Name | Colossus (1848) | Explanation | |
Type | Second rate | Type | Two-decker |
Launched (Sail) | 1 June 1848 | Converted to screw | 11 June 1854 |
Hull | Wooden | Length | 190 feet |
Propulsion | Sail | Men | 750 |
Builders measure | 2590 tons | Builders measure (as screw) | 2590 tons |
Displacement | Displacement (as screw) | 3482 tons | |
Guns | 80 | Guns (as screw) | 80 |
Fate | 1867 | Last in commission | 1864 |
Class | Class (as screw) | Majestic | |
Ships book | ADM 135/97 | ||
Snippets concerning career prior to conversion | |||
Date | Event | ||
1 June 1848 | Launched as 3rd rate sailing ship at Pembroke Dockyard. | ||
Career as unarmoured wooden screw vessel | |||
Date | Event | ||
11 June 1854 | Undocked as screw at Portsmouth Dockyard. | ||
15 June 1854 - 12 January 1856 | Commanded (from commissioning) by Captain Robert Spencer Robinson, North America and West Indies, then (1855) the Baltic during the Russian War | ||
25 January 1856 - 17 September 1856 | Commanded by Captain Henry Keppel, in charge of a division of gunboats | ||
17 September 1856 - 17 June 1857 | Commanded (until paying off at Sheerness) by Captain Thomas Sparke Thompson, particular service | ||
12 June 1860 - 4 April 1861 | Commanded (from commissioning at Portsmouth) by Captain Francis Scott, Coast Guard, Portland (replacing Blenheim) | ||
1 April 1861 - 4 May 1862 | Commanded by Captain George Edwin Patey, Coast Guard, Portland (until he died) | ||
6 May 1862 - 6 February 1863 | Commanded by Captain Swynfen Thomas Carnegie, Coast Guard, Portland (tender: Biter) | ||
12 February 1863 - 20 April 1863 | Commanded by Captain Thomas Harvey, Coast Guard, Portland | ||
13 April 1863 - 3 January 1864 | Commanded by Captain Edward Southwell Sotheby, Coast Guard, Portland | ||
3 January 1864 - 30 June 1864 | Commanded (until paying off at Portsmouth) by Captain Edward Codd, Coast Guard, Portland (replaced by Frederick William) | ||
March 1867 | Sold to Castle and Beech for breaking up at Charlton. | ||
Extracts from the Times newspaper | |||
Date | Extract | ||
Ma 10 May 1858 | All the artificers at Sheerness are to be henceforth, until further orders, put on what is termed job and task work on unlimited earnings, and all labourers now employed, whether on the establishment or temporarily hired, whose weekly wages do not amount to 14s. Per week, are to have their pay raised to that sum. All extra time to be paid for. Provisions and stores of every description are ordered to be forthwith taken on board the screw steam guard-ship of ordinary Royal George, 102 guns, Captain Superintendent John C. Fitzgerald, and the screw steam guardship of steam reserve Cressy, 80 guns, Captain Edward P. Halsted, &c. If required for immediate service they are ordered to be manned from the different Coastguard stations attached to their district. The ships now under fitment at Sheerness, in the fitting basin and in dry dock, are the Majestic screw steamship, 80 guns; the Colossus screw steamship, 80 guns; the new screw steamship Hero, 91 guns; the Terrible paddle-wheel steam frigate, 21 guns; the new screw steam frigate Emerald, 51 guns, and sundry gunboats. | ||
We 8 September 1858 | The Commander-in-Chief at Sheerness, on the 6th inst. inspected the Colossus, 80 guns, the Royal George, 102 guns, the Emerald, 51 guns, and the Scout, 21 guns, all advanced screw steamships, an Admiralty order having been received to report what time wonld be required to get them ready for foreign service. |
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