HMS Plumper (1848)
.jpg)
HMS Plumper (right), with HMS Termagant (left) and HMS Alert (background) at Esquimalt in the late 1850s
|
|
| History | |
|---|---|
 UK
|
|
| Name: | HMS Plumper |
| Ordered: |
|
| Builder: | Portsmouth dockyard |
| Cost: | £20,446 |
| Laid down: | October 1847 |
| Launched: | 5 April 1848 |
| Commissioned: | 17 December 1848 |
| Fate: | Sold for breaking 2 June 1865 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Screw sloop |
| Displacement: | 577 tons |
| Tons burthen: | 490 24/94 bm |
| Length: | 140 ft 0 in (42.7 m) |
| Beam: | 27 ft 10 in (8.5 m) |
| Draught: | 11 ft 4 1⁄2 in (3.5 m) |
| Installed power: | 148 ihp (110 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
|
| Sail plan: | Barque rig |
| Speed: | 7.4 kn (13.7 km/h) under power |
| Complement: | 100 |
| Armament: |
|
HMS Plumper was an 8-gun wooden screw sloop of the Royal Navy, the fifth and last ship to bear the name. Launched in 1848, she served three commissions, firstly on the West Indies and North American Station, then on the West Africa Station and finally in the Pacific Station. It was during her last commission as a survey ship that she left her most enduring legacy; in charting the west coast of British Columbia she left her name and those of her ship's company scattered across the charts of the region. She paid off for the last time in 1861 and was finally sold for breaking up in 1865.
The Admiralty originally ordered the ship on 25 April 1847 from Woolwich Dockyard as the steam schooner Pincher. She was re-ordered from Portsmouth Dockyard as the screw sloop Plumper on 12 August 1847 to a design by John Fincham, and laid down in October that year. She was launched on 5 April 1848 at Portsmouth and commissioned under Commander Mathew Nolloth on 17 December.
Plumper was the only ship ever built to the design. She was constructed of wood, was 140 feet 0 inches (42.7 m) long and 27 feet 10 inches (8.5 m) in the beam, and drew 11 feet 4 1⁄2 inches (3.467 m). This hull gave her a displacement of 577 tons.
She was powered by a Miller, Ravenhill & Co two-cylinder vertical single-expansion steam engine driving a single screw. Developing 148 indicated horsepower, this unit was capable of driving her at 7.4 knots (13.7 km/h). Illustrations show her with a barque rig, although this may have been a later alteration.
Her armament of 8 guns consisted of six 32-pounder (25 cwt) and two 32-pounder (56 cwt) muzzle-loading smooth-bore guns mounted to fire in a traditional broadside arrangement.
After commissioning at Portsmouth, Plumper joined the Channel Fleet under Admiral Sir Charles Napier, and in January 1849 was sent to the North America and West Indies Station. Curiously, a report was published in the Illustrated London News on 14 April 1849 of a sighting of a sea serpent off the Portuguese Coast.
...
Wikipedia