HMS ''Sepoy'' was a 4-gun ''Albacore''-class gunboat of the

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 ...

launched in 1856 and broken up in 1868.

Construction

The ''Albacore'' class was ordered to meet the sudden need for shallow-draft vessels in the Black Sea and Baltic Sea during the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...

. Many of them were built of unseasoned timber, and their lives were consequently short. ''Sepoy'' was launched on 13 February 1856 at the

North Shields North Shields () is a town in the Borough of North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, England. It is north-east of Newcastle upon Tyne and borders nearby Wallsend and Tynemouth. Since 1974, it has been in the North Tyneside borough of Tyne and Wea ...

yard of T & W Smith, and commissioned seven weeks later under Lieutenant-in-command Henry Needham Knox.

Career

According to ''The Times'' of 12 March 1856, the gunboats ''Sepoy'' and ''Erne'' left the Tyne in tow of the ''Cock-o'-the-North'', for

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained thr ...

. She was present at the

Fleet Review A fleet review or naval review is an event where a gathering of ships from a particular navy is paraded and reviewed by an incumbent head of state and/or other official civilian and military dignitaries. A number of national navies continue to ...

, Spithead on 23 April the same year, as part of the White Squadron, and paid off at Sheerness on 28 May 1856. In company with HM gunboats ''Bullfrog'', ''Carnation'' and ''Spanker'', from the 1st Division of Steam Reserve at Sheerness, she went to Gravesend on 5 March 1863 to take on board the RN Volunteers of the London division. They were embarked to fire a Royal salute on the arrival of the Princess Alexandra.''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

(London)'', Wednesday, 4 March 1863, p.12 On 10 October 1865, ''Sepoy'' was driven ashore and severely damaged at the mouth of the

River Tweed The River Tweed, or Tweed Water ( gd, Abhainn Thuaidh, sco, Watter o Tweid, cy, Tuedd), is a river long that flows east across the Border region in Scotland and northern England. Tweed cloth derives its name from its association with the ...

Disposal

''Sepoy'' was broken up in 1868.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sepoy (1856) Victorian-era gunboats of the United Kingdom Albacore-class gunboats (1855) 1856 ships Ships built on the River Tyne Maritime incidents in October 1865