HMS Comus (1878)

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For other ships with the same name, see HMS Comus.

HMS Comus
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Comus
BuilderJ. Elder & Co., Glasgow
Laid down1876
Launched4 April 1878
FateSold in 1904
General characteristics
Class and typeComus-class corvette
Displacement2,380 long tons
Length225 ft (69 m)
Beam44.6 ft (14 m)
Draught
  • 16 ft 9 in (5 m) forward
  • 18 ft 10 in (6 m) aft
Propulsion2 engines of 2,590 
ihp
driving single screw
Speed13 kt
Complement250
Armament

HMS Comus was a

name ship of her class. Launched in April 1878, the vessel was built by Messrs. J. Elder & Co of Glasgow at a cost of £123,000.[2]

Comus and her classmates were built during a period of naval transition. Sail was giving way to steam, wooden hulls to metal, and

naval rifles
. Comus shows this transition; she was driven by both sails and a reciprocating steam engine; her hull was iron and steel but sheathed with wood and copper; and some of her muzzleloading guns were replaced by rifled breechloaders.

Comus was active for about two decades, but in that time went to the ends of empire, from the British Isles to the Caribbean and Nova Scotia to southwest Africa in the western hemisphere, and in the eastern, from the southern Indian Ocean to the northwest Pacific, and from the China station to the Strait of Magellan.

Design

Main article: Comus-class corvette § Design

Comus was a single-screw corvette (later classified as a third-class cruiser) designed for distant cruising service for the British Empire. Built with iron frames and steel plating, she was sheathed with wood and coppered. The hull was unprotected except for a 1.5 in (38 mm) of armour over the machinery spaces.[3] with some additional protection offered by the coal bunkers flanking the engine spaces and magazines.[4]

Comus had a

indicated horsepower;[6] to reduce resistance, this propeller could be hoisted into a slot cut in the keel when the vessel was under sail.[7]

The ship initially carried two

64-pdr muzzle-loading rifles, but the breech loaders proved unsatisfactory and were replaced in the rest of the class with more 64-pounders.[1]

Career

On 15 September 1878, the British steamship City of Mecca ran into Comus and the Italian barque Cosmopolita in the Clyde, damaging both vessels.[8]

1879–1884 Indian and Pacific Oceans

Comus was fitted for sea at

Possession Island for the use of shipwrecked mariners.[14] The 1881 census, which included British ships at sea, listed Chinese amongst her crew.[15] In 1881–82 the ship was at the Pellew Islands off the north coast of Australia.[16]

Later in 1882 Comus crossed the Pacific Ocean to

Marquis of Lorne, Governor General of Canada, and his spouse the Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria, to British Columbia.[17] An anonymous note threatened the ship with destruction when the couple boarded, but a search yielded nothing, and the US revenue cutter Richard Rush escorted the corvette out of the harbour.[18] Comus delivered the couple to Esquimalt Harbour at Victoria, British Columbia in September.[19] The next month Comus rendered assistance to two American vessels in distress off Vancouver Island, actions for which Captain East was awarded a gold medal by the President of the United States.[20] Comus returned the governor-general and the princess to San Francisco in December.[21]

In 1884 Comus sailed for home.[11] Upon arrival in 1885, the corvette was rearmed and was partially rebuilt. The 7-inch guns and the 64-pounders at the corners were removed; the latter were replaced by 6-inch breechloaders on new sponsons. A single conning tower replaced the old pair.[22]

1886–1891 North American and West Indies Station

After the refit Comus recommissioned 6 April 1886 for service on the North American and West Indies Station. In 1889 the ship transported scientists to observe the total eclipse of the sun off western Africa, and noted astronomer Stephen Joseph Perry died aboard the vessel from dysentery contracted ashore.[23]

1895–1898 Return to the Pacific

Members of the HMS Comus Band in Halifax in 1899.

