|
HMS Racer (1884)
HMS ''Racer'' was a Royal Navy ''Mariner''-class composite screw gunvessel of 8 guns. Building Designed by Nathaniel Barnaby, the Royal Navy Director of Naval Construction, her hull was of composite construction; that is, iron keel, frames, stem and stern posts with wooden planking. She was fitted with a 2-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine driving a single propeller, produced by Hawthorn Leslie. She was rigged with three masts, with square rig on the fore- and main-masts, making her a barque-rigged vessel. Her keel was laid at Devonport Royal Dockyard on 9 April 1883 and she was launched on 6 August 1884. Her entire class were re-classified in November 1884 as sloops before they entered service. Career ''Racer'' was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 9 April 1885. She served in Sierra Leone in 1886 and in the Gambia in early 1891, Page 401ff, Clownes, The Royal Navy, a History from Earliest Times to 1900, Volume VII, Chatham Publishing, London 1997, firs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mariner Class Gunvessel
The ''Mariner'' class was a class of six 8-gun gunvessels ( sloops from 1884) built for the Royal Navy between 1883 and 1888. Four were built in the Naval Dockard at Devonport, and two elsewhere; the ''Acorn'' was built by contract at Jacobs Pill on the Pembroke River (a private yard founded in the 1870s by Sir Edward Reed), while the ''Melita'' was built in the Malta Dockyard, the only substantial ship of the Royal Navy ever to be built in the island. Construction Design Designed by Nathaniel Barnaby,Winfield (2004), p.296 the Royal Navy Director of Naval Construction, the hull was of composite construction; that is, iron keel, frames, stem and stern posts with wooden planking. The entire class were re-classified in November 1884 as sloops before they entered service. Propulsion Propulsion was provided by a 2-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine of driving a single screw. This arrangement provided enough power to drive the ships at , although ''Icarus'' a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Naval College, Osborne
The Royal Naval College, Osborne, was a training college for Royal Navy officer cadets on the Osborne House estate, Isle of Wight, established in 1903 and closed in 1921. Boys were admitted at about the age of thirteen to follow a course lasting for six academic terms before proceeding to the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. Some formal appointments to the college were to HMS ''Racer'', a vessel attached to the college, previously the tender to HMS ''Britannia''. Background Following the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, Osborne House, overlooking the River Medina, where she had spent her final years, was surplus to the requirements of the new king, her son Edward VII. He passed the property over to the government, apart from a few rooms in the main house which he kept as a private royal museum of the later life of Queen Victoria. In 1903, part of the estate, including the Osborne Stable Block, was converted into a naval training college, while the main house became a milita ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ships Built In Plymouth, Devon
A ship is a large vessel that travels the world's oceans and other navigable waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished from boats, based on size, shape, load capacity and purpose. Ships have supported exploration, trade, warfare, migration, colonization, and science. Ship transport is responsible for the largest portion of world commerce. The word ''ship'' has meant, depending on the era and the context, either just a large vessel or specifically a ship-rigged sailing ship with three or more masts, each of which is square-rigged. The earliest historical evidence of boats is found in Egypt during the 4th millennium BCE. In 2024, ships had a global cargo capacity of 2.4 billion tons, with the three largest classes being ships carrying dry bulk (43%), oil tankers (28%) and container ships (14%). Nomenclature Ships are typically larger than boats, but there is no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1884 Ships
Events January * January 4 – The Fabian Society is founded in London to promote gradualist social progress. * January 5 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera ''Princess Ida'', a satire on feminism, premières at the Savoy Theatre, London. * January 7 – German microbiologist Robert Koch isolates ''Vibrio cholerae'', the cholera bacillus, working in India. * January 18 – William Price attempts to cremate his dead baby son, Iesu Grist, in Wales. Later tried and acquitted on the grounds that cremation is not contrary to English law, he is thus able to carry out the ceremony (the first in the United Kingdom in modern times) on March 14, setting a legal precedent. * January – Arthur Conan Doyle's anonymous story " J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" appears in the ''Cornhill Magazine'' (London). Based on the disappearance of the crew of the ''Mary Celeste'' in 1872, many of the fictional elements introduced by Doyle come to replace the real events in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blyth, Northumberland
