Alert-class sloop

The Alert class was a two-ship class of 6-gun[3] screw steel sloops[3] built for the Royal Navy in 1894.

Torch
Class overview
NameAlert-class sloops
BuildersSheerness Royal Dockyard
Operators Royal Navy
Built1894
In commission1894–1926
Completed2
Lost0
General characteristics
TypeScrew steel sloop
Displacement960 tons
Length180 ft (55 m)
Beam32 ft (9.8 m)
Draught12 ft (3.7 m)
Installed power1,400 hp (1,044 kW)[1]
Propulsion
  • Three-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engine
  • Single screw[2]
Sail plan
Complement107[1]
Armament
ArmourProtective deck of 1 in (2.5 cm) to 1.5 in (3.8 cm) steel over machinery and boilers.[2]
Torch rigged as a barquentine circa 1900

Design

Alert and Torch were constructed of steel to a design by William White, the Royal Navy Director of Naval Construction.[2] They were powered by a three-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engine developing 1,400 horsepower (1,000 kW) and driving a single screw.[2]

Sail plan

The class was originally designed and built with barque-rigged sails, but both ships were re-rigged as barquentines before 1900 by removing the main yards.

Armament

Both ships of the class were armed with six 4-inch and four 3-pounder guns, and three machine guns.[1]

Ships
NameShip BuilderLaunchedFate
AlertSheerness Royal Dockyard28 December 1894Lent to the civil authority at Basra in 1918, and sold to them in 1926 for use as a pilot vessel. She was broken up in 1949[3][4]
TorchSheerness Royal Dockyard28 December 1894Transferred to New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy on 16 August 1917 as Training Ship Firebrand.[5] Renamed Rama. Ran aground on 17 November 1924 and abandoned[3][6]

Operational lives

Screw sloops of Alert's type had been obsolete for many years, but they remained ideal for patrolling Britain's far flung maritime empire.

HMS Alert

Alert served on the North America and West Indies Station, including a period in late 1902 and early 1903 when, under Commodore Montgomerie in HMS Charybdis, she enforced a blockade of the Venezuelan coast. During this period she captured the Venezuelan Zumbador. She was laid up for a time at Bermuda, but after 1910 served on the East Indies Station in the Persian Gulf, employed in the suppression of gun-running. She was sold to the civil authority at Basra in 1926 for use as a pilot vessel. She was broken up in 1949.[1][3]

HMS Torch
Main article: HMS Torch (1894)

Torch joined the Australian Station in February 1897, serving in New Zealand waters in 1898 and 1899.[6] After a refit, she recommissioned at Sydney on 29 November 1913, and in August 1914 became part of the New Zealand Division of the Eastern Fleet. On 16 August 1917 she was transferred to the New Zealand Government as the Training Ship Firebrand.[5] She was sold, renamed Rama and fitted out as a refrigerated ship for the Chatham Islands fishing trade. While approaching the Chatham Islands on 17 November 1924 she struck an uncharted rock, and was beached and abandoned.[6]

References
  1. "HMS Alert at Naval Database website". Retrieved 1 September 2008.
  2. Winfield, Rif; Lyon, David (2003). The Sail and Steam Navy List, 1815-1889. Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-032-6.
  3. "Naval cruisers at battleships-cruisers.co.uk". Retrieved 30 August 2008.
  4. "Frank Waterfield's HMS Alert pages". Retrieved 1 September 2008.
  5. "HMS Torch at Naval Database website". Retrieved 1 September 2008.
  6. "Australian war memorial website". Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2008.
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