HMS Icarus (1885)
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HMS Icarus
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Icarus |
| Builder: | Devonport Dockyard |
| Cost: | Hull: £39,369, Machinery: £12,735 |
| Laid down: | 18 August 1883 |
| Launched: | 27 July 1885 |
| Commissioned: | 6 July 1886 |
| Fate: | Sold 12 April 1904 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Mariner-class composite screw sloop |
| Displacement: | 970 tons |
| Length: | 167 ft (51 m) |
| Beam: | 32 ft (9.8 m) |
| Draught: | 14 ft (4.3 m) |
| Installed power: | 850 ihp (630 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Sail plan: | Barquentine-rigged; later barque-rigged |
| Speed: | 11 1⁄2 knots (21.3 km/h) |
| Range: | Approximately 2,100 nmi (3,900 km) at 10 kn (19 km/h) |
| Complement: | 126 |
| Armament: |
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HMS Icarus was a Mariner-class composite screw gunvessel of 8 guns, and the third Royal Navy vessel to carry the name. She was launched in 1885 at Devonport and sold in 1904.
Designed by Nathaniel Barnaby, the Royal Navy Director of Naval Construction, her hull was of composite construction; that is, iron keel, frames, stem and stern posts with wooden planking. She was fitted with a 2-cylinder horizontal compound expansion steam engine driving a single screw, produced by Barrow Iron Shipbuilding. Uniquely among her class she was built rigged with no main yards, making her a barquentine-rigged vessel; the rest of her class were barque-rigged. However, later pictures show her rigged as a barque. Her keel was laid at Devonport Royal Dockyard on 18 August 1883 and she was launched on 27 July 1885 by Miss Julia Wilson, the daughter of Admiral Superintendent Wilson; the launch was originally planned for 11 July but was postponed following the admiral's death on 4 July. Her entire class were re-classified in November 1884 as sloops before they entered service.
Icarus was commissioned on 6 July 1886 at Devonport. After returning from the Pacific in 1890 she had additional quick firing (QF) guns added.
The ship's companies of Icarus, Acorn and Rifleman were awarded the West Africa Medal with the bar "1887–1888" for their part in supporting the infantry of the West India Regiment between 13 November 1887 and 2 January 1888 during the Yoni Expedition against the Yoni Chiefdom in Sierra Leone.
In 1890 the levels of desertion and punishment under her commanding officer, Commander Annesley, was sufficiently high to prompt a question in the House of Commons. The reply by the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord George Hamilton, reveals good reason for the concern, since Icarus only had a total complement of 126:
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