HMS Virago | |
History | |
---|---|
Name | HMS Virago |
Ordered | 18 March 1841 |
Builder | Chatham Dockyard |
Laid down | 15 November 1841 |
Launched | 25 July 1842 |
Commissioned | 29 July 1843 |
Fate | Scrapped at Chatham Dockyard in 1876 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Class and type | Driver-class wooden paddle sloop |
Displacement | 1,590 tons |
Tons burthen | 1,055 62⁄94 bm |
Length | 180 ft (54.9 m) |
Beam | 36 ft (11.0 m) |
Depth of hold | 21 ft (6.4 m) |
Installed power | 300 nhp |
Propulsion |
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Sail plan | Brig-rigged |
Complement | 149 (later 160) |
Armament |
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HMS Virago was a Royal Navy Driver-class wooden paddle sloop launched on 25 July 1842 from Chatham Dockyard. [2]
She was sent to the Mediterranean Station arriving in November 1843 serving until 1847. Upon returning to England, she was placed into reserve.
In 1851 she was sent to the Pacific Station. Under the command of Commander Willam Stewart, she participated with the assistance of two Chilean ships: Indefatigable and Meteoro in the recapture of Punta Arenas in the Strait of Magellan, which had been subject to a mutiny. [3]
She took part in the siege of Petropavlovsk during the Crimean War in August–September 1854. She also undertook survey work along the Canadian Pacific coast. She returned to England in 1855 and was part of the Channel Squadron and then West Indies Station.[ citation needed ] On 22 October 1861, Virago ran aground in the East Swin, in the Thames Esturary. Repairs cost £30. [4] She was sent to the Australia Station, arriving in May 1867. She undertook survey work of the Great Barrier Reef, the Queensland coast, Norfolk Island and the coast of New Zealand. While in New Zealand she helped repair HMS Clio, which had run aground in the Bligh Sound.
Returning to England on 28 June 1871, upon arrival she was laid up at Sheerness. She was scrapped at Chatham Dockyard in 1876. [2] [5]
HMS Clio was a wooden 22-gun Pearl-class corvette, built at Sheerness Dockyard and launched on 28 August 1858. She was the flagship of the Australia Station between 3 September 1870 and 16 October 1873, and from 1876 was used as a school ship.
HMS Niger was an 8-gun screw sloop launched on 18 November 1846 from Woolwich Dockyard. She had been intended as a sailing sloop but her design was lengthened to fit a steam engine, and she was fitted with screw propulsion at Deptford Dockyard in 1847-48 prior to completion. She was reclassified as a corvette in 1852.
HMS Elk was a 482-ton displacement, 16-gun Acorn-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy launched on 29 September 1847 from the Chatham Dockyard.
HMS Fawn was a Royal Navy 17-gun Cruizer-class sloop launched in 1856. She served on the Australia, North America and Pacific stations before being converted to a survey ship in 1876. She was sold and broken up in 1884.
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
HMS Eclipse was a 4-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 7 years after her launch.
HMS Curacoa was a 31-gun Tribune-class screw frigate launched on 13 April 1854 from Pembroke Dockyard.
HMS Brisk was a 14-gun wooden-hulled screw sloop of the Royal Navy, launched on 2 June 1851 from Woolwich Dockyard. She served in the Crimean War and as part of the West African anti-piracy patrol, as well as during the New Zealand Wars. She was sold in 1870.
HMS Salamander was one of the first paddle warships built for the Royal Navy. Initially classed simply as a steam vessel, she was re-classed as a second-class steam sloop when that categorisation was introduced on 31 May 1844. She was launched in 1832 from Sheerness Dockyard, took part in the Second Anglo-Burmese War and was broken up in 1883.
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 Hecate was a 4-gun Hydra-class paddle sloop launched on 30 March 1839 from the Chatham Dockyard.
HMS Charybdis was a 21-gun Royal Navy Pearl-class corvette launched on 1 July 1859 at Chatham Dockyard.
HMS Blanche was a 1760-ton, 6-gun Eclipse-class wooden screw sloop built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1860s by Chatham Dockyard.
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 Torch was an Alert-class sloop of the Royal Navy, built at Sheerness Dockyard and launched in 1894. She served in Australia and New Zealand and was transferred to New Zealand as a training ship in 1917, being renamed HMS Firebrand at the same time. She was sold in 1920 and converted to a refrigerated ship with the new name Rama. She ran aground in the Chatham Islands in 1924 and was abandoned.
HMS Opal was an Emerald-class corvette of the Royal Navy, laid down as Magicienne by William Doxford & Sons Ltd, Sunderland and launched on 9 March 1875.
HMS Basilisk was a first-class paddle sloop of the Royal Navy, built at the Woolwich Dockyard and launched on 22 August 1848.
HMS Diamond was an Amethyst-class corvette in service 1874–89.
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 Dido was an 18-gun Daphne-class corvette built for the Royal Navy during the 1830s.