first-class paddle sloop of the Royal Navy, built at the Woolwich Dockyard and launched on 22 August 1848.

HMS <i>Barracouta</i> (1851) Sloop of the Royal Navy

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 <i>Tartar</i> (1854)

HMS Tartar was a wooden screw corvette of the Royal Navy. Originally built for the Russian Empire, she was seized by British forces on 5 April 1854, shortly before her launch.

HMS <i>Desperate</i> (1849) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Desperate was originally slated to be built to the Sampson designed steam vessel rated as a Steam Vessel First Class (SV1); however, the Admiralty, first rerated the vessels as First Class Sloops on 19 April 1845 then on the 9 May 1845, she was ordered as First-Class screw sloops to be built from a design of Sir William Symonds, Surveyor of the Navy. She would be a 10-gun vessel with 400 NHP engines. She served in the Baltic during the Crimean war, and as a store ship to Edward Augustus Inglefield's Arctic expedition. She was broken up by 1865.

HMS <i>Wasp</i> (1850) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Wasp was an Archer type sloop ordered on 25 April 1847 from Deptford Dockyard. Two references stipulate that Parthian, ordered with Archer the year prior was renamed Wasp when ordered as a sloop. However, Parthian remained on the books at Deptford, as a Rifleman type gunvessel until cancelled in June 1849. Therefore Wasp was a new build. She served on many different stations during her career, including West Coast of Africa, in the Mediterranean and Black Sea during the Russian War of 1854 - 55, on the South East Coast of America, Cape of Good Hope where she went aground twice and the East Indies before being sold for breaking in December 1869.

HMS Fury was a Bulldog-class sloop designed by Sir William Symonds, Surveyor of the Navy. She was ordered on 19 February 1844. After commissioning she sailed for the East Indies and participated in action against pirate junks near Vietnam. She then was in the Black Sea for the Crimean War followed by the Second Opium War with China. She was sold for breaking in July 1864.

References