HMS ''Surly'' was an
''Albacore''-class gunboat built for the
Royal Navy. She was constructed in Newcastle by T & W Smith as part of the second batch, ordered in early October 1855,
and was launched on 18 March 1856. After commissioning she served in the Steam Reserve and Coastguard Reserve. She was sold out of service in 1869.
Description
The order for ''Surly'' was placed with T & W Smith on 4 October and her
keel was laid in
Newcastle on 15 October.
''Surly'' was fitted with three cylindrical boilers and a horizontal single expansion direct acting engine supplied by
Maudslay, Sons & 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 ...
.
[ Fitted with sails as well as her single screw, she was capable of and could carry of coal for fuel.][ The vessel was launched on schedule on 18 March 1856,][ and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 5 July, having cost £9,867, of which the hull accounted for £5,656 and machinery £3,298.][
The ''Albacore''-class were armed with a single muzzle-loaded smoothbore ]68-pounder gun
The 68-pounder cannon was an artillery piece designed and used by the British Armed Forces in the mid-19th century. The cannon was a smoothbore muzzle-loading gun manufactured in several weights, the most common being , and fired projectiles of ...
(95 cwt; barrel length 10 feet) mounted on a pivot at aft, and a muzzle-loaded smoothbore 32-pounder gun
The 32-pounder guns (and the French 30-pounders) were sets of heavy-caliber pieces of naval artillery in the Age of Sail, artillery mounted on warships in the last century of the Age of sail, during the 18th and early 19th centuries. It was usual ...
(56 cwt; barrel length 9.5 feet) at the ships' forward. They were also fitted with two 24-pounder howitzer
A howitzer () is a long- ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like ot ...
s on broadside gun carriage
A gun carriage is a frame and mount that supports the gun barrel of an artillery piece, allowing it to be maneuvered and fired. These platforms often had wheels so that the artillery pieces could be moved more easily. Gun carriages are also used ...
s. The ''Albacore''-class carried a crew of 36-40 men.[
]
Service
Upon commissioning ''Surly'' went straight into the Royal Navy's Steam Reserve at Sheerness Dockyard. In April 1861 she was serving with the Coastguard Reserve at Hull as tender to HMS ''Cornwallis'' and later HMS ''Dauntless''.[ In Royal Navy service ''Surlys signal letters were GTWB.][
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Surly (1856)
1856 ships
Ships built on the River Tyne
Gunboats of the Royal Navy
Albacore-class gunboats (1855)