HMS Grappler (1856)
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An Albacore-class gunboat
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Grappler |
| Ordered: | 4 October 1855 |
| Builder: | Money Wigram & Son's, Blackwall, London |
| Laid down: | 12 October 1855 |
| Launched: | 29 March 1856 |
| Out of service: | Sold into mercantile service on 6 January 1868 |
| Fate: | Burnt, 3 May 1883. Broken up 1884. |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Albacore-class gunboat |
| Tons burthen: | 232 68/94 bm |
| Length: |
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| Beam: | 22 ft (6.7 m) |
| Draught: | 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) |
| Installed power: |
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| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 7.5 knots (14 km/h) under engines |
| Complement: | 36-40 |
| Armament: |
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HMS Grappler was an Albacore-class gunboat of the Royal Navy. She served on what is now the British Columbia Coast from 1859 until sold into commercial service in 1868. She sank with significant loss of life as result of a fire in 1883.
The Grappler was one of about 100 Albacore-class gunboats that the Admiralty had built to meet the needs of the Crimean War. Like the others of her class, she was completed as that war ended. The Admiralty dispatched her, along with her sister ship, Forward, to British Columbia following the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush in 1858.
On the Pacific Station Grappler played an important role in the early history of the Colony of Vancouver Island. Under the command of Lieutenant Edmund Hope Verney, Grappler transported the first 35 British settlers to a new settlement at Comox on 2 October 1862 at the request of Governor James Douglas. She continued to act as a transport for the settlement before other transport was available. She also helped enforce the regulation of the liquor trade in the colony. Her small size, steam power, and shallow draft made her useful as a lighthouse tender, for rescue, and for laying navigation buoys. She and Forward were involved in the Lemalchi incident in the spring of 1863 when they hunted down and captured natives believed to have murdered some Gulf Island settlers. Forward used her guns to level a village on Kuper Island; she then transported her captives to Victoria where they were tried and hanged.
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