Purchased while building at Montreal in 1841. Served in the Mediterranean as a packet. Refitted and reboilered at Woolwich in 1843–44. Sold at Malta on 11 July 1846
Kingston Navy Yard, Ontario
22 September 1842
Sold to Messrs. Campbell, Forsyth, Yarwood & Gaskin on 30 October 1851
Magnet
Hamilton, Canada
1846
The British Government made a part payment while during build, retaining the right to assume possession of the vessel on payment of the remaining portion. The right was relinquished in 1864
Purchased
Unknown
Purchased in 1847
Iron paddle gunboat (Great Lakes)[]
Mowhawk (1843)
Name
Builder
Launched
Fate
William Fairbairn & Company, Millwall
21 February 1843
Delivered in pieces to the Kingston Yard, Lake Ontario. Served on Lake Ontario and later on Lake Huron. Lengthened by 25 ft (7.6 m) in 1846. Sold to J F Parke on 21 June 1852
The gunboats designed from 1870 onwards were of composite construction, i.e. they had an iron keel, stem and stern posts, and iron framing, with wooden planking retained over the iron frames.
The only ironclads of gunboat size were three largely experimental (and unsuccessful) vessels ordered in 1864. The first two were towed to Bermuda (being considered unsatisfactory to sail under their own power) where they served as harbour vessels. Vixen was the first twin-screw vessel built for the Royal Navy, and Waterwitch employed a form of water pump propulsion.
Ordered to be converted to a tank vessel in October 1904, but instead sold at Sheerness on 4 April 1905
Pembroke Dockyard
15 March 1881
Gate vessel in January 1918. Foundered in Portsmouth Harbour on 1 July 1922; the wreck was sold to J H Pounds, Portsmouth, on 18 June 1925
(1882)
Name
Builder
Launched
Fate
Charles Mitchell and Company, Walker
30 December 1882
Renamed Excellent in May 1891 as a training ship, then Calcutta on 1 November 1916, and finally Snapper in August 1917. Sold on 27 April 1924. She was sold again to Pounds shipbreakers in the 1970s but not broken up. She was finally scrapped in 2008.[1]
(1882)
Name
Builder
Launched
Fate
Armstrong Whitworth
15 June 1887
Built for the Ordnance Department and transferred to the Royal Navy in 1901. Renamed Excellent on 21 November 1916 and Dryad on 26 January 1919. Renamed back to Drudge later in 1919 and sold on 27 March 1920
Insect class (1915)
The Insect-class gunboats were a class of small, but well-armed Royal Navy ships designed for use in shallow rivers or inshore. Several of them took also part in World War II.
Moth: built by William Doxford & Sons, scuttled in Hong Kong 1941, captured and repaired by the Japanese and renamed Suma, sunk by mines in Yangtze River on 19 March 1945.
(1831) – steam vessels reclassified in 1844 as first-class steam gunvessels
Name
Builder
Launched
Fate
HMS Firebrand
Curling, Young & Company, Limehouse
11 July 1831
Re-engined in 1833 and renamed Black Eagle on 5 February 1842, lengthened in 1843 and re-rated as a paddle yacht, completing service as Admiralty yacht until 1857. Broken up at Portsmouth in March 1876
Fletcher & Fearnall, Limehouse
11 August 1831
Refitted for the Holyhead Station in 1848–49. Lost on the coast of West Africa off Monrovia on 22 November 1850
(1832) – steam vessels reclassified in 1844 as first-class steam gunvessels
Ex-Prussian Salamander, commissioned into the Royal Navy on 22 December 1854. Sold to E Bates on 23 September 1869
J Scott Russell & Robinson, Millwall
1850
Ex-Prussian Nix, commissioned into the Royal Navy on 22 December 1854. Harbour service in 1866. Sold at Malta on 29 October 1873
NB. A third vessel of the class was retained by Prussia.
Wooden screw gunvessels[]
This section includes two early iron-hulled screw gunvessels ordered in May 1845, which in other respects were half-sisters to two wooden-hulled gunvessels ordered at the same time. The four vessels comprised the first-class gunvessels Rifleman (wooden hulled) and Sharpshooter (iron hulled), and the second-class gunvessels Teazer (wooden hulled) and Minx (iron hulled). Further vessels ordered later to the same design were either cancelled or built to very different concepts. Rifleman and Sharpshooter were re-classed as sloops in 1854.
Rifleman class (wooden half-sisters to iron-hulled Sharpshooter)
Sepoy (cancelled 1849)
Cossack (cancelled 1849)
Sharpshooter class (iron half-sister to wooden Rifleman)
Teazer class (wooden-hulled half-sisters to iron-hulled Minx)
The gunvessels designed from 1867 onwards were of composite construction, i.e. they had an iron keel, stem and stern posts, and iron framing, with wooden planking retained over the iron frames.
Sailing training ship in 1899. Hulked as accommodation for submarines in 1907. Submarine depot ship in 1912. Sold on 13 March 1925, but foundered under tow on 19 April 1925, then raised and beached; and used as an accommodation school ship until broken up in 1977 at Bo'ness
William Raylton Dixon, Middlesbrough
8 February 1883
Sailing training ship (brig-rigged) in 1894. Sold to Ward, Preston for breaking in February 1907
Tender to Britannia at Dartmouth 1896; to Portsmouth February 1903. Salvage vessel June 1917. Sold to Hughes Bolckow, Blyth on 6 November 1928 for breaking up.