HMS Blanche (1867)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Blanche.
Blanche aground (probably off New Hanover Island, Papua New Guinea in 1872) by William Frederick Mitchell, 1874
Career
Name: HMS Blanche
Builder: Chatham Dockyard
Laid down: 1865
Launched: 17 August 1867
Completed: November 1867
Decommissioned: 1881
Fate: Sold for scrap, September 1886
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type:Eclipse-class wooden screw sloop (later corvette)
Displacement:1,760 long tons (1,790 t)
Tons burthen:1,268 bm
Length:212 ft (64.6 m) (p/p)
Beam:36 ft (11.0 m)
Draught:16 ft 6 in (5.0 m)
Depth:21 ft 6 in (6.6 m)
Installed power:2,158 ihp (1,609 kW)
Propulsion:1 shaft
1 × 2-cylinder steam engine
4 × rectangular boilers
Sail plan:Barque rig
Speed:12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:180
Armament:2 × 7-inch rifled muzzle-loading guns
4 × 6.3-inch 64-pounder rifled muzzle-loading guns

HMS Blanche was a 1760-ton, 6-gun Eclipse-class wooden screw sloop built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1860s by Chatham Dockyard.[1]

She was sent to the Australia Station in January 1868, arriving in April 1868. She undertook a punitive action against Solomon Island natives in September 1869. During 1870, she joined in the search for the schooner Daphne, which was unsuccessful. Under the command of Captain Cortland Simpson, she undertook a survey of Rabaul's Harbour in 1872. Blanche Bay is named after HMS Blanche.[2] She finished service on the Australia Station in 1875. While sailing to England she was almost lost rounding Cape Horn in bad weather.

After being refitted and rearmed, she was sent to the North America and West Indies Station, where she remained until 1881.

Fate

She was placed in reserve and in 1886 was sold to Castle for £3,600 for breaking.[1][3]

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 Bastock, p. 50
  2. Rottman, p. 172
  3. "HMS Blanche". Retrieved 2010-08-04.

Bibliography