HMS Glasgow (1861)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Glasgow.

A 1903 painting of HMS Glasgow
History
Royal Navy EnsignUnited Kingdom
NameGlasgow
BuilderPortsmouth Dockyard
Laid down12 September 1859
Launched28 March 1861
Completed1870
Decommissioned20 July 1875
FateSold for breaking up December 1884
General characteristics
Class and typeBristol-class frigate
Displacement4,020 long tons (4,080 t)
Tons burthen3027
Length250 ft (76.2 m)
Beam52 ft 1 in (15.9 m)
Draught22 ft 5 in (6.8 m)
Installed power2,020 ihp (1,510 kW)
Propulsion1 shaft, 1 Steam engine
Speed11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph)
Complement550-600
Armament
  • Thirty 8-inch (203 mm) muzzle-loading smoothbore guns
  • Twenty 32-pounder muzzle-loading smoothbore guns
  • One 68-pounder muzzle-loading smoothbore gun

HMS Glasgow was a wooden screw frigate, the fifth ship of the name to serve in the Royal Navy.

Glasgow was launched at Portsmouth Dockyard on 28 March 1861.[1] Despite ironclad ships being introduced in 1858 and effectively rendering wooden hulls obsolete Glasgow was built of wood to use up some of the extensive stocks of ship building timber then stored in Britain.[2] Indeed Glasgow was one of the last warships of the Royal Navy to be made entirely from wood.[3] Her one and only foreign deployment was as flagship to the East Indies from 1871 to 1875.[2] From 24 May 1871 until her decommissioning she was commanded by Captain Theodore Morton Jones.[1] During this time she was the flagship of Rear-Admiral James Cockburn and then of Admiral Arthur Cumming, following Cockburn's death.[1] Glasgow was paid off on 20 July 1875 and sold for breaking up in December 1884.[1] Glasgow was used by Sultan Bargash of Zanzibar as the model for his royal yacht HHS Glasgow, Bargash having been impressed by the ship when she visited Zanzibar in 1873.[4]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Entry at William Loney RN – Ships
  2. ^ a b Entry at Global Security
  3. ^ Image at Science and Society gallery
  4. ^ Patience 1995, p. 5.

References

  • "Various British Screw Frigates". Warship International. V (4). Toledo, OH: Naval Records Club: 323. 1968.
  • Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
  • Lyon, David & Winfield, Rif: The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889 Chatham Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1-86176-032-9.
  • Patience, Kevin (1995). Zanzibar and the Shortest War in History. Bahrain: Kevin Patience..