HMS Rapid (1860)
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Sister-ship, HMS Peterel
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| History | |
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 UK
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| Name: | HMS Rapid |
| Ordered: | 27 March 1858 |
| Builder: | Deptford Dockyard |
| Laid down: | 18 August 1859 |
| Launched: | 29 November 1860 |
| Commissioned: | June 1862 |
| Fate: | Broken up at Malta in September 1881 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Rosario-class sloop |
| Displacement: | 913 tons |
| Length: | 160 ft 10 in (49.02 m) |
| Beam: | 30 ft 6 in (9.30 m) |
| Draught: | 15 ft 10 in (4.83 m) |
| Installed power: | 460 indicated horsepower |
| Propulsion: |
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| Sail plan: |
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| Speed: | 9.1 kn (16.9 km/h) under power |
| Complement: | 140 |
| Armament: |
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HMS Rapid was an 11-gun Rosario-class wooden-hulled screw-driven sloop of the Royal Navy, launched on 29 November 1860 at Deptford Dockyard and broken up in 1881.
The Rosario class were designed in 1858 by Issac Watts, the Director of Naval Construction. They were built of wood, were rated for 11 guns and were built with a full ship rig of sails. With a length overall of 160 feet (49 m) and a beam of 30 feet 4 inches (9.25 m), they had a displacement of 913 tonnes.
Rapid was fitted with a Greenock Foundry Company two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine driving a single screw. With an indicated horsepower of 460 horsepower (340 kW) she was capable of 9.1 knots (16.9 km/h) under steam.
As designed ships of the class carried a single slide-mounted 40-pounder Armstrong breech-loading gun, six 32-pounder muzzle-loading smooth-bore guns and four pivot-mounted 20-pounder Armstrong breech loaders. By 1869 the armament had been reduced to a single 7-inch (180 mm) muzzle-loading gun and two 40-pounders.
Rapid was commissioned under Commander Charles Jago at Woolwich on 12 June 1862. Commander Jago took the ship to the Cape of Good Hope Station where she remained until 1866, paying off at Woolwich on 24 January 1867.
She was recommissioned at Woolwich on 14 May 1868 by Commander Francis Wood and served in the Mediterranean. While in the Mediterranean she had been converted from fully ship-rigged to barque-rigged. Her guns were reduced from eleven to three; one 7.5-ton muzzle loader and two 40-pounder Armstrong breech loaders.
She recommissioned at Malta on 9 August 1871 under Commander Victor Montagu. In September 1875 her next captain, Commander Seymour Smith, was invalided home, being replaced by Commander Adolphus Fitzgeorge. In 1878 she was attached to the Mediterranean fleet under Geoffrey Hornby. Commander Charles Penrose-Fitzgerald took command on 4 January 1878 when she was stationed at Corfu. The island had recently been transferred from British to Greek control, which had resulted in a decline in the local economy as British forces and their funding had been withdrawn. Her Armstrong guns had a reputation amongst their crews as 'two muzzle guns, what shoots inwards', due to the unreliability of the breech mechanism. It was felt they killed more of their operators than ever those fired upon. The 7.5-ton gun was intended to fire to either side of the ship, but the spare topmast was stored on the port side of the ship, preventing the gun being fired in that direction. This difficulty was corrected by Fitzgerald once he assumed command.
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Wikipedia