kids encyclopedia robot

HMS Fawn (1856) facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts


HMS Fawn Caught in a White Squall.jpg
HMS Fawn Caught in a White Squall, Bass Straits, Australia by Richard Brydges Beechey, 1880
Quick facts for kids
History
United Kingdom
Name HMS Fawn
Ordered 27 March 1852
Builder Deptford Dockyard
Laid down 4 May 1854
Launched 30 September 1856
Commissioned 26 November 1859
Decommissioned 1884
Fate
  • Survey ship from 1876
  • Sold in 1884
General characteristics
Class and type Cruizer-class screw sloop
Displacement 1,045 tons
Tons burthen 747+5194 bm
Length
  • 160 ft (49 m) (gundeck)
  • 140 ft 1.75 in (42.7165 m) (keel)
Beam 31 ft 10 in (9.70 m)
Draught 11 ft (3.4 m)
Depth of hold 17 ft 6 in (5.33 m)
Installed power
Propulsion
  • Two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine
  • Single screw
Sail plan Barque-rigged
Speed 8.7 knots (16.1 km/h; 10.0 mph)
Armament
  • One 32 pdr (56 cwt) pivot gun
  • Sixteen 32 pdr (32 cwt) carriage guns

HMS Fawn was a Royal Navy 17-gun Cruizer-class sloop launched in 1856. She served on the Australia, North America and Pacific stations before being converted to a survey ship in 1876. She was sold and broken up in 1884.

Construction

Fawn was launched on 30 September 1856 from Deptford Dockyard.

Australia station

HMS Fawn (1856) and HMS Miranda (1851)
HMS Miranda (left) and Fawn (right) during the Regatta of January 1862 ("the race of the Maori war canoes")

She was commissioned at Sheerness on 30 October 1859 and until 1863 served on the Australia Station.

North America station

She refitted at Sheerness in 1863, and from 1864 to 1868 served on the North America and West Indies Station (Halifax, Nova Scotia and Bermuda). On 29 May 1866, she was driven ashore. Repairs cost £1,600. Nobody was found to be to blame for the incident.

Pacific station

After a second refit at Sheerness in 1869 she went to the Pacific Station in Esquimalt, British Columbia, where she remained until 1875.

Survey ship

In 1876 she was converted to a survey ship, and in this role she surveyed areas of the east coast of Africa, the Sea of Marmara and the Mediterranean. She was under the command of Commander William Wharton from 1 June 1876 to 1 January 1880 and then under the command of Commander Pelham Aldrich until paying off.

Fate

On 6 April 1883 she paid off, and she was sold for breaking the next year.

kids search engine
HMS Fawn (1856) Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.