HMS ''Caroline'' was a composite screw sloop of the Royal Navy, built at Sheerness Dockyard, fitted with

Maudslay, Sons and Field Maudslay, Sons and Field was an engineering company based in Lambeth, London. History The company was founded by Henry Maudslay as Henry Maudslay and Company in 1798 and was later reorganised into Maudslay, Sons and Field in 1833 after his sons ...

machinery and launched on 25 November 1882. She was later 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 slo ...

Service history

With her sister ships and , ''Caroline'' was sent to the China Station and recommissioned at Hong Kong on 18 February 1890.''The Navy List''. (April, 1891). p. 209. On 7 January 1896 ''Caroline'' left Hong Kong in company with and for a return to Portsmouth via Singapore, Aden, Suez, Malta, Gibraltar and Plymouth. On arrival she was reduced to dockyard reserve. ''Caroline'' was

hulked A hulk is a ship that is afloat, but incapable of going to sea. Hulk may be used to describe a ship that has been launched but not completed, an abandoned wreck or shell, or to refer to an old ship that has had its rigging or internal equipment ...

in 1897 and served at

Harwich Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-on- ...

as the hospital ship to the boys' training ship HMS ''Ganges'' at Harwich. Once shore hospital facilities had been built in 1902, ''Caroline'' was refitted as overflow accommodation for 60 boys. In 1904 both hulks left Harwich for Shotley, Suffolk, and as the school expanded ashore, a series of old ships inherited the name ''Ganges'', with ''Caroline'' receiving the name in April 1908. In 1913 she was renamed ''Powerful III'' and moved to Devonport, where she became part of the training establishment at Devonport. In November 1919 she inherited the name of the training establishment as ''Impregnable IV''. She was sold on 31 August 1929. HMS Caroline gunnery drill Canada

A photograph of the officers of HMS Caroline in 1893

Citations

References

* 1882 ships Ships built in Sheerness Satellite-class sloops Victorian-era sloops of the United Kingdom {{UK-mil-ship-stub