HMS Mutine (1900)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Mutine.
HMS Mutine at Hobart in 1904
Career
Name: HMS Mutine
Builder: Laird Brothers & Co, Birkenhead
Yard number: 635[1]
Laid down: 1898[1]
Launched: 1 March 1900
Fate: Survey ship 1907
Depot ship, Bermuda, 1917
RNVR drill ship 1925
Sold, 16 August 1932
General characteristics [1]
Class and type:Condor-class sloop
Displacement:980 tons
Length:204 ft (62 m) oa
180 ft (55 m) pp
Beam:33 ft (10 m)[Note 1]
Draught:11 ft 6 in (3.51 m)
Installed power:1,400 hp (1,044 kW)
Propulsion:
  • 4 × Belleville boilers
  • Three-cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engine
  • Twin screws
Sail plan:Barque-rigged, changed to barquentine-rigged, later removed
Speed:13 kn (24 km/h) under power
Endurance:3,000 nmi (5,600 km) at 10 kn (19 km/h)
Complement:120-130
Armament:
  • 6 × QF 4-inch (101.6 mm) 25-pdr guns
  • 4 × QF 3-pounder (47-mm) guns
Armour:Protective deck of 1 in (2.5 cm) to 1 1⁄2 in (3.8 cm) steel over machinery and boilers.

HMS Mutine was an Condor-class sloop of the Royal Navy.[2] Mutine was launched on 1 March 1900. While being delivered from Birkenhead to Portsmouth an accident in Mutine's boiler rooms caused some loss of life and gave her a name as an unlucky ship before her career even began.[3] She served on the China Station, then the Australia Station between December 1903 and February 1905 and later became a survey ship, surviving until 1932 as a Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve drill ship, the last of her class to be sold.[4]

Design

Mutine was constructed of steel to a design by William White, the Royal Navy Director of Naval Construction.[1] She was powered by a three-cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engine developing 1,400 horsepower (1,000 kW) and driving twin screws.[1]

Sail plan

The class was originally designed and built with barque-rigged sails, although some pictures show ships of the class with a barquentine rig. Condor was lost in a gale during her first commission, and the contemporary gunnery pioneer Admiral Percy Scott ascribes her sinking to the encumbrance of sails, and furthermore believed that her loss finally convinced that Admiralty to abandon sails entirely.[5] All other ships of the class had their sails removed during the first few years of the twentieth century.

Armament

The class was armed with six 4-inch/25-pounder (1 ton) quick-firing breech loaders and four 3-pounder quick-firing breech loaders.[1]

Service

Mutine was launched on 1 March 1900 and commissioned later the same year.[1] She was re-commissioned at Sheerness 28 November 1901 by Com. Claude W. M. Plenderleath, with a complement of 105 officers and men, for service on the China Station.[6] After successful steam trials in the North Sea, she left Sheerness for China in mid December,[7] arriving at Singapore 4 February,[8] and at Hong Kong 27 March 1902.[9] She served in the Far East between December 1903 and February 1905 and was converted to a survey ship in May 1907.[1] She was a depot ship in Bermuda from December 1917 and an RNVR drill ship from 1925.[1]

Fate

Mutine was sold to Ward of Briton Ferry on 16 August 1932.[1]

Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Winfield (2004), pp.278-279.
  2. ↑ "Condor class at battleships-cruisers.co.uk". Retrieved 2008-08-30.
  3. ↑ "Condor class (additional page) at battleships-cruisers.co.uk". Retrieved 2008-09-06.
  4. ↑ Bastock p.123
  5. ↑ Fifty Years in the Royal Navy, Admiral Sir Percy Scott, Bt., John Murray, London, 1919, p.37
  6. ↑ "Naval & Military intelligence" The Times (London). Friday, 29 November 1901. (36625), p. 9.
  7. ↑ "Naval & Military intelligence" The Times (London). Thursday, 12 December 1901. (36636), p. 10.
  8. ↑ "Naval & Military intelligence" The Times (London). Wednesday, 5 February 1902. (36683), p. 10.
  9. ↑ "Naval & Military intelligence" The Times (London). Monday, 31 March 1902. (36729), p. 8.

Notes

  1. ↑ The first ships of the class were 32 ft 6 in (9.91 m) in beam, with the last four widened by 6 inches

References