HMS Rover |
|
| Career (United Kingdom) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Rover |
| Builder: | Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, Leamouth, London |
| Laid down: | 1872 |
| Launched: | 12 August 1874 |
| Completed: | By 21 September 1875 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrap in 1893 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Iron screw corvette |
| Displacement: | 3,462 tons |
| Length: | 208 ft (63.4 m) pp |
| Beam: | 43 ft 6 in (13.3 m) |
| Draught: | 17 ft 6 in (5.33 m) (forward) 22 ft 7 in (6.88 m) (aft) |
| Depth of hold: | 23 ft (7.01 m) |
| Propulsion: | 3-cyl. horizontal compound expansion 10 cylindrical boilers Single (hoisting) screw 4,964 ihp |
| Speed: | 14.5 knots (27 km/h) Under sail 11 knots (20 km/h) |
| Range: | 1,840 miles 10 knots (19 km/h) with 420 tons of coal |
| Complement: | 315 |
| Armament: |
As built
From 1879-80
|
HMS Rover was an 18-gun iron screw corvette of the Royal Navy. She was built by the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, Leamouth, London to a design by Edward James Reed and launched in 1874.
Contents |
Rover was the result of an 1872 design by Edward James Reed, she was laid down at the yards of the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company at Leamouth in 1872.[1] As designed, she had a single layer of oak, with zinc sheathing. Crewed by 315 men, her armament initially consisted of two 7in/112pdr (4½-ton) MLR guns on slides at the bow and stern with sixteen 6.3in/64pdr (63cwt) MLR guns on broadside trucks.[1] When rearmed between 1879 and 1880, after her first commission, she was fitted with fourteen 6in/80pdr (81cwt) BLs, twelve of them slide-mounted on the sides; one bow and one stern chaser were also fitted; 8 machineguns, one light gun and two 14in torpedo chutes.[1] Rover was fitted with a 3-cylinder horizontal compound expansion engine, driving a single hoisting screw and fired by 10 cylindrical boilers. With 4,964 ihp she was capable of 14.5 knots (27 km/h) under steam, and 11 knots (20 km/h) under sail. She could carry 420 tons of coal, giving her a range under steam of 1,840 miles at 10 knots (19 km/h)s.[1]
She was launched on 12 August 1874 and completed by 21 September 1875.[1][2] Her hull cost £104,718, a further £65,021 was spent on her machinery, provided by Ravenhill, Eastons & Co.[1]
Rover spent nearly twenty years in the navy, being sold for scrap in 1893.[1][2] Among the men who had served aboard her during this time was the explorer Robert Falcon Scott, who spent nine months aboard Rover starting in late 1886.[3][4]