HMS Ringdove (1856)

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

HMS Ringdove was a Vigilant-class gunvessel of the Royal Navy. She was launched by J. Samuel White, Cowes in 1856 and broken up in Cowes in 1866.

History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Ringdove
Ordered	26 July 1855[1]
Builder	J & R White, Cowes[1]
Cost	£31,748[1]
Launched	22 February 1856[1]
Commissioned	31 May 1856[1]
Decommissioned	10 November 1864[2]
Fate	Sold on 2 June 1865 and broken up by White at Cowes in November 1866[1]
General characteristics [3]
Class and type	Vigilant-class second-class despatch/gunvessel
Displacement	860 tons
Tons burthen	669 79/94 bm
Length	180 ft (54.9 m) (gundeck) 160 ft 7.5 in (49.0 m) (keel)
Beam	28 ft 4 in (8.6 m)
Draught	8 ft (2.4 m) (designed)[4]
Depth of hold	14 ft (4.27 m)
Installed power	200 nominal horsepower 677 ihp (505 kW)
Propulsion	2-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine Single screw
Sail plan	Barque-rigged
Speed	11 kn (20 km/h) under steam
Complement	90[5]
Armament	As designed: 2 × 68-pounder Lancaster guns on pivots 2 × 12-pdr howitzers As completed: 1 × 7-inch/110-pdr breech loader 1 × 68-pdr muzzle-loading rifle 2 × 20-pdr breech loaders

Design

Her class were designed as second-class despatch and gunvessels.^[3] They were intended to operate close inshore during the Crimean War and were essentially enlarged versions of the Arrow-class gunvessel, which has been designed by the Surveyor’s Department in 1854.^[1]

A two-cylinder horizontal single expansion steam engine by Miller Ravenhill & Co. provided 677 indicated horsepower (505 kW) through a single screw. All Vigilant-class gunvessels were barque-rigged.^[1] Although designed with a pair of 68-pounder Lancaster muzzle-loading rifles, the Vigilant class were finished with one 7-inch (180 mm)/110-pound (50 kg) Armstrong breech-loading gun, one 68-pound (31 kg) Lancaster muzzle-loading rifled gun and two 20-pounder breech loaders.^[3]

Service

In February 1856, Ringdove was assigned under the command of Commander Isaac Newton Thomas Saulez. On 20 September 1856, command was transferred to Commander Robert George Craigie.^[2]

In June 1861, Ringdove entered the Seto Inland Sea,^[6] where she performed soundings and naming.^[7] By July, she was stationed in Edo Bay during the Mito rōnin attack on the British Legation in Tōzen-ji.^[8] After the incident, Laurence Oliphant, who survived the attack, joined Craigie on Ringdove for a reconnaissance mission in Tsushima. Craigie reported to Admiral James Hope the activities of Russians in the area, leading to the withdrawal of Russian troops from Tsushima in autumn 1861.^[9]

By April 1862, Ringdove was anchored off the British Consulate in the Chinese city of Ningbo, which was occupied by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.^[10] On 22 April, the Taiping troops celebrated the arrival of General Fan Youzeng from Nanking.^[11] The celebrations which involved the firing several poorly-aimed musket shots. Some of the shots narrowly missed Ringdove. Craigie wrote to the Taiping generals and Admiral Hope to complain.^[10][12][13] Despite Craigie receiving profuse apologies from General Huang Chengzhong,^[11][12] Roderick Dew, commander of the British forces, demanded that the east-facing Taiping batteries to be dismantled. The demands were not met, and eventually escalated to the retaking of Ningbo on 10 May.^[12] During the battle, Ringdove took down the guns at the North Gate of the city.^[14] After the battle, she was placed about 25 miles up the Yong River, to prevent Taiping retaliation on civilians.^[15]

On 16 September 1862, command was transferred to Commander Ralph Abercrombie Otho Brown, until her decommissioning on 10 November 1864.^[2]

Citations

1. Winfield & Lyon 2004, p. 220.
2. The Victorian Royal Navy.
3. Winfield & Lyon 2004, p. 219.
4. Preston & Major 2007, p. 150.
5. Wilson 1868, p. 98.
6. Thomas 2018, p. 45.
7. Royal Museums Greenwich.
8. Ion 2002, p. 5.
9. Cortazzi 2000, pp. 95–96.
10. Clowes 1903.
11. Uhalley 1971, p. 23.
12. Platt 2012, pp. 275–277.
13. Wilson 1868, p. 96.
14. Wilson 1868, p. 99.
15. Wilson 1868, p. 105.

References

• Clowes, William Laird (1903). The Royal Navy: a history from the earliest times to the death of Queen Victoria. Vol. 7. Sampson Low, Marston and Company. pp. 138–150. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020.
• Cortazzi, Hugh (2000). Collected Writings of Modern Western Scholars on Japan. Tokyo: Japan Library and Edition Synapse. ISBN 9781873410967.
• Thomas, Graham (2018). A Victorian Sailor's Grave in the Seto Inland Sea: The life and death of Frank Toovey Lake.
• Ion, A. H. (2002). "The Namamugi Incident and the Satsu-Ei and Bakan Wars". In Kennedy, George C.; Neilson, Keith (eds.). Incidents and International Relations: People, Power, and Personalities. Westport, CT: Praeger. pp. 1–24. ISBN 0275965961.
• Platt, Stephen R. (1 July 2012). Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, The West and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War. Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-0-85789-769-5.
• Preston, Antony; Major, John (2007). Send a Gunboat: The Victorian Navy and Supremacy at Sea, 1854–1904 (2 ed.). London: Conway. p. 150. ISBN 978-0-85177-923-2.
• "Japan Seto Uchi or inland sea from a Japanese government map". Royal Museums Greenwich. Archived from the original on 23 February 2021. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
• Uhalley, Stephen Jr. (1971). "The Taipings at Ningpo: The Significance of a Forgotten Event". Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 11: 17–32. JSTOR 23881506.
• "HMS Ringdove (1856)". The Victorian Royal Navy. Archived from the original on 21 October 2020. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
• Wilson, Andrew (1868). The "Ever-Victorious Army". Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons.
• Winfield, R.; Lyon, D. (2004). The Sail & Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy, 1815-1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-032-6.