HMS Thetis (1846)

Last updated

Bundesarchiv Bild134-B0335, Fregatte "Thetis" vor Anker.jpg
SMS Thetis, the former HMS Thetis, circa 1867.
History
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom
NameHMS Thetis
Namesake Thetis
Ordered23 April 1842 & 16 February 1843
Builder Devonport dockyard
Cost£51,926
Laid down2 December 1844
Launched21 August 1846
Commissioned30 December 1846
FateTransferred to the Prussian Navy on 12 January 1855
War Ensign of Prussia (1816).svg Prussia
NameSMS Thetis
Acquired12 January 1855
Decommissioned28 November 1871
Stricken28 November 1871
FateBroken up in 1894–95
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type36-gun fifth-rate frigate
Displacement1,894 long tons (1,924 t)
Tons burthen1533 1494 bm
Length164 ft 7.25 in (50.2 m)
Beam46 ft 8.75 in (14.2 m)
Draught
  • 13 ft 10 in (4.2 m) (forward)
  • 15 ft 5 in (4.7 m) (aft)
Depth of hold13 ft 6.5 in (4.128 m)
Sail plan Ship rig
Speed15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement330
Armament

HMS Thetis was a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. After nearly a decade of service with the British, she was transferred to Prussia in exchange for two steam gunboats. She served with the Prussian Navy, the North German Federal Navy and the Imperial German Navy as a training ship until being stricken in 1871. Thetis was subsequently converted into a coal hulk and broken up in 1894–95.

Contents

Description

Thetis was a three-masted, ship-rigged frigate that had a sail area of 2,370 square metres (25,500 sq ft). Her maximum speed was 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph). The ship was considered to be a very good sea boat and very manoeuvrable, although she did suffer from severe pitching. [1] Thetis had a crew of 330 officers and ratings in British service, [2] but her crew numbered 35 officers and 345 enlisted men in Prussian service. [3]

Measured at the gundeck, Thetis had a length of 164 feet 7.25 inches (50.2 m), a beam of 46 feet 8.75 inches (14.2 m) and a depth of hold of 13 ft 6.5 in (4.1 m). She was 1533 1794 tons burthen in size and displaced 1,894 long tons (1,924 t). Forward, the ship had a draught of 13 ft 10 in (4.2 m) and 15 ft 5 in (4.7 m) aft. [2]

In British service, Thetis was armed with eighteen 32-pounder (56 cwt) smoothbore and four 68-pounder (65 cwt) smoothbore shell guns on the upper deck. The ship was also fitted with ten 32-pounder guns on her quarterdeck and four more on her forecastle. All of these guns were of the lighter 25 cwt model. [2] The Prussians rearmed her with thirty-eight Swedish 68-pounder guns, although two of these were later removed. [3]

Service history

Thetis was designed by Read, Chatfield and Creuze and she was the only ship of her class, which was approved on 16 March 1843. With the approval of the final order Thetis was laid down at Devonport Dockyard on 2 December 1844. She was launched on 21 August 1846 and duly commissioned for service on 30 December 1846, having cost £40,605, this rising to £51,926 to have her fitted for sea. [2] In February 1847 she ran aground at Lisbon, Portugal, and was ordered to Plymouth, Devon for repairs. [4] From 3 July 1850 to February 1854, her captain was Augustus Leopold Kuper. Kuper commissioned her at Plymouth. [5] On 24 September 1850, Thetis ran aground at Redden Point, Devon. She was refloated and towed in to Plymouth Sound by HMS Confiance. [6] [7] Kuper subsequently sailed her to the south-east coast of America and then the Pacific. Kuper Island, one of the Gulf Islands in the Strait of Georgia, off the east coast of Vancouver Island, is named for him after he surveyed the area from 1851–53. [5] A nearby island is named Thetis Island and several other localities on Vancouver Island are named after the ship, including Thetis Lake, Thetis Cove, Thetis Crescent and Thetis Lane. [8]

Preussische Fregatte SMS THETIS in ostasiatischen Gewassern um 1861. Gemalde von Luder Arenhold 1905 Preussische Fregatte SMS THETIS in ostasiatischen Gewassern um 1861. Gemalde von Luder Arenhold 1905.jpg
Preußische Fregatte SMS THETIS in ostasiatischen Gewässern um 1861. Gemälde von Lüder Arenhold 1905

After nine years of service she was disarmed and given to the Prussian Government in exchange for two steam gunboats on 12 January 1855. [9] She was used by the Prussians as a training ship for cabin boys and naval cadets. [3] By 1867, the ship was serving as an artillery training ship. Numbered among her cadets at this time was the future grand admiral Alfred von Tirpitz; also serving aboard her during this time were Lieutenant Commanders Eduard von Knorr and Max von der Goltz, both future admirals. [10] After serving in the successive navies of the emerging German state, Thetis was stricken from the navy list on 28 November 1871. Her internal equipment was removed and she served as a coal hulk at Kiel, eventually being broken up there in 1894–95. [3]

Notes

  1. "Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 56 cwt referring to the weight of the gun.

