HMS ''Miranda'' was a 14-gun (15-gun from 1856) wooden screw sloop 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 ...

. As part of the 1847 Program, she was designed by John Fincham, Master Shipwright of Portsmouth, and is considered an improved ''Rattler'', with the design approved on 3 November 1847. She was ordered on 25 April 1847 with the name ''Grinder'' from

Royal Dockyard Royal Navy Dockyards (more usually termed Royal Dockyards) were state-owned harbour facilities where ships of the Royal Navy were built, based, repaired and refitted. Until the mid-19th century the Royal Dockyards were the largest industrial c ...

Sheerness Sheerness () is a port town and civil parish beside the mouth of the River Medway on the north-west corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 13,249, it is the second largest town on the island after the nearby ...

. On 3 November 1847, she was reordered as ''Miranda'' from Sheerness Dockyard. Launched in 1851, she was completed to see action in the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

. In 1854 she was in the White Sea and participated in the bombardment of the Port of Kola. She then served in the

Sea of Azov The Sea of Azov is an inland Continental shelf#Shelf seas, shelf sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about ) Strait of Kerch, and sometimes regarded as a northern extension of the Black Sea. The sea is bounded by Ru ...

during 1855. Two of her crew were awarded the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious decoration of the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British decorations system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British ...

for their bravery. Towards the end of her career she transported troops during the

New Zealand Wars The New Zealand Wars () took place from 1845 to 1872 between the Colony of New Zealand, New Zealand colonial government and allied Māori people, Māori on one side, and Māori and Māori-allied settlers on the other. Though the wars were initi ...

. She was reclassified as a

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...

by 1862. She was sold for breaking in December 1869. ''Grinder'' would have been the second vessel of that name; it was born by a tender of unknown origin which was sold on 22 August 1832. ''Miranda'' was the first vessel of that name in the Royal Navy.

Construction and specifications

''Mirandas keel was laid in September 1848 at

; she was launched on 18 March 1851.Lyon Winfield, page 213 Her gundeck was with her keel length reported for tonnage calculation of 169 feet . Her breadth reported for tonnage was . She had a depth of hold of . Her builder’s measure tonnage was 1,039 tons (as built 1,062) and displaced 1,350 tons. Her machinery was supplied by Robert Napier & Sons of Govan. She shipped two rectangular fire tube boilers. Her engine was a 2-cylinder horizontal single expansion (HSE) geared steam engine with cylinders of in diameter with a stroke, rated at . She had a single screw propeller driven through gearing. Her machinery was installed at Robert Napier and Sons shipyard in Glasgow at a cost of £14,235 during 1852. The pictorial record shows ''Miranda'' with a

full ship rig A full-rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing vessel with a sail plan of three or more masts, all of them square-rigged. Such a vessel is said to have a ship rig or be ship-rigged, with each mast stepped in three segments: lower, top, a ...

in 1862, which makes it likely that she carried this rig for her entire life. Her initial armament consisted of fourteen Monk's ‘C’ 1839 32-pounder 42 hundredweight (cwt) muzzle-loading smoothbore (MLSB) 8.5-foot solid-shot guns on broadside trucks. In 1856 she was rearmed with a single 68-pounder MLSB of 87 cwt 10-foot solid-shot gun on a pivot mount and ten Monk's ‘C’ 1839 32-pounder 42 cwt MLSB solid-shot guns plus four Armstrong 20-pounder breech-loading (BL) of 16 cwt on broadside trucks.

Trials

During trials, ''Mirandas engine generated for a speed of . ''Miranda'' was completed for sea on 9 March 1854 at a cost of £48,393 (including hull of £24,232 and machinery of £14,235 and fitting £9,926).

Commissioned service

First commission

She commissioned at Sheerness on 25 February 1854 under the command of Captain Edmund M. Lyons RN, for service in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

during the

.''The Navy List'', January 1855, page 161 She did not sail for the Baltic; instead she joined Captain Erasmus Ommanney's Squadron for service in the

White Sea The White Sea (; Karelian language, Karelian and ; ) is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola Peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the nort ...

