HMS Royalist (1883)

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

HMS Royalist was a Satellite-class composite screw sloop of the Royal Navy, built in 1883 and hulked as a depot ship in 1900. She was renamed Colleen in 1913, transferred to the Irish Free State in 1923 and broken up in 1950.

HMS Royalist anchored at Sydney c. 1890.
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Royalist
Builder	Devonport Dockyard
Cost	£52,134 (hull) £16,039 (machinery)[1]
Laid down	27 April 1881
Launched	7 March 1883
Commissioned	14 April 1886
Renamed	Colleen on 1 December 1913
Fate	Depot ship at Queenstown, Ireland from 1900 Transferred to the Irish Free State on 19 February 1923.
Irish Free State
Name	Colleen
Fate	Broken up in 1950
General characteristics [1]
Class and type	Satellite-class sloop (corvette from 1884)
Displacement	1,420 tons
Length	200 ft (61 m) pp
Beam	38 ft (12 m)
Draught	15 ft 9 in (4.80 m)
Installed power	1,470 ihp (1,096 kW)
Propulsion	Single horizontal compound-expansion steam engine Single screw
Sail plan	Barque-rigged
Speed	13 kn (24 km/h)
Range	Approximately 6,000 nmi (11,000 km) at 10 kn (19 km/h)
Complement	170–200
Armament	8 × BL 6-inch/100-pounder (81cwt) Mk II guns 1 × light gun 4 × machine guns
Armour	Internal steel deck over machinery and magazines

Construction

Royalist was ordered from Devonport Dockyard and laid down on 27 April 1881.^[1] She was launched on 7 March 1883^[2] and reclassified as a corvette in 1884 before being commissioned for the first time on 14 April 1886.^[1]

She was built of an iron frame with wooden planking (hence "composite") and her class was unique in being the only wooden or composite ships of the Royal Navy to be fitted with an armoured deck. She was fitted with a horizontal compound-expansion steam engine by Maudslay, Sons and Field. This engine produced 1,470 indicated horsepower (1,096 kW) and drove a single screw. Masts and spars were provided for a barque rig.^[1]

Although four of her sister ships were armed with two 6-inch and ten 5-inch breech-loading guns, Royalist, in common with Heroine and Hyacinth, received a homogenous outfit of eight BL 6-inch/100-pounder (81cwt) Mk II guns, complemented with a light gun and 4 machine guns.^[3]

Royal Navy service

Initially on service with the Cape of Good Hope Station, she commenced service on the Australia Station in May 1888.^[2] Ships on the Australia Station were active in the Pacific in the management of the British Western Pacific Territories.

Under the command of Captain Edward Davis, Royalist conducted a survey in 1891-92, visiting: Vanuatu and New Caledonia (10 December 1889 to 18 June 1891); Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands (18 June 1891 to 9 April 1892); and Gilbert Islands, Marshall Islands and Ellice Islands^[4] (14 April 1892 to 30 August 1892).^[5]

In September 1891, several Kalikoqu tribesmen killed a European trader operating on Uki Island named Fred Howard. In response, Royalist launched a punitive expedition against the village responsible, killing several of the tribesmen who were involved in the murder along with burning the village and destroying several of its canoes.^[6] On 27 May 1892, Captain Davis proclaimed the Gilbert Islands to be a British Protectorate.^[4] On Tarawa, this proclamation averted a massacre of a local faction, the House of Auatubu, badly beaten in battle the day before by their enemies, the House of Teabike.^[7]

During the visit of the Royalist each of the Ellice Islands in 1892, Captain Davis reported on trading activities and traders on each of the islands visited.^[8] He reported that the islanders wanted him to hoist the British flag on the islands, however Captain Davis did not have any orders regarding such a formal act.^[9]

During the Samoan civil unrest in 1899, Royalist took part in operations with HMS Porpoise and HMS Tauranga.^[2] She left the Australia Station in June 1899.^[2]

In February 1900 she was hulked and used for harbour service, she was renamed Colleen on 1 December 1913. The Antarctic explorer Tom Crean, who had been part of both Captain Scott's and Ernest Shackleton's expeditions, served in Colleen as a boatswain during the later years of World War I.

Irish service

Colleen was transferred to the Irish Free State on 19 February 1923^[2] and broken up in 1950.

Notes

1. Winfield (2004) p.293
2. Bastock 1988, p. 110.
3. "Satellite-class sloops at Battleships-Cruisers website". Retrieved 8 October 2010.
4. The proceedings of H.M.S. "Royalist", Captain E.H.M. Davis, R.N., May-August, 1892, in the Gilbert, Ellice and Marshall Islands.
5. "Admiral Edward H M Davis (Biographical details)". The British Museum. 2019.
6. Nolden, Sascha (29 March 2016). "Surveying in the South Pacific". National Library of New Zealand.
7. A Pattern of Islands. Arthur Grimble. The Reprint Society, by arrangement with John Murray (publishers) Ltd., 1954. First published 1952. Pages 178-180.
8. The proceedings of H.M.S. "Royalist", Captain E.H.M. Davis, R.N., May-August, 1892, in the Gilbert, Ellice and Marshall Islands.
9. Resture, Jane. "TUVALU HISTORY – 'The Davis Diaries' (H.M.S. Royalist, 1892 visit to Ellice Islands under Captain Davis)". Archived from the original on 30 August 2011. Retrieved 20 September 2011.

References

• Bastock, John (1988), Ships on the Australia Station, Child & Associates Publishing Pty Ltd; Frenchs Forest, Australia. ISBN 0-86777-348-0
• Winfield, R.; Lyon, D. (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC 52620555.

External links