HMS Spanker (1889)

HMS Spanker was a Sharpshooter-class torpedo gunboat of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1889, converted to a minesweeper in 1909 and sold for breaking in 1920.

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

History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Spanker
Builder: Devonport Dockyard
Laid down: 12 April 1888
Launched: 22 February 1889
Commissioned: 17 October 1890
Reclassified: Minesweeper in 1909
Fate: Sold in 1920 for breaking
General characteristics
Class and type: Sharpshooter-class torpedo gunboat
Displacement: 735 tons
Length: 242 ft (74 m) oa, 230 ft (70 m) pp
Beam: 27 ft (8.2 m)
Draught: 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m)
Installed power:
  • 2,500 ihp (1,900 kW) (natural draught)
  • 3,600 ihp (2,700 kW) (forced draught)
Propulsion:
  • 2 × triple-expansion steam engines
  • Locomotive boilers (replaced c. 1897 by Du Temple boilers)
  • 2 × screws
Speed: 19 kn (35 km/h)
Range: 2,500 nmi (4,600 km) at 10 kn (19 km/h)
Complement: 91
Armament:
  • As torpedo gunboat:
  • 5 × 14-inch (360 mm) torpedo tubes (3 reloads)
  • 2 × QF 4.7-inch (12 cm) guns
  • 4 × 3-pounder guns
  • As minesweeper:
  • 2 × QF 4.7-inch (12 cm) guns
  • 4 × 3-pounder guns
  • minesweeping gear

Construction

Spanker was laid down at Devonport Dockyard on 12 April 1888 and launched on 22 February 1889. She was commissioned at Devonport on 17 October 1890.[1] It was common for the officers of smaller vessels with poor accommodation to be housed in the local guardship, and Spanker's officers were borne in Indus.[2]

Her class were fitted with 2 sets of triple-expansion steam engines, and in Spanker's case these were built by G E Bayliss & Co. She was fitted at build with locomotive boilers, but these were replaced with water-tube Du Temple boilers some time between 1895 and 1898.[1] The bottom of these boilers, unlike normal Du Temple boilers, were cylindrical with end doors, instead of with bolted covers.[3] Twin screws propelled her at up to 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) with forced draught.[1]

Service

During naval manoeuvres in 1892 Spanker and the monitor Gorgon were disabled by leaky boilers and defective steering gear.[4]

She was present at the Naval Review at Spithead in celebration of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee on 26 June 1897.[2]

Spanker as a torpedo gunboat pre-1909

She was mobilised for naval manoeuvres on 10 July 1900.[2]

Lieutenant Thomas Brandreth was appointed in command 14 January 1902, when she served in the Channel Fleet.[5] She took part in the fleet review held at Spithead on 16 August 1902 for the coronation of King Edward VII.[6]

Diving experiments (1906)

In 1906, Spanker took part in a Royal Navy investigation of deep-sea diving. Lieutenant Damant and Gunner Catto, from the Spanker, descended into a Scottish loch in diving-suits to the depth of 210 feet (64 m), at that time a record for the British Isles.[7] The former records were held by employees of Messrs Siebe and Gorman, London, who, in a patented dress, descended 189 feet (58 m) and 192 feet (59 m).[7] On 8 March 1908 Spanker was on passage from Portsmouth to Sheerness where she was to join up with ships of the Nore Division of the Home Fleet for Naval exercises when her engines failed off Bembridge on the Isle of Wight. While under tow back to Portsmouth, she ran aground off Southsea Castle, and was not freed until the next day.[8] In November 1908, Spanker entered refit at Pembroke Dockyard,[9] with the ship requiring partial replating of her decks.[10] The refit was completed by 1 March 1909.[11]

Conversion to minesweeper (1909)

In 1909 she and four of her sister ships were converted to minesweepers.[1] The torpedo tubes were removed, but the ships retained their guns. The minesweeping equipment constituted a kite winch and gallows fitted on the quarterdeck. She was assigned to the North Sea Fisheries as a tender to Halcyon under the orders of the Admiral Commanding Coast Guard and Reserves.[2][12]

World War I

On 15 April 1913 Spanker was recommissioned at Portsmouth and served throughout World War I. From 1914, under Lieutenant Commander N M C Thurstan and then Lieutenant Commander F C Corbyn, she served in the North Sea.[12] In June 1915, Spanker was attached to the Grand Fleet,[13] but in July that year, she moved with sister ship Seagull to Harwich in order to support operations of the Harwich Force.[14][15]

From 1917, under the command of Lieutenant H Annall RNR, she formed part of the 13th Fast Minesweeping Flotilla at Oban.[Note 1][12]

The ship lying near the roadside was the Spanker ... The ship was on service all through the war, and still wears her drab active service colours, which, however, are now much weather-worn. Her fittings and gear, too, were rusty, and the ship looked a typical old veteran, which fact possibly gave her an added interest to the longshoremen, while the youngsters never missed an opportunity to roam around the vessel. Now the Spanker has moved across to the other side of the harbour, alongside all that remains of a sister ship, and soon she, too, will be reduced to a mass of broken and twisted metal, which may, possibly, some day, help in building another vessel.

Ilfracombe Chronicle, Saturday 10 July 1920

Fate

By 1919 she was listed on the disposal list as a first class gunboat.[2] She was sold on 20 March 1920 to the Cornish Salvage Company of Ilfracombe for breaking.[1]

Notes
  1. The 13th Minesweeping Flotilla comprised the Sharpshooter-class vessels Spanker, Speedwell, Skipjack and Gossamer and the Alarm-class vessels Leda and Circe. The flotilla was "fast" in contrast with the other Oban-based minesweeping flotilla, the 14th, which was composed of 4 paddle minesweepers.
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References
  1. Winfield (2004) p.305
  2. "Naval Database". Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  3. Sennett, Richard (1899). Marine Steam Engines. Longmans, Green and Co. p. 96. ISBN 9783861954590.
  4. "British and Foreign". Southland Times. 26 July 1892. p. 2.
  5. "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times (36666). London. 16 January 1902. p. 7.
  6. "Naval Review at Spithead". The Times (36847). London. 15 August 1902. p. 5.
  7. "Dive of 210 feet – record in British Navy experiments". Poverty Bay Herald. 24 October 1906. p. 6.
  8. "Naval Matters—Past and Prospective: Portsmouth Dockyard". The Marine Engineer and Naval Architect. Vol. 30. 1 April 1908. p. 361.
  9. "Naval Matters–Past and Prospective: Pembroke Dockyard". The Marine Engineer and Naval Architect. Vol. 31. 1 December 1908. p. 156.
  10. "Naval Matters–Past and Prospective: Pembroke Dockyard". The Marine Engineer and Naval Architect. Vol. 31. 1 February 1909. p. 259.
  11. "Naval Matters–Past and Prospective: Pembroke Dockyard". The Marine Engineer and Naval Architect. Vol. 31. 1 April 1909. p. 338.
  12. "Warship histories at the National Maritime Museum" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 June 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  13. "Supplement to the Monthly Navy List Showing Organisation of the Fleet, Flag Officers' Commands &c.: Flotillas of the Grand Fleet: Attached Fleet Sweepers". The Navy List. June 1915. p. 12 – via National Museum of Scotland.
  14. Naval Staff Monograph No. 30 1926, p. 62
  15. Dorling 1935, p. 260
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