HMS Serapis (1866)

Last updated

HMS Serapis (1866).jpg
History
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgUnited Kingdom
NameHMS Serapis
Ordered1865
Builder Thames Shipbuilding Co., Leamouth, London [1]
Yard number12F
Launched26 September 1866
Commissioned2 October 1876 at Portsmouth
FateSold 23 November 1894
General characteristics
Class and type Euphrates-class troopship
Type Troopship
Displacement6,211 tons [1]
Tons burthen4,206 tons BM
Length360 ft (109.7 m) (overall)
Beam49 ft 1.5 in (15.0 m)
Depth of hold22 ft 4 in (6.81 m)
Installed power
  • As built: 3,945 ihp (2,942 kW)
  • From 1869: 4,028 ihp (3,004 kW) [1]
Propulsion
  • As built:
  • 4-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine
  • Single screw
  • From 1869:
  • 2-cylinder single-expansion steam engine
  • Single screw
Sail plan Barque
Speed14 kn (26 km/h)
ArmamentThree 4-pounder guns

HMS Serapis was a Euphrates-class troopship commissioned for the transport of troops to and from India. She was launched in the Thames on 26 September 1866 from the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company at Leamouth, London and was the third Royal Navy ship to bear the name. She was sold in 1894.

Contents

Design

Serapis was one of five iron-hulled vessels of the Euphrates class. All five were built to a design of 360 ft overall length by about 49 ft breadth, although Malabar was very slightly smaller than the rest of the class. They had a single screw, a speed of 14 knots, one funnel, a barque-rig sail plan, three 4-pounder guns and a white-painted hull. Her bow was a "ram bow" which projected forward below the waterline.

Career

She spent all of her career on the United Kingdom to India route carrying troops, a trip that averaged 70 days. She was the only one of her class to have been completed with a compound-expansion steam engine at build, and was the first of her class to be re-engined. While her sisters replaced their single-expansion engines with compound-expansion engines, she had the opposite adaption; her 4-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine was replaced in 1869 with a 2-cylinder single-expansion steam engine. [1] The indicated power remained almost the same, and her top speed was largely unaffected, remaining at about 14 knots (26 km/h). [1]

On 12 March 1871, Serapis broke her main shaft. She was taken in tow by the British steamship Diomed. The tow was later transferred to HMS Crocodile, which towed Serapis in to Port Said, Egypt. [2] On 22 October 1872, Serapis ran aground in the Suez Canal. She was refloated on 24 October and resumed her voyage to India. [3] [4] On 15 October 1873, she collided with a French schooner in the Indian Ocean. The schooner sank with the loss of a crew member. Serapis rescued the survivors. [5] On 6 December, she collided with the British steamship Paladine at Malta. Paladine was severely damaged, Serapis was slightly damaged but had to put back to Malta for repairs. [6] In September 1875 she transported the Prince of Wales to India to celebrate Queen Victoria's appointment as Empress of India. In 1884 the commanding officer, Captain Arthur Dupuis, was suspended after the ship grounded off Portland. [7] In April 1886 she became part of the Indian training squadron.[ citation needed ]. On 24 November, she ran aground at Southsea, Hampshire. She was on a voyage from Suez, Egypt to Portsmouth, Hampshire. She was refloated with assistance from two tugs and taken in to Portsmouth. [8]

Fate

She was sold to I Cohen on 23 November 1894 along with her sister ship Euphrates. [1]

Identification

All 5 Euphrates-class troopships could be identified by a different coloured hull band. Serapis had a green hull band. [9]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Winfield, R.; Lyon, D. (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN   978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC   52620555.
  2. ↑ "Latest Shipping Intelligence". The Times. No. 27014. London. 18 March 1871. col D, p. 11.
  3. ↑ "Naval and Military Intelligence". Morning Post. No. 30853. London. 26 October 1872. p. 5.
  4. ↑ "Naval and Military News". Hampshire Telegraph. No. 4197. Portsmouth. 4 November 1872.
  5. ↑ "Indian News and Rumours". The Times. No. 27862. London. 2 December 1873. col F, p. 5.
  6. ↑ "Collisions at Sea". Birmingham Daily Post. No. 4805. Birmingham. 8 December 1873.
  7. ↑ "HMS Serapis at William Loney RN website" . Retrieved 23 June 2009.
  8. ↑ "Naval and Military Intelligence". The Times. No. 31926. London. 25 November 1886. col C, p. 7.
  9. ↑ The Royal Navy at Malta, Volume One: The Victorian Era - 1865-1906, page 51. ( ISBN   0907771432), By: Richard Ellis & Lt. Cdr. Ben Warlaw

Related Research Articles

HMS <i>Monarch</i> (1868) Royal Navy warship

HMS Monarch was the first seagoing British warship to carry her guns in turrets, and the first British warship to carry guns of 12-inch (300 mm) calibre.