Footnotes

  1. Gröner, pp. 41–42
  2. 1 2 3 4 Winfield & Lyon, p. 111
  3. 1 2 3 4 Gröner, p. 41
  4. "Naval Intelligence". The Times. No. 19496. London. 13 March 1847. col D, p. 8.
  5. 1 2 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  6. "Ship News". The Standard. No. 8150. London. 25 September 1850.
  7. "Naval Intelligence". The Morning Chronicle. No. 26156. London. 30 September 1850.
  8. Humphreys, pp. 22–24
  9. Colledge & Warlow, p. 349
  10. Kelly, pp. 30–31

Related Research Articles

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>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 <i>Valorous</i> (1851) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Valorous was one of two 16-gun, steam-powered Magicienne-class second-class paddle frigates built for the Royal Navy in the 1850s. Commissioned in 1853 she played a small role in the Crimean War of 1854–1855 and was sold for scrap in 1891.

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>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 a pioneer, but unsuccessful, telegraph service.

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

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

SMS <i>Niobe</i> (1849) Frigate of the British and German navies

SMS Niobe was a Diamond-class 28-gun sixth-rate sailing frigate built for the Royal Navy in the 1840s. She was never commissioned into the Royal Navy, which was converting to steam power, and was sold to Prussia in 1862. She was named after Niobe, a figure from Greek mythology. She served with the Prussian Navy, the North German Federal Navy and the Imperial German Navy as a training ship until stricken and hulked in 1890. Niobe was eventually broken up in 1919.

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

HMS Encounter was ordered as a First-Class Sloop with screw propulsion on 5 February 1845 to be built at Pembroke, in accordance with the design developed by John Fincham, Master Shipwright at Portsmouth. Her armament was to consist of 8 guns. She was to have a more powerful steam engine rated at 360 nominal horsepower. In 1848 she would be altered abaft and lengthened at Deptford prior to completion. A second vessel (Harrier) was ordered on 26 March 1846 but after her keel was laid at Pembroke Dockyard, her construction was suspended on 9 September 1846 then cancelled five years later, on 4 April 1851. Encounter had her armament radically altered in 1850 and she was broken up at Devonport in 1866.

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

HMS Reynard was part of the 1847 Program, she was ordered on 25 April as a steam schooner from Deptford Dockyard with the name ‘Plumper’. The vessel was reordered on 12 August as an 8-gun sloop as designed by John Edye. She was launched in 1848, conducted anti-piracy work in Chinese waters and was wrecked near Pratas Island in the South China Sea on 31 May 1851.

<i>Archer</i>-class sloop

On 26 March 1846, two vessels were ordered from Deptford Dockyard as Rifleman-designed gunvessels named Archer and Parthian. However, on 9 September 1846 the orders for both vessels were suspended prior to the vessels being laid down. On 25 April 1847 two vessels were ordered to the improved Rattler-type screw sloops as designed by John Edye of the Surveyor's Department from Deptford Dockyard. The first vessel, Archer may have been the change of the build from the Rifleman type to the sloop design. The second vessel, Wasp, appears to be a new vessel as the build for the Parthian remained on the books at Deptford until June 1849, when it was cancelled. Archer received the machinery from the gunvessel Rifleman, which resulted in an increase of speed over Wasp. Wasp's hull was sheathed in Muntz metal to retard marine growth. Their armament would increase from 12 to 15 guns over their careers. Both vessels would participate in the Russian War of 1854–1855. Both would be broken by 1869.

HMCS Canso was a Bangor-class minesweeper initially constructed for the Royal Navy during the Second World War. Transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy in 1942, the minesweeper saw service on both the West and East Coasts of Canada as a convoy escort and patrol vessel. The vessel participated in the invasion of Normandy and spent the final years of the war in European waters. Canso was returned to the Royal Navy following the war and was broken up for scrap in 1948.

SMS <i>Cyclop</i> (1860) Gunboat of the Prussian and German Imperial Navy

SMS Cyclop was a Camäleon-class gunboat of the Prussian Navy that was launched in 1860. A small vessel, armed with only three light guns, Cyclop served during the three wars of German unification; during the first, the Second Schleswig War on 1864, she guarded the Prussian coastline but saw no action. She supported the army's campaign against the Kingdom of Hanover during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, and she defended the Elbe for the duration of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, but again took part in no battles. Badly deteriorated by 1872, she was stricken from the naval register in March that year and reconstructed into an iron-hulled gunboat. Recommissioned in 1875, she thereafter served abroad in the German colonial empire before being stricken again in 1888. She was thereafter used as a storage hulk before ultimately being broken up for scrap after 1914.

