HMQS Midge |
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| Career (Queensland and Australia) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Midge |
| Builder: | J. Samuel White, Cowes[1] |
| Yard number: | 744[1] |
| Laid down: | October 1887[1] |
| In service: | 1887 |
| Out of service: | 1912 |
| Homeport: | Brisbane, Queensland |
| Fate: | Sold as private pleasure craft in 1912 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 12 tons[1] |
| Length: | 56 ft 4 in (17.17 m)[1] |
| Beam: | 9 ft 3 in (2.82 m)[1] |
| Draught: | 4 ft 7 in (1.40 m)[1] |
| Complement: | 7 |
| Armament: | 1 x 3 pdr gun, 2 x machine guns, 2 sets of dropping gear for 14 inch torpedoes |
HMQS Midge was a torpedo launch that served with the Queensland Maritime Defence Force, the Commonwealth Naval Forces and the Royal Australian Navy.
Contents |
Following the formation of the Queensland Maritime Defence Force the colonial government decided to supplement the recently acquired vessels with a small torpedo launch. HMQS Midge was specifically built in England for this purpose and shipped out to Australia in 1887. She was of wooden construction using a combination of teak and mahogany.
Like Mosquito, she was never commissioned but simply placed into service when required and therefore was usually moored at the Naval Stores Depot at Kangaroo Point on the Brisbane River.
With federation in 1901 she was transferred to the Commonwealth and served as a training ship. Midge was still on strength in 1911 when the Royal Australian Navy was formed but she was stripped and paid off the next year. Midge's engines were found to be in such good condition that they went on to be used for many years at the Royal Australian Navy's engineering school. The hull was sold as a private yacht in 1912, and was renamed Nola II.[1]
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