- HMS Racer (1884)
HMS "Racer" was a
Royal Navy "Mariner" class composite screw gunvessel of 8 guns. [cite web | url = http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/cruisers.htm |title = Cruisers at battleships-cruisers website| accessdate = 2008-08-11]Construction
Designed by
Nathaniel Barnaby winfield] , the Royal NavyDirector of Naval Construction , 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 Hawthorn Leslie. She was rigged with three masts, with square rig on the fore- and main-masts, making her abarque -rigged vessel. Her keel was laid at Devonport Royal Dockyard on 9 April 1883 and she was launched on 6 August 1884. Her entire class were re-classified in November 1884 as sloops before they entered service.Career
"Racer" was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 9 April 1885. She served in
Sierra Leone in 1886cite web|url=http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/18-1900/R/03768.html|title=HMS "Racer" at the Naval Database website|accessdate=2008-09-11] and became a tender to the training ship HMS "Britannia" atDartmouth, Devon in 1896. She was present at theFleet Review atSpithead in celebration of the Diamond Jubilee on 26 June 1897. When Royal Navy officer training moved to Royal Naval College, Osborne,Cowes in 1903, "Racer" became a tender to the new establishment. She was rebuilt in 1916-1917 as a salvage vessel, being given the starboard machinery of "Torpedo Boat 8", as well as two 17-ton derricks and submersible electric, steam centrifugal and compressed air pumps capable of pumping 3000 tonnes (3 million litres) of water per hour.cite web|url=http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/18-1900/R/03767.html|title=HMS "Racer" (salvage vessel) at the Naval Database website|accessdate=2008-09-11]Disposal
"Racer" was sold to Hughes Bolckow of Blyth on 6 November 1928.
References
*Colledge
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