HMS Cruizer (1852)

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HMS Cruizer
HMS Cruiser at Malta in 1894 (as HMS Lark)
Career (UK) Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg
Name: HMS Cruizer
Builder: Royal Dockyard, Deptford
Cost: £25,213[1]
Launched: 1852-06-19
Renamed: HMS Cruiser, 1857
HMS Lark, 1872
Fate: Sold at Malta in 1912
General characteristics
Class and type: Cruizer-class screw sloop
Displacement: 960 tons[1]
Length: 160 ft (49 m)
Beam: 17.5 ft (5.3 m)[1]
Propulsion: Two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion geared steam engine[1]
Armament: 17 x 32-pdr guns (later removed)

HMS Cruizer was a 17-gun wooden screw sloop, the name-ship of the Cruizer class of the Royal Navy, launched at the Royal Dockyard, Deptford in 1852. She was renamed HMS Cruiser in 1857.

History

Her first years of service were spent on the China station, during which a party of her crew took part in the Battle of Fatsham Creek in 1857. Her commander, Charles Fellowes, was the first man over the walls of Canton when the city was taken, and the ship saw further action on the Yangtse river, including the attack on the Taku Forts on the Peiho river in 1859.

In 1860, under the command of John Bythesea she surveyed the Gulf of Pechili to prepare moorings for the Allied fleet to disembark troops for the advance on Peking.

HMS Cruiser was laid up in England in 1867, before being recommissioned for the Mediterranean station.

Disposal

In 1872, having had her guns and engine removed, she became a sail training ship and was renamed HMS Lark, in which capacity she served until at least 1903. She was finally sold for breaking up at Malta in 1912.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Winfield, Rif; Lyon, David (2003). The Sail and Steam Navy List, 1815-1889. Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1861760326.