HMS <i>Jumna</i> (1866)

HMS Jumna was a Euphrates-class troopship launched at Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company at Hebburn on 24 September 1866. She was the third vessel of the Royal Navy to carry the name.

HMS <i>Rattler</i> (1843) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Rattler was a 9-gun steam screw sloop of the Royal Navy, and one of the first British warships to be completed with screw propulsion. She was originally ordered as a paddle wheel 4-gun steam vessel from Sheerness Dockyard on 12 March 1841. She was reordered on 24 February 1842 as a propeller type 9-gun sloop from HM Royal Dockyard, Sheerness, as a new vessel. William Symonds had redesigned the ship as a screw propeller driven vessel.

HMS <i>Vulture</i> (1843) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Vulture was one of three 6-gun, steam-powered Cyclops-class second-class paddle frigates built for the Royal Navy in the 1840s. She was initially deployed to the East Indies where she participated in actions against China and then played a minor role in the Crimean War of 1854–1855. The ship was sold for scrap in 1863.

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

HMS Himalaya was built for the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company as SS Himalaya, a 3,438 gross register ton iron steam screw passenger ship. She was purchased by the Royal Navy in 1854 for use as a troopship until 1894 and was then moored in the Hamoaze, Devonport to serve as a Navy coal hulk until 1920, when sold off. She was sunk during a German air attack on Portland Harbour in 1940.

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.

HMS <i>Fittleton</i> British Royal Navy minesweeper, sunk in a collision in 1976

HMS Fittleton, originally named HMS Curzon, was a wooden-hulled Ton-class minesweeper of the Royal Navy which spent most of her career in the Royal Naval Reserve. She was sunk in a collision with HMS Mermaid on 20 September 1976 whilst en route to Hamburg for an official visit. Twelve naval service personnel lost their lives, making this the worst peacetime accident involving the Royal Naval Reserve.

HMS <i>Euphrates</i> (1866)

HMS Euphrates was an iron-hulled troopship of the Euphrates class. She was designed for the transport of British troops to India, and launched in the River Mersey on 24 November 1866 by Laird Brothers of Birkenhead. She was the fourth and last Royal Navy ship to bear the name.

HMS <i>Crocodile</i> (1867)

HMS Crocodile was a Euphrates-class troopship launched into the Thames from the Blackwall Yard of Money Wigram and Sons on 7 January 1867. She was the fourth and last vessel of the Royal Navy to carry the name.

HMS <i>Malabar</i> (1866)

HMS Malabar was a Euphrates-class troopship launched in 1866, and the fifth ship of the Royal Navy to employ the name. She was designed to carry troops between the United Kingdom and British India, and was employed in that role for most of her life. She became the base ship at the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda in 1897. She was renamed Terror in 1901 and sold in 1918. Her name was later used as the stone frigate to which shore personnel in Bermuda were enrolled, and later for Her Majesty's Naval Base Bermuda, after the 1950s, when the dockyard was reduced to a base.

HMS <i>Reindeer</i> (1883) Royal Navy Mariner-class composite screw gunvessel of 8 guns

HMS Reindeer was a Royal Navy Mariner-class composite screw gunvessel of 8 guns.

<i>Euphrates</i>-class troopship

The Euphrates class was a five-ship class of iron screw troopships built for the Royal Navy during the 1860s. They were used for carrying troops to India, with two of them being later hulked and surviving into the early 20th Century.

HMS <i>Rapid</i> (1860) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Rapid was an 11-gun Rosario-class wooden-hulled screw-driven sloop of the Royal Navy, launched on 29 November 1860 at Deptford Dockyard and broken up in 1881.

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>Wolverine</i> (1863) 19th century British ship

HMS Wolverine was a Jason-class three-masted wooden screw corvette, of the Royal Navy. Later she became flagship of the Australia Station, eventually being presented to the Colony of New South Wales as a training ship for the New South Wales Naval Brigade and New South Wales Naval Artillery Volunteers.

HMS <i>Endymion</i> (1865) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Endymion was a 21-gun Ister-class wooden screw frigate, the third of four ships of this name to serve in the Royal Navy. She was the last wooden frigate built at Deptford Dockyard. She was commissioned in 1866 and spent much of her service based at Malta. In 1869–70 she sailed around the world as part of a Flying Squadron. She remained in front-line service until 1874.

HMS Urgent was an iron screw troopship of the Royal Navy. She served her later years as a storeship and depot ship based in Jamaica.

HMS <i>Jackal</i> (1844) Gunvessel of the Royal Navy

HMS Jackal was a Jackal-class second-class iron paddle gunvessel of the Royal Navy.

HMS <i>Daphne</i> (1838) Daphne-class Royal Navy corvette

HMS Daphne was a Royal Navy corvette, the name ship of her class, commissioned in 1839

HMS <i>Seahorse</i> (1880)

HMS Seahorse was a Royal Navy fleet tug, tender and survey ship built in 1880. She served until the end of the First World War and was subsequently sold for commercial service in Spain.

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.