HMS ''Wasp'' was a composite screw

gunboat A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-steam ...

of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

, built in 1880 by Barrow Iron Shipbuilding and wrecked off

Tory Island Tory Island, or simply Tory, is an island 14.5 kilometres (7+3⁄4 nautical miles) off the north-west coast of County Donegal in the north-west of Ulster, the northern Provinces of Ireland, province in Ireland. It is officially known by its Iris ...

in 1884.

Design

The ''Banterer'' class was designed by

Nathaniel Barnaby Sir Nathaniel Barnaby, (25 February 1829 – 16 June 1915) was Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy from 1872 to 1885. Biography Born on 25 February 1829 in Chatham, Barnaby began his career as a naval apprentice at Sheerness in 1843. He wo ...

, the Admiralty

Director of Naval Construction The Director of Naval Construction (DNC) also known as the Department of the Director of Naval Construction and Directorate of Naval Construction and originally known as the Chief Constructor of the Navy was a senior principal civil officer res ...

. They were of composite construction, meaning that the iron keel, frames, stem and stern posts were of iron, while the hull was planked with timber. This had the advantage of allowing the vessels to be coppered, thus keeping marine growth under control, a problem that caused iron-hulled ships to be frequently docked. They were in length and displaced 465 tonnes. In appearance they were distinguishable from the preceding s (also a Barnaby design) by their vertical stems.Winfield, p.298

Propulsion

A two-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine by the builder, Barrow Iron Shipbuilding, provided Winfield gives for the class as a whole, and the individual figures for ships of the class vary between ; no figure is given by Winfield for ''Wasp'' herself. through a single screw, sufficient to drive ''Wasp'' at .

Armament

Ships of the class were armed with two 6-inch 64-pounder muzzle-loading rifles (a conversion of the smoothbore 32-pounder 58 cwt gun) and two 4-inch 20-pounder breech loading guns. A pair of machine guns were also fitted.

Construction and career

Her

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element of a watercraft, important for stability. On some sailboats, it may have a fluid dynamics, hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose as well. The keel laying, laying of the keel is often ...

was laid at Barrow Iron Shipbuilding as

yard number The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly 0.9 ...

71 and she was launched on 5 October 1880. She was rigged with three masts, making her a

barquentine A barquentine or schooner barque (alternatively "barkentine" or "schooner bark") is a sailing vessel with three or more masts; with a square rigged foremast and fore-and-aft rigged main, mizzen and any other masts. Modern barquentine sailing ...

-rigged vessel. ''Wasp'' was commissioned on 1 December 1881.

Fate

On her final voyage, ''Wasp'', under the command of

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

J.D. Nicholls, was sailing from Westport,

County Mayo County Mayo (; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, it is named after the village of Mayo, County Mayo, Mayo, now ge ...

, in the West of Ireland, to

Moville Moville (; ) is a coastal town located on the Inishowen Peninsula of County Donegal, Ireland, close to the northern tip of the island of Ireland. It is the first coastal town of the Wild Atlantic Way when starting on the northern end. Location ...

Inishowen Inishowen () is a peninsula in the north of County Donegal in Ireland. Inishowen is the largest peninsula on the island of Ireland. The Inishowen peninsula includes Ireland's most northerly point, Malin Head. The Grianan of Aileach, a ringfor ...

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...

, in

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

, to pick up a party of police, bailiffs and court officials, who were to be transported to Inishtrahull Island off

Malin Head Malin Head () is the Extreme points of Ireland, most northerly point of mainland Ireland, located in the townland of Ardmalin on the Inishowen peninsula in County Donegal. The head's northernmost point is called Dunalderagh at latitude 55.38ºN ...

to carry out evictions for non-payment of rents. The same ship had delivered urgently needed supplies of seed potatoes to the same islanders the previous year. In the early morning of 22 September 1884, ''Wasp'' was near

. The weather was cloudy with occasional

squall A squall is a sudden, sharp increase in wind speed lasting minutes, as opposed to a wind gust, which lasts for only seconds. They are usually associated with active weather, such as rain showers, thunderstorms, or heavy snow. Squalls refer to the ...

s and rain showers. The commanding officer and most of the crew were in their bunks; the lieutenant navigating the ship was relatively unfamiliar with the area the ship was sailing. At 3:55 a.m. ''Wasp'' ran aground on a reef. The initial shock broke the hull of the ship, and she began to rapidly fill with water. The commander ordered the ship's boats lowered, but ''Wasp'' hit the reefs again, sinking so quickly that the boats could not be launched. Within fifteen minutes ''Wasp'' had sunk. Six crewmen managed to cling to one of the gunboat's spars; they washed ashore on Tory Island and were found by islanders. The other 52 crew aboard drowned. A court martial was held for the survivors; the finding was that the cause of the wreck was a lack of care taken with the vessel's navigation, but the survivors were all exonerated. The wreck was sold to the Cornish Salvage Co. in November 1910.

Notes

Citations

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wasp, HMS Banterer-class gunboats Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness 1880 ships Maritime incidents in September 1884 Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean Shipwrecks of Northern Ireland