HMS Waterwitch (1892)
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HMS Waterwitch in 1897
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| History | |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | |
| Name: | Lancashire Witch |
| Owner: | Sir Thomas Hesketh |
| Port of registry: | Liverpool, UK |
| Builder: | Robert Steele & Company, Cartsburn |
| Yard number: | 107 |
| Launched: | 29 August 1878 |
| Identification: |
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| Fate: | Sold to the Admiralty |
 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Waterwitch |
| Acquired: | Purchased 17 March 1893 |
| Fate: | Sank in collision at Singapore, 1 September 1912 |
| General characteristics as Lancashire Witch | |
| Type: | Yacht |
| Displacement: | |
| Tons burthen: | 479 Thames Measurement |
| Length: | 160.2 ft (48.8 m) |
| Beam: | 160.2 ft (48.8 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 14 ft (4.3 m) |
| Installed power: | 75 hp (56 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Sail plan: | Barquentine rigged |
| General characteristics as HMS Waterwitch | |
| Type: | Sloop/survey vessel |
| Installed power: | 450 hp (340 kW) |
| Complement: | 81 |
HMS Waterwitch was a British hydrographic survey vessel active in eastern Asian waters from 1894 to 1912. She was a wooden vessel, purchased from a private owner specifically for survey work. She was lost in a collision in Singapore harbour in 1912.
She was built as a private vessel, Lancashire Witch in 1878 by R. Steel & Co of Greenock to a design by St Clare John Byrne for the owner, Sir Thomas George Fermor-Hesketh, 7th Baronet. She was of composite construction, meaning she was built with an iron keel, stem and stern posts, and iron framing, all planked with wooden planking. She was rigged as a three-masted schooner, with square-rigged sails on the foremast only (a "barquentine" rig). A two-cylinder compound inverted steam engine of 75 hp (56 kW) drove a single screw. She was described in Lloyd's Yacht Register as an "auxiliary screw steamer".
Lancashire Witch approximately 1890
Lancashire Witch wind vane on Frank James Hospital, East Cowes, IoW
Lancashire Witch's "sister" Sunbeam under full sail.
In 1879 Sir Thomas Hesketh made a world cruise in Lancashire Witch, visiting Alaska in 1880. An island in Kachemac Bay, Cook Inlet was named after Sir Thomas and rocks were named Lancashire Rocks after the yacht.
There were a further 3 owners between 1883 and 1892 including Frank Linsly James, and on 17 March 1893 she was sold to the British Admiralty. She was renamed Waterwitch and rated as a sloop for survey work.
Waterwitch was converted for use as a survey vessel, which included replacing her engine and boilers to provide 450 horsepower. She commissioned in 1894 for service on the Australia Station, undertaking a series of surveys on passage to the Cape of Good Hope. Once on station she made lines of soundings in Esperance Bay, Fiji and the Tasman Peninsula in preparation for the running of telegraph cables. Between 1898 and 1907 she worked the coast of China, including Hong Kong, Weihaiwei and the Yangtze River. In early 1900 Commander Willoughby Pudsey Dawson was in command, succeeded by Lieutenant W. O. Lyne when she was re-commissioned on 16 February 1900. She formed part of the British naval contingent involved in relieving the Peking legations during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 and surveyed the north channel of the Yangtze prior to the battleship Centurion's navigation of the river. In 1902 Lieutenant and Commander Ernest Clifford Hardy was in command.
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