HMS Hydra (1838)

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HMS Hydra launched in 1838, at Chatham Dockyard, was a wooden steam paddle sloop of the Royal Navy of 818 tons (builder's measurement). She was rated at 220 horsepower and carried 6 guns.

[edit] Service

She was involved in the bombardment of Beirut and the capture of St Jean d'Acre in September 1840. In 1849 she was involved on anti-slavery operations. She then undertook a number of cruises as HM Survey Vessel (HMSV) Hydra in a commission that started in January 1852 at Sheerness and ended with her paying off on 10 May 1856. From February to April 1852 she sailed from Sierra Leone to the Cape of Good Hope [1]. In July 1853 she was surveying between the Comoros Islands and the Cape of Good Hope [2]. She undertook another survey cruise from False Bay (the Cape of Good Hope) to the Comoros Islands and back from 5 January 1854 to 3 April 1854 [3]. From 1864-1868 she was again employed as a "surveying ship", first in the Ionian Sea, from 1864-1865, with the resulting Admiralty chart "West Coast of Morea to the Island of Dante" being published in 1867. Her most notable task was a deep-sea cruise in 1867-1868 in the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic Ocean, and a sounding from Aden to Bombay. The ship's blacksmith received an award for the invention of the "Hydra Rod" [4] [5]. The ship paid off in 1868 and was sold in 1870.