HMS ''Racer'' was a

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 ...

''Mariner''-class composite screw gunvessel of 8 guns.

Building

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 Royal Navy

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 ...

, 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 A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts of which the fore mast, mainmast, and any additional masts are Square rig, rigged square, and only the aftmost mast (mizzen in three-maste ...

-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 Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

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, first published in 1903. again in Sierra Leone in April 1891 against Tambi and then immediately afterwards in the Gambia against Toniataba.Page 407, Clownes, op cit. She became a tender to the training ship HMS ''Britannia'' at

Dartmouth, Devon Dartmouth () is a town and civil parish in the England, English county of Devon. It is a tourist destination set on the western bank of the estuary of the River Dart, which is a long narrow tidal ria that runs inland as far as Totnes. It lies w ...

in 1896. She was present at the Fleet Review at

Spithead Spithead is an eastern area of the Solent and a roadstead for vessels off Gilkicker Point in Hampshire, England. It is protected from all winds except those from the southeast, with the Isle of Wight lying to the south-west. Spithead and the ch ...

in celebration of the Diamond Jubilee on 26 June 1897. When Royal Navy officer training moved to

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 ...

, near

Cowes Cowes () is an England, English port, seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina, facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east bank. The two towns are linked b ...

, in 1903, ''Racer'' became a tender to the new establishment. In 1916–17 ''Racer'' was rebuilt as a salvage vessel, being given the starboard machinery of ''Torpedo Boat 8'', as well as two 17-ton derricks and submersible electric, steam centrifugal and compressed air pumps capable of pumping 3,000 tonnes (3 million litres) of water per hour. Each summer from 1920 to 1924 ''Racer'' was the

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 ...

to recover

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 ...

s from HMS , which had been sunk by German mines at the mouth of

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 1917. Her derricks also raised many hundreds of tons of wreckage and sand from ''Laurentic'' that divers removed to reach the gold. Her divers recovered 3,186 of the 3,211 gold bars.

Disposal

''Racer'' was sold for scrap to Hughes Bolckow of

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 cens ...

on 6 November 1928.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Racer (1884) 1884 ships Mariner-class gunvessels Ships built in Plymouth, Devon Victorian-era gunboats of the United Kingdom World War I sloops of the United Kingdom