HMS Dee (1832)

HMS Dee was a paddle steamer that served in the Royal Navy from June 1832 to June 1871.[2] She was the first steam vessel planned to carry a significant armament ordered by the Royal Navy.[5][6]

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Dee.

Dee, Thomas Pullen, Commander, when steaming at full speed in the gale of January 1857
History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Dee
Ordered: 4 April 1827
Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
Cost: £27,000.[1]
Launched: 5 May 1832
Completed: 1832
Commissioned: 9 June 1832
Decommissioned: 17 June 1871
Fate:
  • Storeship 1868–71
  • Broken up at Sheerness 1871
General characteristics [2]
Type: Steam vessel
Displacement: 907 long tons (922 t)
Tons burthen: 704 (bm)
Length:
  • 166 ft 7 in (50.8 m) (gundeck)
  • 146 ft 6 in (44.7 m) (keel)
Beam:
  • 30 ft 4 1⁄2 in (9.3 m)
  • 30 ft 0 1⁄2 in (9.2 m) (for tonnage)
  • 51 ft 0 in (15.5 m) (overall)[3]
Draught: 11 ft 6 in (3.5 m) (forward and aft)
Depth of hold: 16 ft 4 in (5.0 m) [3]
Installed power: Maudslay, Sons and Field, 2-cylinder side-lever 200 nhp, 272 ihp (203 kW)
Propulsion: Side-paddles
Sail plan: Brigantine rig [4]
Speed: 8 kn (9.2 mph; 15 km/h)
Armament: Initially 2 x 18 pdr (22 cwt)

Woolwich dockyard laid down a sailing ship as HMS Dee in 1825.[7] This vessel seems to have been cancelled, and the paddle steamer HMS Dee was ordered in 1827 in her place.[6] Some books state that the paddle steamer was a conversion on the stocks from a sailing vessel;[1][4] this view is mistaken.[2][6]

Her design was by Robert Seppings, as modified by Oliver Lang.[2] Fincham describes her as being built on lines supplied by Lang.[8] She was built at Woolwich dockyard,[2] and cost £27,000.[1]

She was initially classified as a "steam vessel"; in 1837 she was reclassified as an "SV Class 2", and reclassified in 1846 as a second-class sloop.[2]

She became a troopship in May 1842,[2] and 1855.[4][9] As a troopship in 1855 she had "a topgallant forecastle for her crew and a poop and deckhouse aft."[4] She became an unarmed storeship in 1868,[2][4] and was broken up at Sheerness in 1871.[2]

Armament

Her armament as a steam vessel or sloop changed over time:[2]

  • 2 x 18-pounder 22 cwt guns on pivot mounts (initial).
  • 4 x 32-pounder 63 cwt and 2 x 32-pounder 56 cwt, all on pivot mounts (later).
  • 4 x 32-pounder 63 cwt and 1 x 10-inch 86 cwt, all on pivot mounts (final).

Propulsion

The paddle wheels were 20 feet (6.1 m) diameter.[1] Her engine was of the two-cylinder side-lever type of 200 nominal horse power, made by Maudslay, Sons and Field, and producing 272 indicated horsepower (203 kilowatts).[2][10] Her cylinders were 54 inches (1.4 m) diameter, with a 5 foot (1.5 m) length of stroke. Steam was from tubular boilers at 3.5 pounds per square inch (0.24 atm; 24 kPa) above atmospheric pressure.[1] The Science Museum, London has a model of Dee's engine.[11][1] When the paddle wheels turned 18 revolutions per minute, she had a maximum speed of 8 knots (9.2 mph; 15 km/h).[1] In 1856,[12] Dee and the yacht Black Eagle were used in a trial of J Wethered's apparatus for superheated steam. This produced an economy of fuel of 18% in Black Eagle, and 31% in Dee.[13] In 1866, she was given a new 220 nominal horsepower engine.[2]

One of her captains described her as "very slow and steers very wild being trimmed by the stern. Using after coals first improves her. She rolls very deep and always uneasy. Cannot carry quarter boats in a moderate beam sea."[1]

Commissions

Dee was in commission:

