HMS Driver (1840)

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Career (UK) Royal Navy Ensign
Name: HMS Driver
Ordered: 12 March 1840
Builder: Portsmouth Dockyard
(Machinery by Seaward & Capel)
Laid down: June 1840
Launched: 24 December 1840
Commissioned: 5 November 1841
Fate: Wrecked on 3 August 1861
General characteristics
Class and type: Driver class wood screw sloop
Displacement: 1,590 tons
Tons burthen: 1,055 tons
Length: 180 ft (55 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 36 ft (11.0 m)
Draught: 21 ft (6.4 m)
Propulsion: 2-cylinder direct-acting
280 nhp
Sails
Sail plan: Sloop
Complement: 149 (later 160)
Armament: As launched:
  • 2 x 10in/42pdr (84cwt) on pivot
  • 2 x 68pdr (64cwt)
  • 2 x 42pdr (22cwt)
After 1856:
  • 1 x 68pdr (95cwt) replaced 1 x 10in
  • 4 x 32pdr (42cwt) replaced the 4 smaller guns
  • 1 x 110pdr later replaced the 68pdr.

HMS Driver was a Driver class wood screw sloop of the Royal Navy. She is credited with the first global circumnavigation by a steamship when she arrived back in England on 14 May 1847.[1]

[edit] Construction and commissioning

Driver was ordered on 12 March 1840 from Portsmouth Dockyard to a design by Sir William Symonds. She was laid down in June 1840 and launched on 24 December 1840, with her machinery being supplied by Seaward & Capel. Her hull cost £19,433, with the machinery costing another £13,866. After she had completed fitting out she was commissioned on 5 November 1841.

[edit] Career

During her circumnavigation Driver became the first steamship to visit New Zealand, arriving on 20 January 1846[2] and was involved in the New Zealand Wars. At the time of her visit she is described as a brig-rigged 6-gun warship displacing 1,058 tons with engines rated 280 horsepower.[3] Elsewhere she is described as a 12-gun paddle sloop. She was wrecked on 3 August 1861 on Mayaguana Island in the West Indies.

[edit] References