.Winfield, Chapter 12 The squadron, consisting of ''Eurydice'', ''Miranda'', ''Brisk'', and two French ships, scoured the White Sea for Russian ships. Not finding any Russian ships, the Squadron destroyed the port of

Kola unit was the big kola int eh Kola may refer to: People * Koła, a Polish noble family * Kola (name), people with the given name/surname Kola * Kola (singer), Ukrainian singer, songwriter and performer of her own songs * Kola people, Gabonese p ...

on 24 August before withdrawing before the onset of winter. Her crew received the Baltic medal even though she did not serve in the Baltic. She returned to Portsmouth in September 1854. Miranda Brisk Novitska

In 1855, she deployed to the Black Sea for operations in the

. On 3 June 1855, during the

Siege of Taganrog The siege of Taganrog is a name given in some Russian histories to Anglo-French naval operations in the Sea of Azov between June and November 1855 during the Crimean War. British and French forces were implementing a strategy of destroying the ...

Boatswain A boatswain ( , ), bo's'n, bos'n, or bosun, also known as a deck boss, or a qualified member of the deck department, or the third hand on a fishing vessel, is the most senior Naval rating, rate of the deck department and is responsible for the ...

Henry Cooper Sir Henry Cooper (3 May 19341 May 2011) was a British heavyweight boxer. He was undefeated in British and Commonwealth heavyweight championship contests for twelve years and held the European heavyweight title for three years. In a 1963 fi ...

and Lieutenant Cecil William Buckley of ''Miranda'' landed destroying equipment and set fire to government buildings, despite the town being under bombardment and garrisoned by 3,000 Russian troops. For this action the pair were awarded the

. Captain

Edmund Moubray Lyons Captain Edmund Moubray Lyons (27 October 1819 – 23 June 1855) was an officer of the Royal Navy. He served during the early nineteenth century, and was mortally wounded while commanding in the Crimean War. Early life Edmund Lyons was born on 2 ...

of ''Miranda'' reported on 29 May 1855 that in the first four days of the squadron entering the Sea of Azov, the enemy had lost four steamers of war and 246 merchant vessels, together with corn and flour magazines to the value of at least £150,000.''London Gazette'
Issue 21728 page 2299
dated 13 June 1855 During the Kerch operations on 17 June, Captain Lyons was mortally wounded, dying on the 23rd. Captain Robert Hall took command on the 24th as the Senior Officer in the Strait of Kerch.''The Navy List'', October 1855, page 162 Upon the cessation of hostilities, Miranda returned to home waters, paying off at Sheerness on 21 April 1857.

Second commission

''Miranda'' recommissioned at Sheerness on 4 October 1860 under the command of Commander Henry C. Glyn RN, for the

Australia Station The Australia Station was the British, and later Australian, naval command responsible for the waters around the Australian continent. Australia Station was under the command of the Commander-in-Chief, Australia Station, whose rank varied over t ...

. During the early 1860s she took part in the

; in 1863 being used to land troops at Pūkorokoro,

Waikato The Waikato () is a region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipā District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton City, as well as Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, the nort ...

(later renamed Miranda in her honour). On 29 August 1861, Captain Robert Jenkins assumed command.''The Navy List'', January 1862, page 181 She returned to Sheerness to decommission on 3 June 1865.

Disposal

''Miranda'' was sold for breaking to C Lewis on 2 December 1869.

Notes

References

* David Lyon & Rif Winfield. ''The Sail & Steam Navy List:, All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815 to 1889''. London: Chatham Publishing, 2004, * ''The Navy List''. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office. * Rif Winfield. ''British Warships in the Age of Sail (1817 – 1863)''. Seaforth Publishing, 2014. . Chapter 12 Screw Sloops, Vessels ordered or reordered as steam screw sloops (from 1845), Reynard * J.J. Colledge; revised and updated by Lt Cdr Ben Warlow and Steve Bush. ''Ships of the Royal Navy''. Barnsley, Great Britain: Seaforth Publishing, 2020. (EPUB), Section G (''Grinder'') Section M (''Miranda'') {{DEFAULTSORT:Miranda (1851) Sloops of the Royal Navy Victorian-era sloops of the United Kingdom Ships built in Sheerness 1851 ships Crimean War naval ships of the United Kingdom