HMS Comet (1822)

History
United Kingdom
Name	Comet
Namesake	Comet Encke[1]
Builder	Deptford Dockyard[2]
Laid down	21 November 1821[2]
Launched	23 May 1822[2]
In service	1822–1869[2]
General characteristics
Displacement	239 long tons (243 t)[2]
Length	35.1 m (115 ft 1.9 in) overall[2] 30.8 m (101 ft 0.6 in) PP[2]
Beam	3.7 m (12 ft 1.7 in)[2]
Propulsion	Steam engine with paddle wheels[2]
Speed	7.5 knots (13.9 km/h; 8.6 mph)[2]

HMS Comet, a wood-hulled paddle tug completed in 1822, was the first steam ship built for the Royal Navy.[3]

Comet was built at the yards in Deptford by Boulton, Watt & Co, which was at the time just outside London, in 1822.[3][2] She was ordered as a tug, for towing ships out of harbour when the wind was not enough to allow them to move by themselves, specifically "to be employed in towing HM ships in the Thames and Medway".[3] The ship was designed by Oliver Lang, the master shipwright at Woolwich Dockyard. She was fitted with a two-mast schooner rig, as well as a twin cylinder side-lever engine, which produced 80 nominal horsepower.[3]

Humphry Davy travelled on the Comet to Norway to test his zinc protectors for ships' copper bottoms in the summer of 1824.[4]

On 10 December 1868 Comet was ordered to be broken up in Portsmouth Dockyard.[3][5]

References

Seaton, Albert Edward (1909). The screw propeller: and other competing instruments for marine propulsion. C. Griffin, limited. p. 12. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
"Comet (223943)". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
Winfield, Rif (30 April 2014). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1817–1863: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. p. 294. ISBN 978-1-4738-4962-4.
Letter from Davy to the Navy Board, 29 June 1824, National Archives, ADM106/1504, f.126
"Portsmouth, Portsea and Gosport". Hampshire Chronicle. No. vol XCVI, no 5230. Southampton: The British Newspaper Archive (subscription required). 12 December 1868. p. 5. Retrieved 27 March 2019.

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[Seaton-1] Seaton, Albert Edward (1909). The screw propeller: and other competing instruments for marine propulsion. C. Griffin, limited. p. 12. Retrieved 2 September 2021.

[Miramar-2] "Comet (223943)". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 23 March 2016.

[:0-3] Winfield, Rif (30 April 2014). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1817–1863: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. p. 294. ISBN 978-1-4738-4962-4.

[4] Letter from Davy to the Navy Board, 29 June 1824, National Archives, ADM106/1504, f.126

[5] "Portsmouth, Portsea and Gosport". Hampshire Chronicle. No. vol XCVI, no 5230. Southampton: The British Newspaper Archive (subscription required). 12 December 1868. p. 5. Retrieved 27 March 2019.