HMS Porcupine (1844)

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For other ships with the same name, see HMS Porcupine.
HMS Porcupine
Bringing a dredge trawl back aboard HMS Porcupine, by Sir Charles Wyville Thomson
History
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgUnited Kingdom
NameHMS Porcupine
Ordered11 November 1843[1]
BuilderDeptford Dockyard
CostHull £7,997, fitting out £7,050[1]
Launched17 June 1844[1]
Commissioned19 August 1844[1]
Fate
  • Survey ship 1862
  • Sold 1883[1]
General characteristics
Class and typeSteam vessel, re-classified in 1844 as first-class steam gunvessel
Displacement490 tons[2]
Tons burthen381 68/94 bm
Length
  • 141 ft (43 m) (keel)
  • 124 ft 7.5 in (37.986 m) (gundeck)
Beam24 ft 1.5 in (7.353 m)
Depth of hold13 ft (4.0 m)
Installed power
  • 132 nominal horsepower
  • 285 ihp (213 kW)[1]
Propulsion
  • 2-cylinder side lever steam engine[Note 1]
  • Tubular boilers
  • Single screw[1]
Crew80[1]
Armament
  • 1 x 32-pdr (26cwt) on pivot
  • 2 x 32-pdr (17cwt) carronades

HMS Porcupine was a Royal Navy 3-gun wooden paddle steamer. It was built in Deptford Dockyard in 1844 and served as a survey ship.[3][4] It was first employed in the survey of the Thames Estuary by Captain Frederick Bullock.[3][5]

Porcupine was chartered by the Royal Society in 1869 to investigate the deep sea bed to the west of Ireland with the intention of looking for living organisms below 600 m depth. The azoic theory of Edward Forbes hypothesised that life could not exist below this depth due to the great pressure. The Porcupine expedition disproved this theory by bringing up animals from 3000 m. This led to the funding of the Challenger expedition to survey deep sea around the world. The Porcupine Bank, an area of seabed to the west of Ireland partly detached from the continental shelf by a failed rift event, was discovered by this expedition and is named after this ship.[6]

Notes[]

  1. ^ The engine was removed from HMS Black Eagle (ex Firebrand)

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Winfield (2003) p.?
  2. ^ William Loney website
  3. ^ a b Winfield, Rif (2014). British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1817-1863: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Barnsley: Seaforth. p. 328. ISBN 9781848321694.
  4. ^ Allaby, Michael (2009). Oceans: A Scientific History of Oceans and Marine Life. Facts on File. p. 128. ISBN 978-0816060993.
  5. ^ Ritchie, G.S. (1967). The Admiralty Chart. London: Hollis & Carter. p. 242.
  6. ^ Porcupine Marine Natural History Society

Sources[]

External links[]

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