HMS Iris (1840)
| History | |
|---|---|
| |
| Name: | HMS Iris |
| Ordered: | 20 February 1837[1] |
| Builder: | Devonport Dockyard |
| Cost: | £17,233 |
| Laid down: | September 1838[1] |
| Launched: | 14 July 1840 |
| Decommissioned: | 16 October 1869 |
| Fate: | Sold as a cable vessel |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type: | Spartan-class sixth-rate frigate (later "corvette") |
| Displacement: | 911 33⁄94 (bm)[1] |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 40 ft 6 1⁄4 in (12.351 m)[1] |
| Depth of hold: | 10 ft 9 in (3.28 m)[1] |
| Sail plan: | Full-rigged ship |
| Complement: | 240 |
| Armament: | |
HMS Iris was a 26-gun sixth-rate frigate launched on 14 July 1840 from Devonport Dockyard. She was the first flagship of the Australia Station between 1859 and 1861.[2]
Between 1840 and 15 August 1843, she served with the West Africa Squadron and then was assigned to the East Indies Station. She was the flagship of the Australian Squadron between 1859 and 1860 under the command of Captain William Loring. She participated in the attack on Puketakauere pā during the First Taranaki War and left the Australia Station in 1861.[2]
Together with HMS Amethyst, HMS Iris was loaned by the Admiralty to the Atlantic Telegraph Company in 1864 and both ships were then extensively modified to be used for ferrying the 1865 Atlantic cable from the manufacturer in Greenwich, London, to the Great Eastern at Sheerness, beginning in February 1865.[3]
Both ships were used for the same purpose in 1866 and 1869 by the Telegraph Construction & Maintenance Company (Telcon). As obsolete sailing vessels which had to be towed while ferrying cable, neither ship was capable of independent operation, and both were described as "hulks" in contemporary reports.[4]
Also in 1866 HMS Iris was loaned to help in the recovery of the steamer Foyle, which sank in collision with the steamer Collingwood off Barking in the Thames on 12 September.[5]
The Sail and Steam Navy List notes that according to Admiralty records, HMS Iris and HMS Amethyst were subsequently sold to Telcon when decommissioned on 16 October 1869.[1]
Citations
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Winfield, Rif & Lyon, David (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC 52620555. p. 115
- 1 2 Bastock, p.27.
- ↑ Russell, Sir William Howard (1865), The Atlantic Telegraph
- ↑ The Mechanics's Magazine, 30 October 1868 page 355.
- ↑ Phillips, Lieutenant Commander Lawrie (2014), Pembroke Dockyard and the Old Navy: A Bicentennial History
References
- Bastock, John (1988), Ships on the Australia Station, Child & Associates Publishing Pty Ltd; Frenchs Forest, Australia. ISBN 0-86777-348-0
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