HMS Mersey (1885)

Last updated

HMS Mersey 1890s.jpg
History
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgUnited Kingdom
NameHMS Mersey
Builder
Laid down9 July 1883
Launched31 March 1885
CommissionedJune 1887
FateSold for scrapping on 4 April 1905
General characteristics
Class and type Mersey-class second-class cruiser
Displacement4,050 tons
Length
  • 315 ft (96 m) oa
  • 300 ft (91 m) pp
Beam46 ft (14 m)
Draught19 ft 6 in (6 m)
Propulsion
  • 2-cyl horizontal direct-acting compound expansion
  • 12 cylindrical boilers
  • Twin screws
Speed
  • 17 knots (31 km/h) (4,500 ihp)
  • 18 knots (33 km/h) (6,000 ihp)
Range
  • 900 tons coal
  • 8,750 miles at 10 knots (19 km/h)
Complement325
Armament
Armour

HMS Mersey was a Mersey-class second class protected cruiser. They were relatively modern, in that they were the first cruisers that had discarded their sailing rigs in the design, that was synonymous with the old wooden warships, and were now solely steam powered warships. She was built at Chatham Dockyard and launched on 31 March 1885, but had a relatively mundane career and was sold for breaking in 1905.

Citations

    Related Research Articles

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Torpedo boat</span> Small, fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle

    A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Armored cruiser</span> Type of cruiser in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

    The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship and fast enough to outrun any battleship it encountered.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Protected cruiser</span> Type of naval warship

    Protected cruisers, a type of cruising warship of the late 19th century, gained their description because an armored deck offered protection for vital machine-spaces from fragments caused by shells exploding above them. Protected cruisers notably lacked a belt of armour along the sides in-contrast to armored cruisers which carried both deck and belt armour. Protected cruisers were typically lighter in displacement and mounted fewer and/or lighter guns than armored cruisers. By the early 20th-century, with the advent of increasingly lighter yet stronger armour, even smaller vessels could afford some level of both belt and deck armour. In the place of protected cruisers, armored cruisers would evolve into heavy cruisers and light cruisers, the latter especially taking-up many of roles originally envisaged for that of protected cruisers.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Steam frigate</span> Type of steam-powered warship

    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.

    Town-class cruiser (1910) Class of light cruisers built for the Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Australian Navy

    The Town class was a group of twenty-one light cruisers built for the Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Australian Navy (RAN) of the first half of the 20th century. These vessels were long-range cruisers, suitable for patrolling the vast expanse covered by the British Empire. These ships, initially rated as second class cruisers, were built to a series of designs, known as the Bristol, Weymouth, Chatham, Birmingham and Birkenhead classes – all having the names of British towns except for the RAN ships, which were named after Australian cities.

    <i>Arethusa</i>-class cruiser (1913) Class of Royal Navy light cruisers

    The Arethusa-class cruisers were a class of eight oil-fired light cruisers of the Royal Navy all ordered in September 1912, primarily for service in the North Sea. They had three funnels with the middle one somewhat larger in diameter than the others. All served in the First World War. They were found to be very cramped internally.

    HMS <i>Southampton</i> (1912) Town-class light cruiser

    HMS Southampton was a Town-class light cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the 1910s. She was a member of the Chatham sub-class of the Town class. The ship survived the First World War and was sold for scrap in 1926.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Canet gun</span> Series of weapon systems

    The Canet guns were a series of weapon systems developed by the French engineer Gustave Canet (1846–1908), who worked as an engineer from 1872 to 1881 for the London Ordnance Works, then for Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée, and from 1897 to 1907 for Schneider et Cie of Le Creusot.

    <i>Orlando</i>-class cruiser 1887 class of British armored cruisers

    The Orlando class was a seven ship class of Royal Navy armoured cruisers completed between 1888 and 1889.

    <i>Naniwa</i>-class cruiser

    The two Naniwa-class cruisers were protected cruisers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the 1880s. As Japan lacked the industrial capacity to build such warships herself, the vessels were built in Britain. Both ships participated in numerous actions during the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 and in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905.

    HMS <i>Aurora</i> (1887) British Orlando-class armoured cruisers

    HMS Aurora was one of seven Orlando-class armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1880s. The ship spent a brief time in reserve before she was assigned to the Channel Squadron for two years in 1890. In 1893 Aurora became a coast guard ship in Ireland for two years before she was placed in reserve again. The ship recommissioned in 1899 for service on the China Station and some of her crew participated in the Battle of Tientsin in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion. Aurora returned home two years later and was again reduced to reserve. She was taken out of service in 1905 and sold for scrap on 2 October 1907.

    HMS <i>Chatham</i> (1911) Town-class light cruiser

    HMS Chatham was a Town-class light cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the 1910s. She was the name ship of her sub-class of the Town class. The ship survived the First World War and was sold for scrap in 1926.

    HMS <i>Thames</i> (1885) Mersey class cruiser

    HMS Thames was a Mersey-class protected cruiser built for the Royal Navy (RN) in the 1880s. The ship was placed in reserve upon her completion in 1888 and was converted into a submarine depot ship in 1903. She was sold out of the navy in 1920 and was purchased by a South African businessman to serve as a training ship for naval cadets under the name SATS General Botha. The ship arrived in South Africa in 1921 and began training her first class of cadets in Simon's Town the following year. General Botha continued to train cadets for the first several years of World War II, but the RN took over the ship in 1942 for use as an accommodation ship under her original name. She was scuttled by gunfire in 1947 and is now a diveable wreck.

    HMS <i>Severn</i> (1914) British Navy warship

    HMS Severn was a Humber-class monitor of the Royal Navy. Originally built by Vickers for Brazil, she was purchased by the Royal Navy in 1914 on the outbreak of the First World War along with her sister ships Humber and Mersey. She had been christened Solimoes by the Brazilians, but was renamed by the British. The three ships were the first of a new type of specialized shore-bombardment warships. As a result of her shallow draught, she was very un-manoeuvrable and unseaworthy in open waters in anything more than a Force 5 wind.

    <i>Iris</i>-class cruiser

    The Iris class consisted of two ships, HMS Iris and HMS Mercury, built for the Royal Navy in the 1870s. They were the first British all-steel warships.

    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.

    <i>Marathon</i>-class cruiser

    The Marathon-class cruiser was a class of second class cruiser of the Royal Navy ordered under the naval programme of 1887. The class was a smaller version of the Mersey class.

    <i>Mariner</i>-class gunvessel

    The Mariner class was a class of six 8-gun gunvessels built for the Royal Navy between 1883 and 1888. Four were built in the Naval Dockard at Devonport, and two elsewhere; the Acorn was built by contract at Jacobs Pill on the Pembroke River, while the Melita was built in the Malta Dockyard, the only substantial ship of the Royal Navy ever to be built in the island.

    <i>Comus</i>-class corvette

    The Comus class was a class of Royal Navy steam corvettes, re-classified as third-class cruisers in 1888. All were built between 1878 and 1881. The class exemplifies the transitional nature of the late Victorian navy. In design, materials, armament, and propulsion the class members resemble their wooden sailing antecedents, but blended with characteristics of the all-metal mastless steam cruisers which followed.

    <i>Mersey</i>-class cruiser

    The Mersey-class cruiser was a class of second class protected cruiser of the Royal Navy commissioned in the late 1880s. They were the first cruisers that had discarded their sailing rigs in the design, making them far more modern in design. They had fairly mundane careers.

    References