HMS Kestrel (1856)

Last updated
History
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom
NameHMS Kestrel
OrderedJanuary 1856 [1]
BuilderWilliam Cowley Miller, Toxteth Dock, Liverpool
Cost£10,273 [1]
Laid down14 January 1856 [1]
Launched26 May 1856 [1]
FateSold to Glover & Co., Yokohama, 16 March 1866
General characteristics [2]
Class and type Clown-class gunboat
Tons burthen232 80⁄94 tons bm
Length
  • 110 ft (34 m) (gundeck)
  • 95 ft 5.25 in (29.0894 m) (keel)
Beam21 ft 10 in (6.65 m)
Draught4 ft 0 in (1.22 m)
Depth of hold6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)
Installed power
Propulsion
  • 1-cylinder horizontal direct-acting single-expansion steam engine
  • Single screw
Speed7.5 kn (13.9 km/h)
Complement30
Armament1 × 68-pounder, 1 × 32-pounder SBML guns

HMS Kestrel was a Clown-class gunboat of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1856, serving in China and Japan in the 1850s and 1860s. She saw action during the Second Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion.

Contents

Design

The Clown class was an improved version of the preceding Cheerfulclass designed by W.H. Walker. The ships were wooden-hulled, with steam power as well as sails, and of particularly shallow draught (design draught 4 ft (1.2 m)) for coastal bombardment in shallow waters. Ships of the class were provided with a typical "gunboat rig" of three gaff rigged masts with a total sail area of 4,889 sq ft (454.2 m2). One-cylinder horizontal direct-acting single-expansion steam engine built by John Penn and Sons, with two boilers, provided 40 nominal horsepower through a single screw, sufficient for 7.5 knots (13.9 km/h; 8.6 mph). Ships of the class were armed with one 68-pounder and one 32-pounder smooth bore muzzle loading cannons. [3]

Service

On 25 June 1859, Kestrel participated in the second Battle of Taku Forts. She suffered heavy damage in the subsequent British defeat, where she "sunk halfway to its funnels" in the Hai River. Despite her damage, Kestrel was recovered. [1] [4]

By 1860, Kestrel was under the command of Lieutenant Henry Huxham and was aiding the Qing government against Taiping troops. [5] Kestrel was later stationed in Imperialist-controlled Ningbo. On 6 November 1861, Huxham and his officers rode around the walls of Ningbo to deter the Taiping advance. [6] Towards the end of November, Kestrel, carrying British and American Consuls of the city, travelled to Yuyao to parley with Taiping chiefs in the hopes of dissuading Taiping troops from attacking the city. Their requests were respected for a time until 9 December, when Taiping troops attacked and occupied Ningbo. [5] [7]

Kestrel eventually participated in the retaking of Ningbo on 10 May 1862, her men disembarking under fire at one point to swing open a pontoon bridge. It was reported that Kestrel was shot 68 times and her rigging was "severely cut about." [8]

On 10 December 1862, command of Kestrel was transferred to Lieut. Hamilton Dunlop. Henry Felix Woods, who would later rise to prominence as an Admiral in the Ottoman Navy, joined the crew of Kestrel as the second master on 20 November 1863. [9] From 1863, Kestrel was posted to Japan to guard Yokohama. [10] In 1865, while being stationed in Yokohama, Woods became acquainted with photographer Felice Beato, who loaned from Woods photographic equipment and chemicals. [11]

Kestrel was sold to Glover & Co. of Yokohama on 16 March 1866, before being eventually resold to Japanese owners, supposedly the Japanese Navy, though the ship was not found in the Japanese Navy records. [1]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Winfield & Lyon 2004, p. 230.
  2. ↑ Winfield & Lyon 2004, p. 229.
  3. ↑ Winfield & Lyon 2004, pp. 229–230.
  4. ↑ Niderost, Eric (2015-09-21). "Qing Dynasty And British Empire Clash In The Second Opium War". Warfare History Network. Archived from the original on 2021-12-06. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  5. 1 2 Clowes, William Laird (1903). The Royal Navy: a history from the earliest times to the death of Queen Victoria. Vol. 7. Sampson Low, Marston and Company. pp. 138–150. Archived from the original on 2020-08-03.
  6. ↑ Moule 1898, p. 8.
  7. ↑ Moule 1898, pp. 9–11.
  8. ↑ Moule 1898, p. 20.
  9. ↑ Great Britain Admiralty (1865). The Navy List. H.M. Stationery Office. p. 218.
  10. ↑ The Royal Navy List. Whitherby & Company. 1878. p. 260.
  11. ↑ Dobson 2013, p. 299.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gunboat</span> Naval watercraft designed with the sole purpose of carrying and utilizing firepower

A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.

