HMS Phaeton (1883)
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Phaeton in harbour at Esquimalt, 1898
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Phaeton |
| Ordered: | 1880 |
| Builder: | Napier, Glasgow |
| Laid down: | 14 June 1880 |
| Launched: | 27 February 1883 |
| Commissioned: | 20 April 1886 |
| Decommissioned: | 28 April 1903 (as sea-going warship) |
| Out of service: | 1913 |
| Renamed: | TS Indefatigable 1913 |
| Reinstated: | 1941 as Carrick II |
| Fate: | Sold for breaking up 1947 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Leander-class second-class partially protected cruiser |
| Displacement: | 4,300 tons (4,400 tonnes) load. |
| Tons burthen: | 3,750 tons (B.O.M.). |
| Length: |
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| Beam: | 46 ft (14.02 m). |
| Draught: |
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| Propulsion: | Sails and screw. Two shafts. Two cylinder horizontal direct acting compound engines, 12 cylindrical boilers, 5,500 IHP. |
| Speed: |
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| Range: |
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| Complement: | (1885): 275 |
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| Armour: |
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| Notes: |
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HMS Phaeton was a second class cruiser of the Leander class which served with the Royal Navy.
She was built by Napier in Glasgow, being laid down in 1880, launched in 1883 and completed in 1886.
"The Phaeton has been tried in the Solent. At the previous six hour' full power trial of the Phaeton there was a difficulty experienced in maintaining steam from want of draught in the stokeholds. (Only the Leander of this class has been fitted with fans for forced draught.) The funnels were afterwards raised from 60 ft (18 m) to 68 ft (21 m) (the same height as those of the first-class cruisers), while the space between the firebars was increased. The effect of these changes at the trial was very marked, the engines being provided with an abundance of steam without their being any necessity for resorting to the blast. The trial was intended to have been for six hours, but during the eleventh half hour, the expansion gear of the starboard engine heated and snapped, and the run was brought to a premature close. As, however the machinery worked without any hitch of any kind, and was developing power largely in excess of the Admiralty contract, it was agreed by the officers superintending the trial to accept the means of the five hours as a sufficient test of performance. These afforded the following data: Steam in the boilers, 85.35 lbs [588.5 kPa]; vacuum, 25.3 in (640 mm) starboard and 24.8 in (630 mm) port; revolutions, 100; mean pressures, starboard, 43.7 and 11 lb. [301 kPa and 76 kPa] and 43 and 11.7 lb. [300 kPa and 81 kPa] port; collective horsepower, 5,574.88 ihp (4,157.19 kW) or nearly 600 horses [450 kW] beyond the contract. The mean speed registered by runs on the measured mile was 18.684 knots (34.603 km/h), which was remarkable, notwithstanding her light draught. The coal consumption did not exceed 2.39 lbs. per unit of power per hour [1.45 kg coal per hour per kiloWatt]."
However by September 1886, it was decided that "due caution was not observed in certain particulars by those responsible for taking over the engines of the Phaëton from the contractors. The several officers concerned have been censured by the Admiralty, and the chief engineer has been removed from the ship."
The December 1885 Navy List lists her as at Chatham, with her commissioned and warrant officers borne in the Pembroke as follows:
In the 1880s, what normally happened with a ship was, "the staff necessary for the efficient maintenance of the machinery is supplied by the Steam Reserve, and when orders are received to commission the ship the men who have been employed upon her are as far as possible selected to compose her engine-room staff. In the case of the Phaëton the men who had been so employed had, from various causes, been drafted away before the order was received to commission her, with the exception of three stokers who formed part of her staff. None of the accidents that subsequently occurred in the ship can be attributed to this cause."
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Wikipedia