HMS ''Reynard'' was part of the 1847 Program, she was ordered on 25 April as a steam schooner from Deptford Dockyard with the name ‘Plumper’.Winfield However, the reference Ships of the Royal Navy, by J.J. College, © 2020, there is no entry that associates the name ''Plumper'' to this build.Colledge The vessel was reordered on August 12th as an 8-gun sloop as designed by John Edye. She was launched in 1848, conducted anti-piracy work in Chinese waters and was wrecked near

Pratas Island Pratas Island,, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency also known as the Tungsha Islands or the Dongsha Islands (), is a coral island situated in the northern part of the South China Sea administered as part of Cijin District, Kao ...

in the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...

on 31 May 1851.Lyon Winfield, page 213 ''Reynard'' was the seventh named vessel (spelt Renard or Reynard) since it was introduced for a 18-gun sloop captured from the French on May 1780 by ''HMS Brune'' in the West Indies and broken in 1784.

Construction

''Reynard''’s keel was laid in August 1847 at Deptford Dockyard and launched on 21 March 1848. Her gundeck was with her keel length reported for tonnage calculation of . Her maximum breadth was reported for tonnage was . She had a depth of hold of 14 feet 6 inches . Her builder’s measure tonnage was 516 tons and displaced 656 tons. Her light draught forward was and aft. Her machinery was supplied by George & John Rennie. She shipped two rectangular fire tube boilers. Her engine was a 2-cylinder horizontal single expansion (HSE) steam engine with cylinders of in diameter with a stroke, rated at 60 nominal horsepower (NHP). She had a single screw propeller. Her main armament consisted of two Blomefield 32-pounder 56 hundredweight (cwt) muzzle loading smooth bore (MLSB) solid shot guns and six Blomefield (bored up from 18-pounders) 32-pounder 25 cwt MLSB 6-foot solid shot guns on broadside trucks. The 56 cwt guns had a 6.41 inch bore whereas the 25 cwt guns had a bore of 6.3. Both fired a 32-pound solid shot.

Trials

During steam trials her engine generated 165 indicated horsepower (IHP) for a speed of 8.238 knots. ''Reynard'' was completed for sea on the 1st of August 1848 at a cost for hull £10,262 and machinery and fitting £8,625.

Commissioned Service

She was commissioned on 4 July 1848 at Woolwich under Commander Peter Cracroft, RN for Particular Service with Sir Charles Napier’s Western Squadron. On 15 September 1848, she ran aground at

Cobh Cobh ( ,), known from 1849 until 1920 as Queenstown, is a seaport town on the south coast of County Cork, Ireland. With a population of around 13,000 inhabitants, Cobh is on the south side of Great Island in Cork Harbour and home to Ireland's ...

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

. She was refloated. ''Reynard'' took part in an abortive amphibious landing against

Riff A riff is a repeated chord progression or refrain in music (also known as an ostinato figure in classical music); it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instrument, that forms the basis or accompani ...

pirates in February 1849.Piracy and Maritime Crime
Historical and Modern Case Studies, Naval War College Press, Newport, Rhode Island. Newport Paper 35, January 2010. . On leaving the Channel Fleet. she sailed for the East Indies, leaving Singapore in company with for

Labuan Labuan (), officially the Federal Territory of Labuan ( ms, Wilayah Persekutuan Labuan), is a Federal Territory of Malaysia. Its territory includes and six smaller islands, off the coast of the state of Sabah in East Malaysia. Labuan's capit ...

and China on 10 October 1849, and arriving in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

on 14 November. She served on the

China Station The Commander-in-Chief, China was the admiral in command of what was usually known as the China Station, at once both a British Royal Navy naval formation and its admiral in command. It was created in 1865 and deactivated in 1941. From 1831 to 18 ...

in an anti-piracy role, recapturing two

junks A junk (Chinese: 船, ''chuán'') is a type of Chinese sailing ship with fully battened sails. There are two types of junk in China: northern junk, which developed from Chinese river boats, and southern junk, which developed from Austronesian ...

and apprehending 15 Chinese pirates on 23 March 1850. She left Hong Kong to return to Woolwich to pay off, but on her way was required to accompany the brig to rescue the crew of the brig ''Velocipede'', which had run aground on Pratas shoal, southeast of Hong Kong.

Fate

In rescuing the crew of ''Velocipede'', ''Reynard'' herself was wrecked near

in the

on 31 May 1851. The whole crew survived the sinking. HMS ''Pilot'' rescued them and also the crew of ''Velocipede''. ''Reynard'' could not be saved, and she was paid off as a total loss on 27 February 1852.

Notes

References

* Lyon Winfield, The Sail & Steam Navy List, All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815 to 1889, by David Lyon & Rif Winfield, published by Chatham Publishing, London © 2004, * The Navy List, published by His Majesty's Stationery Office, London * Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail (1817 – 1863), by Rif Winfield, published by Seaforth Publishing, England © 2014, e, Chapter 12 Screw Sloops, Vessels ordered or reordered as steam screw sloops (from 1845), Reynard * Colledge, Ships of the Royal Navy, by J.J. Colledge, revised and updated by Lt Cdr Ben Warlow and Steve Bush, published by Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley, Great Britain, © 2020, e (EPUB), Section P (Plumper, Renard, Reynard) {{DEFAULTSORT:Reynard (1848) Victorian-era sloops of the United Kingdom Sloops of the Royal Navy Ships built in Deptford 1848 ships Maritime incidents in September 1848 Maritime incidents in May 1851 Shipwrecks in the South China Sea