HMS Avenger (1845)
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HMS ''Avenger'' was a wooden
paddle wheel A paddle is a handheld tool with an elongated handle and a flat, widened end (the ''blade'') used as a lever to apply force onto the bladed end. It most commonly describes a completely handheld tool used to propel a human-powered watercraft by p ...
frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...
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 ...
launched in 1845 and wrecked with heavy loss of life in 1847.


Construction and commissioning

''Avenger'' was built to a design by Sir William Symonds that was approved on 25 March 1844. She was initially ordered from
Deptford Dockyard Deptford Dockyard was an important Royal Navy Dockyard, naval dockyard and base at Deptford on the River Thames, operated by the Royal Navy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It built and maintained warships for 350 years, and man ...
on 19 February 1844 but the order was transferred to Devonport Dockyard on 22 June 1844. She was laid down there on 27 August 1844 and launched on 5 August 1845. She sailed under a jury rig to Deptford where her machinery was fitted and completed. She was then commissioned on 21 June 1846. She had cost £44,777 for the hull, £32,740 for machinery, and £11,630 for the fittings. She was armed with 10 guns and was initially rated as a first-class frigate, though this was later reduced on 31 July 1846 to a second-class.


Armament

The armament of the Avenger was planned to consist of 2 68 pdr (8 inch 112 cwt), 4 56 56 pdr (8 inch 45 cwt) and 4 32 pdr 25cwt. The main deck was constructed to mount 16 32 pdrs, but it was noted that 10 more heavy guns could be mounted if some cabins were removed. In 1846 the Avenger was mentioned in the Channel fleet with 10 guns. A year later she mounted on the upper deck: 2 68 pdr 95cwt on sleds; 2 10 inch 85 cwt on sleds, 2 32 pdr 65cwt, while nothing was said about guns on the main deck. In a list of the British naval force in Portugal in late 1847, the Avenger is indeed mentioned with only 6 guns. Apparently, the Avenger had no guns on her main deck by 1847.


Service

''Avenger'' served with the
Channel Fleet The Channel Fleet and originally known as the Channel Squadron was the Royal Navy formation of warships that defended the waters of the English Channel from 1854 to 1909 and 1914 to 1915. History Throughout the course of Royal Navy's history th ...
from 28 April 1846 to November 1847, when she was transferred to the
Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
.


Loss

''Avenger'' sailed from Gibraltar on 17 December 1847 bound for
Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...
and commanded by Captain Charles Elers Napier, stepson of Rear Admiral Sir Charles Napier who was then commanding the Channel Fleet. On 20 December she ran onto the Sorelle Rocks, near Tunisia. Captain Napier drowned, and only eight crew members survived.


See also

*
List of frigate classes of the Royal Navy This is a list of frigate classes of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom (and the individual ships composed within those classes) in chronological order from the formal creation of the Royal Navy following the Restoration in 1660. Where the word ...


Notes


References

*Lyon, David and Winfield, Rif, ''The Sail and Steam Navy List, All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815-1889'', pub Chatham, 2004, {{DEFAULTSORT:Avenger Frigates of the Royal Navy Maritime incidents in December 1847 Shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea Ships built in Plymouth, Devon 1845 ships