HMS Barracouta (1851)
Barracouta and the boats of HMS Calcutta engaging mandarin junks in the capture of the French Folly Fort in China on 6 November 1856
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Barracouta |
| Ordered: | 25 April 1847 |
| Builder: | Pembroke Dockyard |
| Cost: | £50,042 |
| Laid down: | May 1849 |
| Launched: | 31 March 1851 |
| Commissioned: | 30 July 1853 |
| Fate: | Broken up in 1881 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Paddle sloop |
| Displacement: | 1,676 tons |
| Length: |
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| Beam: | 35 ft 0 in (10.7 m) oa |
| Depth of hold: | 20 ft 5 in (6.2 m) |
| Installed power: | |
| Propulsion: |
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| Sail plan: | Barque-rigged |
| Speed: | 10.5 kn (19.4 km/h) |
| Complement: | 100 |
| Armament: |
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HMS Barracouta was the last paddle sloop built for the Royal Navy. She was built at Pembroke Dockyard and launched in 1851. She served in the Pacific theatre of the Crimean War, in the Second Opium War and in the Anglo-Ashanti wars. She paid off for the last time in 1877 and was broken up in 1881.
Barracouta was designed as a second-class paddle sloop and ordered from Pembroke Dockyard on 25 April 1847. She was armed with two 10-inch (84 cwt) pivot guns and four 32-pounder (25 cwt) guns. Her two-cylinder direct-acting steam engine was provided by Miller, Ravenhill & Salkeld at a cost of £18,228, and produced 300 nominal horsepower, or 881 indicated horsepower (657 kW).
Her armament was changed in 1856, when one of the 10-inch guns was replaced by a 68-pounder (95 cwt) gun, and the 25 cwt 32-pounders were replaced with 42 cwt versions. In 1862 the 68-pounder was replaced by an Armstrong 110-pounder (82 cwt) breech-loading rifle.
Her keel was laid in May 1849 and she was launched on 31 March 1851. Her total cost was £50,042 and was the only ship ever built to the design, as well as being the last paddle sloop built for the Royal Navy. She was provided with a barque rig.
Barracouta was commissioned on 30 July 1853 in England before being ordered to join the East Indies and China Station in 1854.
From September to mid-October 1854, Barracouta was part of a squadron of four ships led by vice admiral Sir James Stirling. With the start of the Crimean War, Stirling was anxious to prevent Russian ships from sheltering in Japanese ports and menacing allied shipping and led the squadron to Nagasaki where he concluded the Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty with representatives of the Tokugawa shogunate. Later during the Crimean War she participated in the siege of Petropavlovsk.
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Wikipedia