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| Name | Adder (1837) | Explanation | |
| Type | Packet | ||
| Acquired | May 1837 | ||
| Hull | Wooden | ||
| Propulsion | Paddle | ||
| Builders measure | 240 tons | ||
| Displacement | 272 tons | ||
| Guns | 1 | ||
| Fate | 1870 | ||
| Class | |||
| Ships book | |||
| Note | 1826 launched. Transferred from Post Office, ex-Crocodile. 1848 dockyard tender | ||
| Snippets concerning this vessels career | |||
| Date | Event | ||
| (January 1840) | In commission at Pembroke | ||
| 1 January 1862 | Commanded by 2nd Master William Blakey, Chatham, tender to Wellesley | ||
| Extracts from the Times newspaper | |||
| Date | Extract | ||
| Sa 17 April 1852 | WOOLWICH, April 16. Lieutenant Richard V. Hamilton, of the Resolute, proceeded to Greenwich yesterday to receive the chronometers for Captain Sir Edward Belcher's Arctic expedition, and take charge of them to Greenhithe...Several lighters will proceed down the river to the Nore to-morrow with extra stores to be put on board the Basilisk and Desperate steamers, which these vessels will convey to the edge of the ice, and then put them on board of the vessels of the Expedition. The North Star, Commander Pullen, was taken to the middle of the stream to-day to be in readiness to be towed down to Greenhithe to-morrow by the Adder and Monkey steam vessels. The North Star is very deeply loaded, and her decks piled with split logs, to be used for firewood. | ||
| Ma 6 December 1852 | Her Majesty's paddlewheel steam-vessel Adder, Mr. James Watt in charge, arrived from Chatham yesterday at 8 30 a.m. with officers ordered to attend the court-martial on several of the officers of the Rosamond. | ||
| Fr 9 September 1864 | The paddlewheel steamer Adder, 2, 100-horse power, Master-Commander W.J. Blakey, having undergone a complete repair to both hull and machinery, has resumed her station at Chatham as tender to the flagship Wellesley, 72, at that port, and is now employed almost exclusively in conveying the officials and workmen to and from the dockyard to the iron-clad frigate Achilles at Gillingham Reach. During the time the Adder was in the shipwrights' hands she was fitted with Lumley's patent rudder, which by direction of the Admiralty had been previously applied to the paddlewheel steamer Otter, 2, employed in Chatham harbour to test the value of the invention when fitted to steamers required for river service. The results of the trials made with the patent rudder on board that vessel have been in the highest degree satisfactory, and such as to justify the Admiralty in directing the application of the principle to other steamvessels. In a crowded and somewhat confined harbour like that at Chatham it is obviously most essential that steamers should be able to answer every touch of their helm instantaneously, while, on the other hand, the steamer should be capable of being steered under such circumstances that the helm should possess the maximum amount of power over the vessel with a minimum amount of resistance, both of which essentials are secured in the patent rudder. The experimental trials made during the last few days with the Adder show that vessels fitted with Lumley's rudder possess steering advantages not possessed by those furnished with the ordinary description of steering apparatus. | ||
| Tu 11 October 1864 | Yesterday the officers, seamen, and Royal Marines belonging to the iron frigate Achilles, 20, 1,250-horse power, Capt. E.W. Vansittart, who have been berthed on board the sailing frigate Gloucester, 50, in Chatham harbour, during the time the ironclad vessel has been fitting for sea, were turned over to the Achilles, the paddlewheel steamers Adder and Otter being employed in the work of conveying the officers and seamen from the one vessel to the other. Only a few mechanics now remain employed on board the iron ship, nearly the whole of the workmen having again resumed their duties at the dockyard, the ironclad frigates Lord Warden and Bellerophon employing the whole resources of the establishment. The Achilles was to be ready to take her departure from Chatham to-day; but late yesterday it was announced that she was not likely to get away from her moorings until to-morrow or the following day, when, according to existing arrangements, she proceeds to the Nore. There she will remain for a few days for the adjustment of her compasses and other matters, proceeding thence to Plymouth for the customary docking before leaving for her first cruise. | ||
| Fr 9 December 1864 | The screw corvette Cadmus, 21, 400-horse power, proceeded down Chatham harbour at daylight yesterday morning, in tow of the Adder and Fearless paddlewheel steamers, to be in readiness to make her official trial of speed at the measured mile at the Maplin Sands. | ||
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