HMS Liffey (1856)

HMS ''Liffey'' was the name ship of five ''Liffey'' class of 51-gun wooden screw frigates of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 6 May 1856, at Devonport Dockyard, Plymouth.Winfield, p. 114

Design and description

Originally ordered on 19 February 1844 as a ''Constance'' class 50-gun sailing frigate to a 2,126bm Sir William Symonds engines were especially well regarded, featuring a shut off valve to prevent steam loss in case of damage. She was fitted with a diameter two-bladed Griffiths' propeller and bunkers for 342 tons of coal.Collins, p. 146

Construction and service

The ship was laid down at Devonport Dockyard on 12 July 1854 and launched 6 May 1856. ''Liffey'' was commissioned in November 1858 at Portsmouth for the Channel Squadron. In May 1868 she escorted the Prince and Princess of Wales (the later Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) to Denmark.Winfield, p. 114

By the time she was part of the 1869–70 Flying Squadron the ship was also fitted with a "Keyham's Donkey" for pumping seawater to and from the boilers, to fight fires and flooding, and could also be fitted to the engines of her steam launch.Collins, p. 146 She joined the squadron at Madeira on 18 June 1869, completing a world cruise and arriving back at Plymouth Sound on 15 November 1870.

On 26 March 1877 she went into Devonport to be fitted out as a store ship for the Pacific Station, emerging on 23 March 1878 and costing £20,802. She had her machinery removed, spars and rigging reduced, ballasted with coal and only a few guns left on the upper deck. On passage to Madeira on 16 June 1878 she saved the crew of a burning German barque the ''Anita'' of Hamburg. After six weeks in the port of Valporaiso she sailed for Coquimbo, Chile, in company with the new iron frigate ''Shah'' and Pacific Station flagship ironclad ''Triumph'', unsurprisingly losing in a sailing race against the ''Shah'' after losing a man overboard who was retrieved after being set upon by an albatross.

''Liffey'' recommissioned at Coquimbo, on 17 November 1878, replacing the old store ship ''Nereus''. Here her crew played football with foreign sailors, a sport otherwise unknown in Chile, the practice leading to the formation of the first Chilean football club Coquimbo Unido in 1894.El Mercurio de Antofagasta, 31 August 2017, p. 26 She remained a harbour ship for the rest of career. In November 1902 the Admiralty decided they no longer needed a store ship at the south of the Pacific Station, and she was sold there as a hulk in April 1903,Winfield, p. 114 her guns transferred to another British ship.

Acquired by the English nitrate company Buchanan, Jones & Cia., she was towed to Mejillones in 1906. ''Liffey'' was sold again 1924 to MacAuliffee Shipping Co. to serve as a ''chata'' for coal, stores and accommodation for English employees. She served until 1937 when she was broken up for her teak timber. Her ship's wheel was saved and taken to Santiago, where in 1975 it existed as a garden feature on the Avenida Lyon. The Museo Marítimo Nacional preserves part of the cannons that she carried as ballast, and in 2013 it received as a donation the head of her figurehead.Museo Marítimo Nacional, p. 119

In 2017 it was reported that her sunken remains had been found in the bay of Mejillones by divers working with the Museo de Mejillones. The keel, and parts of her frames, stern and stem were found.

Footnotes

References

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liffey
Liffey-class frigates
Ships built in Plymouth, Devon
1856 ships