In 1891 she returned to Britain and was again refitted and rearmed. On 1 October 1895 she recommissioned for service in the Pacific, and at the end of the year was reporting on lighthouses being erected by Chile in the Strait of Magellan.[24] She saluted Alcatraz upon arrival in San Francisco 5 October 1896 while under the command of Captain H. H. Dyke.[25] In 1897 Comus rescued shipwrecked sailors off Acapulco in July,[26] called at Honolulu, Hawaii in September,[27] and visited Pitcairn Island in the south Pacific in November.[28] The ship then returned home to be placed in reserve.

1898–1900 Return to North American and West Indies Station

Later in 1898 the ship was reassigned to the North American and West Indies station. Comus engaged in fisheries protection, and was in

Azores Islands in March 1900.[32]

1900–1904 Retirement and scrapping

Comus paid off at Devonport on 31 March 1900,

broken up at Barrow by Messrs Thos. W. Ward.[34][35]

References

  1. ^ a b Winfield (2004) p. 272
  2. ^ Supply—Navy Estimates, Statement of Lord Randolph Churchill, House of Commons Debate, 18 July 1887, Hansard vol. 317, cc1189-295
  3. ^ a b Archibald, p. 43
  4. ^ Osbon, pp. 195–98
  5. ^ Osbon, p. 201
  6. ^ Archibald, p. 49
  7. ^ Osbon, p. 196
  8. ^ "Shipping". Liverpool Mercury. No. 9573. Liverpooln. 19 September 1878.
  9. ^ * Sladen, Douglas Brooke Wheelton (1907). Who's Who, Volume 59. A. & C. Black. p. 1294.
  10. ^ Elgar, p. 26
  11. ^ a b Osbon, p. 203
  12. ^ The Queenslander, Brisbane, 10 January 1880, p. 56
  13. Illustrated London News
    (18 Sept. 1880)
  14. ^ "No. 26500". The London Gazette. 3 April 1894. p. 1891.
  15. ^ "Chinese in the Port of London", PortCitiesLondon, National Maritime Museum. p. 4 Archived 10 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ Hezel, Francis X. Hezel, Marshall Islands History: Beachcombers, Traders & Castaways in the Marshall Islands, Marshalls Digital Micronesia
  17. ^ "The Marquis of Lorne's Movements", The New York Times, 20 August 1882
  18. ^ "The Marquis of Lorne Threatened", The New York Times, 19 September 1882
  19. ^ Sandwell, R.W., "Love, Subversion, and the Rituals of Empire in British Columbia", in Coates, Colin MacMillan (ed.) (2006), Majesty in Canada: Essays on the Role of Royalty, University of Edinburgh Centre of Canadian Studies, p. 49
  20. ^ Hunter, Andrew Alexander (1890) Cheltenham College Register, 1841–1889, p. 68
  21. ^ "Lord Lorne Returning", The New York Times, 8 December 1882
  22. ^ Osbon, p. 199
  23. doi:10.1093/mnras/50.5.265
    .
  24. ^ "No. 26721". The London Gazette. 13 March 1896. p. 1685.
  25. ^ The San Francisco Call Tuesday 6 October 1896[dead link‍]
  26. ^ Shipwrecked Crew Rescued, The New York Times, 4 July 1897
  27. ^ "The Independent Honolulu" Monday 13 September 1897
  28. ^ Pitcairn Island—Visits of H.M. Ships, Response of Mr Arnold-Forster to question posed in House of Commons Debate 6 May 1901, Hansard vol. 93 c744
  29. ^ Midshipmen of H.M.S. "Comus", North America and West Indies Squadron. 1899 photograph
  30. ^ "No. 27177". The London Gazette. 27 March 1900. p. 2056.
  31. ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36077. London. 28 February 1900. p. 11.
  32. ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36093. London. 19 March 1900. p. 9.
  33. ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36105. London. 2 April 1900. p. 7.
  34. ^ a b Osbon, pp. 203–04
  35. ^ Colledge, p. 75

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