HMS ''Icarus'' was a composite screw

gunvessel A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-stea ...

of 8 guns, and the third

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

vessel to carry the name. She was launched in 1885 at Devonport and sold in 1904.

Construction

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 won ...

, 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 resp ...

, 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 screw, produced by Barrow Iron Shipbuilding. Uniquely among her class she was built rigged with no main yards, making her a

barquentine A barquentine or schooner barque (alternatively "barkentine" or "schooner bark") is a sailing vessel with three or more masts; with a square rigged foremast and fore-and-aft rigged main, mizzen and any other masts. Modern barquentine sailing ...

-rigged vessel; the rest of her class were

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...

-rigged. However, later pictures show her rigged as a barque. Her keel was laid at

Devonport Royal Dockyard His Majesty's Naval Base, Devonport (HMNB Devonport) is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Portsmouth) and is the sole nuclear repair and refuelling facility for the Ro ...

on 18 August 1883 and she was launched on 27 July 1885 by Miss Julia Wilson, the daughter of Admiral Superintendent Wilson; the launch was originally planned for 11 July but was postponed following the admiral's death on 4 July. Her entire class were re-classified in November 1884 as

sloops A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular ...

before they entered service.

Career

''Icarus'' was commissioned on 6 July 1886 at Devonport. On 8 October 1889, she ran aground in Plumper Sound whilst on a voyage from

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Esquimalt The Township of Esquimalt is a municipality at the southern tip of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. It is bordered to the east by the provincial capital, Victoria, to the south by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, to the west by Esquim ...

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. After returning from the Pacific in 1890 she had additional quick firing (QF) guns added. The ship's companies of ''Icarus'', and were awarded the West Africa Medal with the bar "1887–1888" for their part in supporting the infantry of the

West India Regiment The West India Regiments (WIR) were infantry units of the British Army recruited from and normally stationed in the British colonies of the Caribbean between 1795 and 1927. In 1888 the two West India Regiments then in existence were reduced t ...

between 13 November 1887 and 2 January 1888 during the

Yoni Expedition The Yoni Expedition was British campaign launched in 1887 against the Yoni Chiefdom of the Temne people of Sierra Leone. Composition of expedition The expedition was led by Francis de Winton and consisted of: * 1st West India Regiment: 298 troops ...

against the Yoni Chiefdom in Sierra Leone. In 1890 the levels of desertion and punishment under her commanding officer, Commander Annesley, was sufficiently high to prompt a question in the

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. The reply by the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord George Hamilton, reveals good reason for the concern, since ''Icarus'' only had a total complement of 126: An inquiry concluded that Annesley had, as alleged in various newspapers, applied a "punishment not recognised in the Service", and was duly court martialled. He was found guilty and awarded a public reprimand. Her last years were spent on the

Pacific Station The Pacific Station was created in 1837 as one of the geographical military formations into which the Royal Navy divided its worldwide responsibilities. The South America Station was split into the Pacific Station and the South East Coast of ...

, based in

Esquimalt Royal Navy Dockyard Esquimalt Royal Naval Dockyard was a major British Royal Navy yard on Canada's Pacific coast from 1842 to 1905, subsequently operated by the Canadian government as HMC Dockyard Esquimalt, now part of CFB Esquimalt, to the present day. The nav ...

at Esquimalt, in British Columbia, Canada. In early 1900 she visited

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, under Commander George Francis Savage Knowling, and in late Summer 1901 she visited Panama. The following year she returned to the United Kingdom, stopping at

Pernambuco Pernambuco () is a States of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it List of Brazilian states by population, sev ...

and

São Vicente, Cape Verde São Vicente (Portuguese for " Saint Vincent") is one of the Barlavento Islands, the northern group within the Cape Verde archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, off the West African coast. It is located between the islands of Santo Antão and San ...

. She arrived at Devonport on 10 May 1902, and proceeded to Sheerness to pay off at

Chatham Chatham may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Chatham Islands (British Columbia) * Chatham Sound, British Columbia * Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi * Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...

on 4 June 1902, where she was placed in the C Division of the Dockyard reserve.

Fate

''Icarus'' was sold on 12 April 1904.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Icarus (1883) Mariner-class gunvessels Ships built in Plymouth, Devon 1885 ships Victorian-era gunboats of the United Kingdom Maritime incidents in October 1889