HMS <i>Sans Pareil</i> (1851) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Sans Pareil was a 70-gun screw propelled ship of the line of the Royal Navy.

<i>Redbreast</i>-class gunboat

The Redbreast class comprised nine first-class screw-driven composite gunboats built for the Royal Navy in 1889, mounting six guns.

HMS <i>Rattlesnake</i> (1886)

HMS Rattlesnake was a unique design of torpedo gunboat of the Royal Navy. A result of the Russian war scare of 1885, she was designed by Nathaniel Barnaby that year and built by Laird Brothers, of Birkenhead. Quickly made obsolete by the new torpedo boat destroyers, she became an experimental submarine target ship in 1906, and was sold in 1910.

<i>Sharpshooter</i>-class torpedo gunboat

The Sharpshooter-class torpedo gunboat was a class of torpedo gunboat built for the Royal Navy in the late 19th century. One of the class was hulked in 1904, seven were scrapped before World War I and five were converted to minesweepers. Of these minesweepers, Seagull was lost to a collision in 1918 and the rest survived the war to be broken up in the early 1920s.

The Frolic-class gunvessels were a class of composite gunboats built for the Royal Navy in the early 1870s. They were generally deployed overseas to the East Indies, West Africa, and China Stations. In addition to showing the flag, the ships fought pirates and suppressed the slave trade in East Africa. They were placed in reserve in the mid-1880s, and two of them were sold for scrap by the end of the decade. The other pair survived for longer as they were either modified for harbour service or became a training ship before being sold or scrapped. The last survivor, Ready, was used in support of William Beebe's expedition in his bathysphere in 1930 off Bermuda.

A number of ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Dee, after one or other of the British rivers called the Dee.

The Gleaner -class gunboat was a class of six gunboats built for the Royal Navy in 1854 for use in the Crimean War.

<i>Albacore</i>-class gunboat (1855) British Royal Navy gunboat class

The Albacore-class gunboat, also known as "Crimean gunboat", was a class of 98 gunboats built for the Royal Navy in 1855 and 1856 for use in the 1853-1856 Crimean War. The design of the class, by W. H. Walker, was approved on 18 April 1855. The first vessels were ordered the same day, and 48 were on order by July; a second batch, which included Surly, were ordered in early October.

<i>Clown</i>-class gunboat Class of twelve gunboats of the Royal Navy

The Clown-class gunboat was a class of twelve gunboats ordered by the Royal Navy in January 1856 for use in the Crimean War, although by the time they were completed, later that year, the Crimean War was over and some of these gunboats were sent to the Far East and took part in the Second Opium War.

<i>Britomart</i>-class gunboat

The Britomart-class gunboat was a class of sixteen gunboats built for the Royal Navy in 1859–1867.

<i>Cormorant</i>-class gunvessel

The Cormorant-class gunvessels were a class of 4-gun first-class gunvessels built for the Royal Navy in the 1860s. They were somewhat unsuccessful; intended for shore bombardment in shallow water, they exceeded their design draft by 50%. Seven of the 13 ships ordered were suspended, with 3 finished or converted as survey ships and the other 4 cancelled. Racehorse was wrecked after only 4 years, and those ships that were completed as planned had short operational lives, in some cases less than 10 years. The survey vessels lasted longest, with the last ship of the class, Sylvia, being broken up in 1890.

HMS <i>Modeste</i> (1837)

HMS Modeste was a British Royal Navy corvette commissioned in 1838 and sold in 1866.

HMS Druid was a 46-gun Seringapatam-class fifth-rate frigate built for the Royal Navy during the 1820s, the name ship of her sub-class.

<i>Grasshopper</i>-class torpedo gunboat

The Grasshopper-class torpedo gunboat was a class of torpedo gunboat built for the Royal Navy in the late 19th century. All three ships were scrapped before World War I.

Several ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Watchful:

HMS <i>Jasper</i> (1857) British Algerine-class gunboat

HMS Jasper was a British Algerine-class gunboat launched in 1857.

HMS Ringdove was a Vigilant-class gunvessel of the Royal Navy. She was launched by J. Samuel White, Cowes in 1856 and broken up in Cowes in 1866.

HMS Hardy was a Albacore-class gunboat of the Royal Navy, notable for her action during the British involvement in the Taiping Rebellion.

HMS Alarm was a torpedo gunboat of the British Royal Navy and the name ship of her class. Alarm was built by Sheerness Dockyard from 1891–1894. She was sold for scrap in 1907.

References

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.