HMS Dee (1832)
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom
|
|
| Name: | HMS Dee |
| Ordered: | 4 April 1827 |
| Builder: | Woolwich Dockyard |
| Cost: | £27,000. |
| Launched: | 5 May 1832 |
| Completed: | 1832 |
| Commissioned: | 9 June 1832 |
| Decommissioned: | 17 June 1871 |
| Fate: |
|
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Steam vessel |
| Displacement: | 907 long tons (922 t) |
| Tons burthen: | 704 (bm) |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: |
|
| Draught: | 11 ft 6 in (3.5 m) (forward and aft) |
| Depth of hold: | 16 ft 4 in (5.0 m) |
| Installed power: | Maudslay, Sons and Field, 2-cylinder side-lever 200 nhp, 272 ihp (203 kW) |
| Propulsion: | Side-paddles |
| Sail plan: | Brigantine rig |
| Speed: | 8 kn (9.2 mph; 15 km/h) |
| Armament: | Initially 2 x 18 pdr (22 cwt) |
HMS Dee was a paddle steamer that served in the the Royal Navy from June 1832 to June 1871 AD. She was the first steam vessel planned to carry a significant armament ordered by the Royal Navy.
Woolwich dockyard laid down a sailing ship as HMS Dee in 1825. This vessel seems to have been cancelled, and the paddle steamer HMS Dee was ordered in 1827 in her place. Some books state that the paddle steamer was a conversion on the stocks from a sailing vessel; this view is mistaken.
Her design was by Robert Seppings, as modified by Oliver Lang.Fincham describes her as being built on lines supplied by Lang. She was built at Woolwich dockyard, and cost £27,000.
She was initially classified as a "steam vessel"; in 1837 she was reclassified as an "SV Class 2", and reclassified in 1846 as a second-class sloop.
She became a troopship in May 1842, and 1855. As a troopship in 1855 she had "a topgallant forecastle for her crew and a poop and deckhouse aft." She became an unarmed storeship in 1868, and was broken up at Sheerness in 1871.
Her armament as a steam vessel or sloop changed over time:
The paddle wheels were 20 feet (6.1 m) diameter. Her engine was of the two-cylinder side-lever type of 200 nominal horse power, made by Maudslay, Sons and Field, and producing 272 indicated horsepower (203 kilowatts). Her cylinders were 54 inches (1.4 m) diameter, with a 5 foot (1.5 m) length of stroke. Steam was from tubular boilers at 3.5 pounds per square inch (0.24 atm; 24 kPa) above atmospheric pressure. The Science Museum, London has a model of the Dee's engine. When the paddle wheels turned 18 revolutions per minute, she had a maximum speed of 8 knots (9.2 mph; 15 km/h). In 1856, the Dee and the yacht Black Eagle were used in a trial of J Wethered's apparatus for superheated steam. This produced an economy of fuel of 18% in the Black Eagle, and 31% in the Dee. In 1866, she was given a new 220 nominal horse power engine.
One of her captains described her as "very slow and steers very wild being trimmed by the stern. Using after coals first improves her. She rolls very deep and always uneasy. Cannot carry quarter boats in a moderate beam sea."
...
Wikipedia