HMS Penguin (1876)

HMS Penguin was an Osprey-class sloop. Launched in 1876, Penguin was operated by the Royal Navy from 1877 to 1881, then from 1886 to 1889. After being converted to a survey vessel, Penguin was recommissioned in 1890, and operated until 1908, when she was demasted and transferred to the Australian Commonwealth Naval Forces for use as a depot and training ship in Sydney Harbour. After this force became the Royal Australian Navy, the sloop was commissioned as HMAS Penguin in 1913. Penguin remained in naval service until 1924, when she was sold off and converted into a floating crane. The vessel survived until 1960, when she was broken up and burnt.

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Penguin and HMAS Penguin.

HMS Penguin
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Penguin
BuilderRobert Napier and Sons, Govan
Cost
  • Hull: £39,611
  • Machinery: £12,500
Yard number342
Laid down14 July 1874
Launched25 March 1876
Commissioned23 August 1877
Recommissioned1886
Decommissioned1889
Recommissioned1890
Decommissioned1908
FateTransferred to Australian service
Australia
NameHMAS Penguin
Acquired1908
Commissioned1 July 1913
Decommissioned1924
FateConverted to crane hulk in 1924
General characteristics
Class and typeOsprey-class screw composite sloop
Displacement1,130 long tons (1,150 t)
Length170 ft (51.8 m) (p/p)
Beam36 ft (11.0 m)
Draught15 ft 9 in (4.8 m)
Depth19 ft 6 in (5.9 m)
Installed power
  • 666 ihp (497 kW)
  • (later 951 ihp (709 kW))
Propulsion
Sail planBarque rig
Speed11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph)
Range1,120 nmi (2,070 km; 1,290 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement140
Armament

Design and construction
Main article: Osprey-class sloop

Penguin was an Osprey-class sloop-of-war, with a composite hull design.[1] The ship had a displacement of 1,130 tons, was 170 feet (52 m) long, had a beam of 36 feet (11 m), and a draught of 15 feet 9 inches (4.80 m).[2][1] An R & W Hawthorn two-cylinder horizontal returning-rod steam engine fed by three cylindrical boilers provided 666 indicated horsepower (497 kW) to the single 13 ft (4.0 m) propeller screw.[1] This gave Penguin a top speed of 9.9 knots (18.3 km/h; 11.4 mph), which failed to meet the required contract speed. After the first commission the engine was replaced by a Devonport Dockyard two-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine, developing 951 indicated horsepower (709 kW). She had a maximum range of 1,480 nautical miles (2,740 km; 1,700 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).[1] In addition to the steam-driven propeller, the vessel was also barque rigged.[1] The standard ship's company was between 140 and 150.[1]

Armament consisted of two 7-inch (90 cwt) muzzle-loading rifled guns, four 64-pounder guns, four machine guns, and one light gun.[1]

Penguin was built by Robert Napier and Sons, of Govan, Scotland.[3] The vessel was laid down on 14 July 1876 as yard number 342.[1] She was launched on 25 March 1876,[3] and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 23 August 1877.[1] Construction costs included £39,611 for the hull, and £12,500 for her steam machinery.[1]

Operational history

British service
Penguin assisting in the recovery of guns and cables from the wreck of HMS Dotorel, The Graphic 1881

After entering service, Penguin was assigned to the Pacific Station until 1881, when she was paid off.[3] Recommissioned in 1886 for the East Indies Station, she formed part of Rear-Admiral Fremantle's Anti-Slave Trade Squadron[4] and participated in the blockade of Zanzibar in 1888 before returning to England and being paid off in 1889. She underwent a refit as a survey vessel and commenced service on the Australia Station in 1890 and undertook survey work around the Western Pacific islands, New Zealand and the Great Barrier Reef. Lieutenant Boyle Somerville, one of the surveyors at this time commented: "The Naval Surveying Service has ever had foisted upon it for its work any old castaway ship that has become useless for other branches of the Navy ... But of all the old clumbungies with which the Surveying Service has been saddled, the Penguin would be hard to beat for clumbunginess". As a round-bottomed vessel, with a single (auxiliary) propeller and a rudder that was hard work for two sailors to steer, she was particularly unsuited for taking deep soundings where the ship had to be held in a steady position, sometimes for several hours. In spite of this, the Penguin's crew made a successful sounding in the Kermadec Trench between New Zealand and Tonga. They found a depth of 5,155 fathoms (9,427 m), a record at that time[5]

The Penguin under the command of Captain Arthur Mostyn Field, delivered the "Funafuti Coral Reef Boring Expedition of the Royal Society" to Funafuti in the Ellice Islands, arriving on 21 May 1896 and returned to Sydney on 22 August 1896.[6] The Penguin made further voyages to Funafuti to deliver the expeditions of the Royal Society in 1897 and 1898.[7] Commander James William Combe was appointed in command in February 1899, and was relieved by Commander Willoughby Pudsey Dawson in August 1902.[8] She visited New Zealand during Autumn 1902.[9]

Australian service

Her masts removed, she was transferred for harbour service at Sydney in 1908, before being commissioned into the RAN as HMAS Penguin, a depot ship, on 1 July 1913.[10]

Decommissioning and fate

Her hull was sold to Samuel Waugh Ltd and converted into a crane hulk at Sydney in 1924. Later sold for breaking up, her hull was burnt on 13 December 1960 at Kerosene Bay, Sydney.[1][3]

See also

Notes
  1. The horizontal returning-rod steam engine by R & W Hawthorn failed to meet the contract speed and was replaced after the first commission by a Devonport Dockyard 2-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine[1]

References
  1. Winfield, pp.291–292
  2. "Naval Sloops at battleships-cruisers.co.uk". Retrieved 30 August 2008.
  3. Bastock, p.111.
  4. Fremantle to Admiralty, 10 September 1888 enclosed in Admiralty to Foreign Office, 9 October 1888, FO 403/107, The National Archives, UK.
  5. Somerville, Boyle (October 1927). "The Deepest Depth". Blackwood's Magazine. 222 (1344): 552–553.
  6. Hedley, Charles (1896). "General account of the Atoll of Funafuti" (PDF). Australian Museum Memoir. 3 (2): 1–72. doi:10.3853/j.0067-1967.3.1896.487.
  7. Admiral Sir Arthur Mostyn Field (1855–1950) from Royal Museums Greenwich
  8. "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36784. London. 3 June 1902. p. 10.
  9. "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36875. London. 17 September 1902. p. 5.
  10. "Royal Australian Navy History – HMAS Penguin". Retrieved 19 September 2010.

Bibliography
  • Ballard, G. A. (1939). "British Sloops of 1875: The Larger Ram-Bowed Type". Mariner's Mirror. Cambridge, UK: Society for Nautical Research. 25 (January): 35–49. doi:10.1080/00253359.1939.10657318.
  • Bastock, John (1988), Ships on the Australia Station, Child & Associates Publishing Pty Ltd; Frenchs Forest, Australia. ISBN 0-86777-348-0
  • Colledge, J. J.; Wardlow, Ben & Bush, Steve (2020). Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present (5th ed.). Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5267-9327-0.
  • Preston, Antony; Major, John (2007). Send a Gunboat: The Victorian Navy and Supremacy at Sea, 1854–1904 (2nd ed.). London: Conway. ISBN 978-0-85177-923-2.
  • Roberts, John (1979). "Great Britain and Empire Forces". In Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M. (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
  • Winfield, R.; Lyon, D. (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC 52620555.


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