SMS <i>Victoria</i> Screw corvette of the Prussian and German Imperial Navy

SMS Victoria was the second and final member of the Augusta class of steam corvettes built for the Prussian Navy in the 1860s. She had one sister ship, Augusta; the ships were armed with a battery of fourteen guns. Victoria was laid down in 1863 at the Arman Brothers shipyard in Bordeaux, France, and was launched in early 1864. Originally ordered by the Confederate States Navy, her delivery was blocked by the French Emperor Napoleon III, and she was instead sold to the Prussian Navy in May 1864. The Prussians had been in search of vessels to strengthen their fleet before and during the Second Schleswig War against Denmark, but Victoria arrived too late to see action in the conflict.

SMS <i>Nymphe</i> (1863) Screw corvette of the Prussian and German Imperial Navy

SMS Nymphe was the lead ship of the Nymphe class of steam corvettes, the first ship of that type to be built for the Prussian Navy. She had one sister ship, Medusa, and the vessels were wooden-hulled ships armed with a battery of sixteen guns. She was ordered as part of a naval expansion program to counter the Danish Navy over the disputed ownership of Schleswig and Holstein. Nymphe was laid down in January 1862, was launched in April 1863, and was completed in October that year.

SMS <i>Preussischer Adler</i> Aviso of the Prussian and German Imperial Navy

SMS Preussischer Adler was a paddle steamer originally built in the mid-1840s for use on a packet route between the Kingdom of Prussia and the Russian Empire in the Baltic Sea. She was requisitioned by the Prussian Navy during the First Schleswig War in 1848 and converted into an aviso, the first vessel of the type commissioned by Prussia. During the war, she took part in an inconclusive action with the Danish brig St. Croix, the first naval battle of the Prussian fleet. After the war, she was disarmed and returned to her commercial role, operating uneventfully on the Stettin–St. Petersburg route until 1862, when the expansion of the Prussian Eastern Railway had rendered the maritime route superfluous. The ship was purchased by the Prussian Navy that year and rearmed, once again as an aviso.

SMS <i>Nix</i> Aviso of the Prussian and later British Royal Navy

SMS Nix was the lead ship of the two-vessel Nix class of avisos built for the Prussian Navy in the early 1850s. After commissioning in 1851, Nix saw little activity, apart from short training exercises and cruises in the Baltic Sea, which were frequently punctuated with boiler fires. A dissatisfied Prussian Navy decided to sell both Nix-class ships. In 1855, the Prussians sold Nix to the British Royal Navy in exchange for the sail frigate Thetis, and was commissioned as HMS Weser. She saw action during the Crimean War at the Battle of Kinburn in October 1855, and thereafter saw little activity, being based in Malta. She was ultimately decommissioned in 1865, used as a harbor ship, and then sold to ship breakers in 1873.

SMS <i>Salamander</i> (1850) Aviso of the Prussian and later the British Royal Navy

SMS Salamander was the second and final member of the Nix class of avisos that were built for the Prussian Navy in the early 1850s. The ship saw little active use, apart from limited training exercises. In 1855, the ship was sold to the British Royal Navy in part exchange for the sail frigate Thetis and was commissioned as HMS Recruit. After entering service, she saw action in the Black Sea during the Crimean War, where she took part in operations against Russian logistics. The Royal Navy thereafter did not put the vessel to much use either, as she remained idle in Valletta, Malta, until late 1861, with the only events of note taking place in 1857 when she helped recover a gunboat and two merchant ships that had run aground in the region. Recruit was recalled to Britain in late 1861, thereafter remaining in reserve until 1869. In the 1870s she became a merchant ship, and was then used as a gunpowder magazine at Cape Town.

<i>Nix</i>-class aviso Aviso class of the Prussian Navy and later the British Royal Navy

The Nix class was a pair of avisos built for the Prussian Navy in the early 1850s. The class comprised two ships: SMS Nix and Salamander. They were ordered as part of a modest program to strengthen the fleet at the urging of Prince Adalbert of Prussia in the immediate aftermath of the First Schleswig War, which had demonstrated that the weak fleet could not challenge the ability of Denmark to impose a blockade of Prussian and German ports. They were small vessels with a shallow draft, since they were intended to operate close to shore to defend Prussia's coast. Neither vessel saw significant service in the Prussian Navy before being sold to the British Royal Navy in exchange for the frigate Thetis in 1855. They were renamed Weser and Recruit, respectively, and the former saw action during the Crimean War in the Black Sea later in 1855. The two ships saw little activity after their sale to Britain, with Recruit being laid up in 1861 and Weser following in 1865. Recruit was sold for merchant service in 1870, while Weser was discarded in 1873.

HMS Rhadamanthus 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 in 1846. Designed by Thomas Roberts, the Master Shipwright of Plymouth. She was launched and completed in 1832, She was converted into a transport in 1841 then in 1851 she was a troopship and by the 1860s she was a transport again. Her breaking was completed in February 1864.

References