HMS Scorpion (1863)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Scorpion.

300px Line engraving published in "The Soldier in Our Civil War", Vol. II, page 68. It depicts one of the two turret ironclads laid down in 1862 by Laird Brothers for the Confederate States. El Tousson was a cover name for the ship intended to become CSS North Carolina. Nominally under construction for Egypt, her true ownership became known and she was seized by the British government in 1863, purchased for the Royal Navy in 1864 and completed in October 1865 as HMS Scorpion.
Career (UK)
Name:	HMS Scorpion
Ordered:	1862
Builder:	Laird, Son & Co., Birkenhead
Laid down:	April 1862
Launched:	4 July 1863
Completed:	10 October 1865
Fate:	Foundered, 17 June 1903
Notes:	Ship-rig; had tripod masts
General characteristics
Type:	Ironclad turret ship
Displacement:	2,751 long tons (2,795 t)
Length:	224 ft 6 in (68.43 m)
Beam:	42 ft 4 in (12.90 m)
Draught:	15 ft 6 in (4.72 m) (light load), 17 ft (5.2 m) (deep load)
Installed power:	1,450 ihp (1,080 kW)
Propulsion:	Lairds horizontal direct action steam engine
Speed:	10.5 kn (12.1 mph; 19.4 km/h)
Armament:	4 × 9 in (230 mm) muzzle-loading rifles
Armour:	Belt: 4.5 in (11 cm), 3 in (7.6 cm) (bow), 2 in (5.1 cm) (stern) Turrets: 10 in (25 cm) (face), 5 in (13 cm) (sides)

HMS Scorpion — a 2,750 long tons (2,790 t) ironclad turret ship built at Birkenhead, England — was one of two sister ships that the Confederate States of America secretly ordered from the Laird shipyard in 1862. To conceal her true ownership, all concerned endorsed the fiction that she was being constructed as the Egyptian warship El Tousson. She was to have been named North Carolina upon delivery to the Confederates. She would have been superior to all but one of the Union Navy's warships, and thus represented a most serious danger to the Union's control of the seas. However, effective Federal diplomacy prevented the emergence of this threat. The British government seized the pair of ironclads in October 1863, a few months after their launch and before they could be completed.

British service

In early 1864, the Admiralty purchased both for the Royal Navy and named them Scorpion and Wivern. Commissioned in July 1865, Scorpion was assigned to the Channel Fleet until 1869, with time out for a refit that reduced her sailing rig from a bark to a schooner. In late 1869, she moved to Bermuda for coast and harbor defense service. Scorpion remained there for over three decades before being removed from the effective list.

Fate

Scorpion was sunk as a target in 1901 but raised the next year and sold in February 1903. She was lost at sea while under tow to the U.S., where she was to be scrapped.