HMS Wasp (1880)
HMS Wasp
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History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Name | HMS Wasp |
Builder | Barrow Iron Shipbuilding |
Yard number | 71 |
Launched | 5 October 1880 |
Commissioned | 1 December 1881 |
Fate |
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General characteristics [1] | |
Class and type | Banterer-class gunboat |
Displacement | 465 tons |
Length | 125 ft (38.1 m) pp |
Beam | 23 ft 6 in (7.2 m) |
Draught | 10 ft (3.0 m) |
Installed power | 360 kW)[2] |
Propulsion |
|
Sail plan | Barquentine |
Speed | 9+1⁄2 knots (17.6 km/h; 10.9 mph) |
Range | 40 tons coal |
Complement | 60 |
Armament |
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HMS Wasp was a Banterer-class composite screw gunboat of the Royal Navy, built in 1880 by Barrow Iron Shipbuilding and wrecked off Tory Island in 1884.
Design
The Banterer class was designed by Nathaniel Barnaby, the Admiralty Director of Naval Construction. They were of composite construction, meaning that the iron keel, frames, stem and stern posts were of iron, while the hull was planked with timber. This had the advantage of allowing the vessels to be coppered, thus keeping marine growth under control, a problem that caused iron-hulled ships to be frequently docked. They were 125 feet (38 m) in length and displaced 465 tonnes. In appearance they were distinguishable from the preceding Foresters (also a Barnaby design) by their vertical stems.[1]
Propulsion
A two-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine by the builder,
Armament
Ships of the class were armed with two
Construction and career
Her
Fate
On her final voyage, Wasp, under the command of
In the early morning of 22 September 1884, Wasp was near Tory Island. The weather was cloudy with occasional squalls and rain showers.[3] The commanding officer and most of the crew were in their bunks; the lieutenant navigating the ship was relatively unfamiliar with the area the ship was sailing.[3] At 3:55 a.m. Wasp ran aground on a reef. The initial shock broke the hull of the ship, and she began to rapidly fill with water. The commander ordered the ship's boats lowered, but Wasp hit the reefs again, sinking so quickly that the boats could not be launched.[3] Within fifteen minutes Wasp had sunk. Six crewmen managed to cling to one of the gunboat's spars; they washed ashore on Tory Island and were found by islanders.[3] The other 52 crew aboard drowned.[2]
A court martial was held for the survivors; the finding was that the cause of the wreck was a lack of care taken with the vessel's navigation, but the survivors were all exonerated.[4] The wreck was sold to the Cornish Salvage Co. in November 1910.[5]
Notes
- ^ Winfield gives 440 ihp (330 kW) for the class as a whole, and the individual figures for ships of the class vary between 350 and 480 ihp (260 and 360 kW); no figure is given by Winfield for Wasp herself.
Citations
References
- ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
- 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.