HMS Torch (1894)
_AWM_A02550.jpeg) HMS Torch c. 1900.
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMS Torch |
| Builder | Sheerness Dockyard |
| Laid down | 18 December 1893 |
| Launched | 28 December 1894 |
| Commissioned | October 1895 |
| Fate | Transferred to New Zealand government on 16 August 1917 |
| New Zealand | |
| Name | HMS Firebrand |
| Fate | Sold in July 1920 |
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Rama |
| Fate | Wrecked on 17 November 1924 near the Chatham Islands. |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Alert-class sloop |
| Type | Screw steel sloop |
| Displacement | 960 tons |
| Length | 180 ft (55 m) |
| Beam | 32 ft (9.8 m) |
| Draught | 12 ft (3.7 m) |
| Installed power | 1,400 hp (1,044 kW)[2] |
| Propulsion | Three-cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engine; single screw[1] |
| Sail plan |
|
| Complement | 107[2] |
| Armament |
|
| Armour | Protective deck of 1 in (2.5 cm) to 1.5 in (3.8 cm) steel over machinery and boilers.[1] |
HMS Torch was an
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.Design
Alert and Torch were constructed of steel to a design by William White, the Royal Navy Director of Naval Construction.[1] They were powered by a three-cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engine developing 1,400 horsepower and driving a single screw.[1]
Sail Plan
The class was originally designed and built with barque-rigged sails, but both ships were re-rigged as barquentines before 1900 by removing the main yards.
Armament
Both ships of the class were armed with four 4-inch and four 3-pounder guns, and three machine guns.[2]
Construction
Torch was laid down at Sheerness Dockyard on 18 December 1893[1] and launched almost a year later on 28 December 1894.[3] She was commissioned in October 1895.[1]
Service in Australian waters
Torch joined the
Training ship Firebrand
On 16 August 1917 she was transferred to the New Zealand Government as the training ship HMS Firebrand.[2][3] Torch paid off for the last time on 23 November 1914.[6]
Refrigerated ship Rama
She was sold in 1920, renamed Rama and fitted out as a
Fate
While leaving harbour at Kaingaroa, on Pitt Island in the Chatham Islands on 17 November 1924 she struck an uncharted rock, and was beached and abandoned.[3][4][7]
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g Winfield (2004) p.278
- ^ a b c d "HMS Torch at Naval Database website". Retrieved 8 October 2010.
- ^ a b c d e Bastock 1988, pp. 112–113.
- ^ a b "Australian war memorial website". Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
- ^ "Cannibals Resist Punitive Party. Malekula Incident". The Sydney Morning Herald. 13 July 1914. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
- ^ "Log of HMS Torch". Old Weather. 23 November 1914. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
- ^ Ingram, C. W. N., and Wheatley, P. O., (1936) Shipwrecks: New Zealand disasters 1795–1936. Dunedin, NZ: Dunedin Book Publishing Association. p. 465.
References
- Bastock, John (1988), Ships on the Australia Station, Child & Associates Publishing Pty Ltd; Frenchs Forest, Australia. ISBN 0-86777-348-0
- Winfield, R.; Lyon, D. (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. OCLC 52620555.