  • 9 June 1832 – 27 May 1834,[14] when the steamers Dee and Rhadamanthus were part of a Royal Navy force including three line-of-battle ships and ten other sailing ships that blockaded the Dutch ports in 1832. This was in support of the French Army, which had intervened in the Belgian Revolution in support of the Belgians against the Dutch, and intervened again to besiege the Dutch garrison of Antwerp.[15] "The two steamers had been particularly useful in the narrow channels of the Dutch estuaries with their fast tidal currents."[15]
  • 9 February 1838 – 22 May 1841.[16]
  • 30 May 1842 – 5 January 1845;[17] for at least some of this time as a troopship.[2]
  • 25 May 1845 – 10 January 1852.[18]
  • 14 September 1852 – 20 September 1853.[19]
  • 1 October 1853 – 21 February 1862;[20] She served as a troopship for at least part of this time.[4] The 1861 Census shows her standing in Plymouth Sound, en route from the Clyde to Chatham, carrying a number of Royal Marines and their families.
  • 12 June 1863 – 31 March 1868.[21]
  • 1 July 1868 – 17 June 1871,[22] as a storeship.[2]
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References
  1. Brown, David K (1990), Before the ironclad, Conway, pp. 51–2, ISBN 0851775322
  2. Lyon, David; Winfield, Rif (2004), The Sail and Steam Navy List, all the ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889, Chatham Publishing, pp. 149–150, ISBN 1861760329
  3. Brown, David K (1993), Paddle Warships, the earliest steam powered fighting ships, 1815–1850, p. 11, ISBN 0851776167
  4. Brown, David K (1993), Paddle Warships, the earliest steam powered fighting ships, 1815–1850, p. 13, ISBN 0851776167
  5. Lyon, David; Winfield, Rif (2004), The Sail and Steam Navy List, all the ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889, Chatham Publishing, p. 28, ISBN 1861760329
  6. Greenhill, Basil; Giffard, Ann (1994), Steam, Politics and Patronage, the transformation of the Royal Navy 1815-54, Conway Maritime Press, p. 49, ISBN 0851776124
  7. Brown, David K (1993), Paddle Warships, the earliest steam powered fighting ships, 1815-1850, p. 12, ISBN 0851776167
  8. Fincham, John (1851), A history of naval architecture (1 ed.), Whittaker and Co, p. 331
    Fincham describes Dee as 704 tons and 220 horsepower.
  9. Busk, Hans (1859), The navies of the world, Routledge, Warnes and Routledge, p. 152
    Busk refers to Dee as being a troopship at the time she was used for trials of Wethered's superheater.
  10. Brown, David K (1990), Before the ironclad, Conway, p. 188, ISBN 0851775322
  11. Model of a pair of side-lever engines from the H.M.S. 'Dee', (1832). Science Museum Group. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
  12. Brown, Before the ironclad, page 51 says that Black Eagle was used to try Wethered's superheater in 1856; Brown does not mention that Dee was also used.
    Busk, The navies of the world, page 152 makes it clear that the trials of superheaters on Dee and Black Eagle were about the same time.
  13. Busk, Hans (1859), The navies of the world, Routledge, Warnes and Routledge, p. 152
  14. "ADM 53/444, Log of HMS Dee, 9 June 1832 – 27 May 1834", UK National Archives catalogue
  15. Brown, David K (1990), Before the ironclad, Conway Maritime Press, p. 53, ISBN 0851775322
  16. "ADM 53/445, Log of HMS Dee, 9 February 1838 – 22 May 1841", UK National Archives catalogue
  17. "ADM 53/2357, Log of HMS Dee, 30 May 1842 – 5 January 1845", UK National Archives catalogue
  18. "ADM 53/3486 Log of HMS Dee, 25 May 1845 – 19 August 1845", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/2359 Log of HMS Dee, 20 August 1845 – 26 December 1845", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/2360 Log of HMS Dee, 26 December 1845 – 10 May 1846", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/2361 Log of HMS Dee, 11 May 1846 – 7 September 1846", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/2362 Log of HMS Dee, 8 September 1846 – 25 January 1847", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/2363 Log of HMS Dee, 26 January 1847 – 4 June 1847", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/2364 Log of HMS Dee, 5 June 1847 – December 1847", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/2365 Log of HMS Dee, 20 December 1847 – 17 March 1848", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/3694 Log of HMS Dee, 18 March 1848 – 18 June 1848", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/3695 Log of HMS Dee, 19 June 1848 – 23 September 1848", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/3696 Log of HMS Dee, 24 September 1848 – 30 December 1848", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/3697 Log of HMS Dee, 31 December 1848 – 8 April 1849", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/3698 Log of HMS Dee, 9 April 1849 – 4 October 1849", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/3699 Log of HMS Dee, 5 October 1849 – 23 February 1850", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/3700 Log of HMS Dee, 24 February 1850 – 2 August 1850", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/3701 Log of HMS Dee, 3 August 1850 – 22 January 1851", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/3702 Log of HMS Dee, 23 January 1851 – 8 June 1851", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/3703 Log of HMS Dee, 9 June 1851 – 27 October 1851", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/3704 Log of HMS Dee, 28 October 1851 – 10 January 1852", UK National Archives catalogue
  19. "ADM 53/4794 Log of HMS Dee, 14 September 1852 – 7 May 1853", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/4795 Log of HMS Dee, 7 May 1853 – 20 September 1853", UK National Archives catalogue
  20. "ADM 53/4796 Log of HMS Dee, 1 October 1853 – 3 September 1854", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/6213 Log of HMS Dee, 4 September 1854 – 29 April 1855", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/6214 Log of HMS Dee, 30 April 1855 – 21 December 1855", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/6215 Log of HMS Dee, 22 December 1855 – 10 September 1856", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/6216 Log of HMS Dee, 11 September 1856 – 2 May 1857", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/6217 Log of HMS Dee, 3 May 1857 – 20 January 1858", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/6218 Log of HMS Dee, 21 January 1858 – 1 November 1858", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/6219 Log of HMS Dee, 2 November 1858 – 10 March 1859", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/7143 Log of HMS Dee, 11 March 1859 – 13 December 1859", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/7144 Log of HMS Dee, 14 December 1859 – 6 September 1860", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/7145 Log of HMS Dee, 7 September 1860 – 22 May 1861", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/7146 Log of HMS Dee, 23 May 1861 – 21 February 1862", UK National Archives catalogue
  21. "ADM 53/9040 Log of HMS Dee, 12 June 1863 – 9 December 1864", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/9041 Log of HMS Dee, 10 December 1864 – 19 May 1865", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/9042 Log of HMS Dee, 20 May 1865 – 24 November 1866", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/9043 Log of HMS Dee, 25 November 1866 – 31 March 1868", UK National Archives catalogue
  22. "ADM 53/9476 Log of HMS Dee, 1 July 1868 – 8 July 1869", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/9477 Log of HMS Dee, 9 July 1869 – 21 October 1869", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/9784 Log of HMS Dee, 22 October 1869 – 17 October 1870", UK National Archives catalogue
    "ADM 53/9785 Log of HMS Dee, 18 October 1870 – 17 June 1871", UK National Archives catalogue
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