HMS Encounter (1846)
HMS Encounter at Ningpo in China in 1862 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMS Encounter |
| Ordered | 5 February 1845 |
| Builder | Pembroke Dockyard |
| Cost | £19,734 plus £20,192 for machinery and fitting |
| Laid down | June 1845 |
| Launched | 5 September 1846 |
| Commissioned | 7 September 1849 |
| Honours & awards | Pacific 1854–55, China 1856-60, PEI-HO Forts 1859 |
| Fate | Broken up Devonport May 1866 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Encounter-class sloop (reclassified as a corvette in 1862) |
| Tons burthen | 894 40/94 tons original, lengthened 1848 953 bm |
| Length | 180 ft (54.86 m) gundeck, 157 ft 7 in (48.03 m) keel for tonnage original, lengthened 1848 190 ft (57.91 m), 167 ft 10 in (51.16 m) keel for tonnage |
| Beam | 33 ft 2 in (10.11 m) maximum, 32 ft 8 in (9.96 m) keel for tonnage |
| Draught | 13 ft 11 in (4.24 m) mean |
| Depth of hold | 20 ft 10 in (6.35 m) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion |
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| Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
| Speed | 10.2 knots (18.9 km/h) |
| Complement | 180 |
| Armament |
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HMS Encounter was ordered as a First-Class Sloop with screw propulsion on 5 February 1845 to be built at Pembroke, in accordance with the design developed by John Fincham, Master Shipwright at Portsmouth. Her armament was to consist of 8 guns (2 × 85 cwt, 4 × 65 cwt and 2 × 25 cwt). She was to have a more powerful steam engine rated at 360 nominal horsepower. In 1848 she would be altered abaft and lengthened at Deptford prior to completion. A second vessel (Harrier) was ordered on 26 March 1846 but after her keel was laid at Pembroke Dockyard, her construction was suspended on 9 September 1846 then cancelled five years later, on 4 April 1851. Encounter had her armament radically altered in 1850 and she was broken up at Devonport in 1866.
Encounter was the third named vessel since its introduction for a discovery vessel in service in 1616.
Harrier was the fourth named ship since the name was introduced for a ‘Cruizer’ class fir built 18-gun brig sloop, launched by Barnard of Deptford on 22 April 1804 and foundered in the Indian Ocean in March 1809.