Blyth () is a port town, port and seaside town as well as a civil parish in southeast Northumberland, England. It lies on the coast, to the south of the River Blyth, Northumberland, River Blyth. It has a population of 39,731 as of the 2021 census, up 6% from the 2011 census and population of 37,347. The port of Blyth dates from the 12th century, but the development of the modern town only began in the first quarter of the 18th century. The main industries which helped the town prosper were coal mining and shipbuilding, with the salt trade, fishing, and the railways also playing an important role. These industries have largely vanished, but the port still thrives, receiving paper and pulp from Scandinavia for the newspaper industries of England and Scotland. The town was seriously affected when its principal industries went into decline, and it has undergone much regeneration since the early 1990s. The Keel Row Shopping Centre, opened in 1991 when it closed in 2024, brought majo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hughes Bolckow
Hughes Bolckow formerly ''Messrs, Hughes, Bolckow, and Co., Limited'' was a well-known shipbreaking company based in Blyth, Northumberland. Background Intending to create an industrial park for dismantling obsolete warships in 1911, the company leased of land from Lord Ridley and the Blyth Harbour Commissioners. The company was responsible for scrapping a number of famous Royal Navy ships including HMS ''Britannia'' (previously HMS ''Prince of Wales''). Their first ship was the former Certified Industrial Training Ship, HMS ''Southampton'', which was sent to Blyth in June 1912 to be broken up. In response to requests from customers, the company created a series of "choice Antiques" from the fine old seasoned timber they possessed from ''Britannia.'' The company even had a Ship Timber Department that would create articles manufactured from teakwood taken from obsolete battleships and preserved in "Solignum." During World War I, Messrs, Hughes, Bolckow, and Co. Limited exp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lough Swilly
Lough Swilly () in Ireland is a glacial fjord or sea inlet lying between the western side of the Inishowen Peninsula and the Fanad Peninsula, in County Donegal. Along with Carlingford Lough and Killary Harbour it is one of three glacial fjords in Ireland. Name Both Lough Swilly () and the adjoining River Swilly () have the same derivation, and are sometimes associated with a legendary multi-eyed sea monster, ''Suileach'', that was reputedly killed by Saint Colmcille (521–597). In ''The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places'' (1900), the historian Patrick Weston Joyce writes that ''súil'' may refer to whirlpools or to eyes and that ''suileach'' means "abounding in eyes or whirlpools". Geography and ecology Located on the Fanad Peninsula, in County Donegal, the northern extremities of the lough are marked by Fanad Head with its lighthouse and Dunaff Head. Towns situated on the lough include Buncrana on Inishowen and Rathmullan on the western side. At the southern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naval Mine
A naval mine is a self-contained explosive weapon placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Similar to anti-personnel mine, anti-personnel and other land mines, and unlike purpose launched naval depth charges, they are deposited and left to wait until, depending on their fuzing, they are triggered by the approach of or contact with any vessel. Naval mines can be used offensively, to hamper enemy shipping movements or lock vessels into a harbour; or defensively, to create "safe" zones protecting friendly sea lanes, harbours, and naval assets. Mines allow the minelaying force commander to concentrate warships or defensive assets in mine-free areas giving the adversary three choices: undertake a resource-intensive and time-consuming minesweeping effort, accept the casualties of challenging the minefield, or use the unmined waters where the greatest concentration of enemy firepower will be encountered. Although international law requires signatory nations ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gold Bar
A gold bar, also known as gold bullion or a gold ingot, is a quantity of refined metallic gold that can be shaped in various forms, produced under standardized conditions of manufacture, labeling, and record-keeping. Larger varieties of gold bars, produced by casting molten metal into molds, are called ingots. Smaller bars are often created through minting or stamping from rolled gold sheets. Central banks typically hold the standard Good Delivery gold bar in their gold reserves and it is widely traded among bullion dealers. Additionally, the kilobar, weighing , and the gold bar are popular for trading and investment due to their more manageable size and weight. These bars carry a minimal premium over the spot price of gold, facilitating small transfers between banks and traders. While most kilobars have a flat appearance, a preference for brick-shaped bars exists among some investors, particularly in Europe. Types Gold bars are classified based on their production pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diving Support Vessel
A diving support vessel is a ship that is used as a floating base for professional diving projects. Basic requirements are the ability to keep station accurately and reliably throughout a diving operation, often in close proximity to drilling or production platforms, for positioning to degrade slowly enough in deteriorating conditions to recover divers without excessive risk, and to carry the necessary support equipment for the mode of diving to be used. Recent offshore diving support vessels tend to be dynamically positioned (DP) and double as remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) support vessels, and also be capable of supporting seismic survey operations and cable-laying operations. DP makes a wider range of operations possible, but the platform presents some inherent hazards, particularly the marine thruster, thrusters, making launch and recovery by diving bell widespread. They may use a moonpool to shelter the position where the bell or ROV enters and exits the water, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
