HMS Rattler (1843)
| File:Alecto and Rattler.jpg Rattler (left) and Alecto (right) in their 1845 competition | |
| Career (UK) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Rattler |
| Builder: | Sheerness Dockyard |
| Launched: | April 12, 1843 |
| Commissioned: | December 12, 1844, Woolwich |
| Fate: | broken up, 1856 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Sloop |
| Tons burthen: | 888 bm[1] |
| Length: | 185 ft (56 m) |
| Beam: | 32 ft 8.5 in (9.970 m) |
| Draught: | 18 ft 7.5 in (5.677 m) |
| Propulsion: |
Sail 2 × Maudslay double cylinder steam engines, 100 hp (75 kW) each |
| Speed: | 9.9 knots (18.3 km/h) |
| Complement: | 180 |
| Armament: | 10 × carronades, 2 × pivot guns |
HMS Rattler was a 12-gun wooden sloop of the Royal Navy and the first British warship to adopt a screw propellor powered by a steam engine. She was arguably the first such warship in the world - the sloop USS Princeton was launched after the Rattler, but was placed in commission much sooner.
Background
Screw propulsion had some obvious potential advantages for warships over paddle propulsion. Firstly, paddlewheels were exposed to enemy fire in combat, whereas a propeller and its machinery were tucked away safely well below deck. Secondly, the space taken up by paddlewheels restricted the number of guns a warship could carry, thus reducing its broadside. These potential advantages were well understood by the British Admiralty, but it was not convinced that the propeller was an effective propulsion system. It was only in 1840, when the world's first propeller-driven steamship, SS Archimedes, successfully completed a series of trials against fast paddle-wheelers, that the Navy decided to conduct further tests of the technology. For this purpose, the Navy built Rattler.
HMS Rattler was launched on 12 April 1843 at Sheerness Dockyard and spent two years on trials. She was commissioned at Woolwich on 12 December 1844 and was first commanded by Commander Henry Smith.
Service history
Rattler was pitted against a number of paddlewheelers from 1843 to 1845. These extended trials were to prove conclusively that the screw propeller was as good as, indeed superior to, the paddlewheel as a propulsion system. The most famous of these trials took place in March 1845, with Rattler conclusively beating HMS Alecto in a series of races, followed by a tug-of-war contest in which Rattler towed Alecto backwards at a speed of 2 knots (3.7 km/h). It is this which is memorialised to this day in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard [2]. A large number of different propellers were also tested on Rattler during this period to find the most effective screw design.
On May 17 1845 the Rattler and the steamer Monkey towed HMS Erebus and HMS Terror to Orkney, Rattler returning to Woolwich on June 10.
In June 1845 Rattler served with the 1845 Experimental Squadron.
In 1846 Rattler served with the Squadron of Evolution, departing the Squadron in November for Gibraltar from where she towed HMS Superb. She also visited Lisbon and South America, returning to be paid off in September 1847.
On August 4, 1855, Rattler, HMS Eaglet and USS Powhatan fought a naval battle with Chinese pirates off Kuhlan, China.
She later served in Africa and the East Indies, taking part in the Second Anglo-Burmese War. She was finally broken up in late 1856.
Notes
- ↑ College, p. 287.
- ↑ "Memorials and Monuments in Portsmouth - HMS Rattler". Memorials and Monuments in Portsmouth. http://www.memorials.inportsmouth.co.uk/dockyard/rattler.htm. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
References
- Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.
