HMS TYRIAN BUILT AT NEWHAVEN 1861

Photo of HMS Cherub, sister ship to HMS Tyrian

By Pete Mason

HMS Tyrian  was built in Newhaven by Courtenay and the only major warship built here. She was 268 Tons, 120ft long with a 22ft beam and drawing 8ft of water. She was launched in September 1861 and was known to be serving in the Mediterranean in April 1867.

In April 1876 she was still in service although where was not specified, and by 1883 she had been downgraded to a tug. At some stage she went to Jamaica where she was broken up in 1891.

The history of HMS Tyrian really begins in 1859 when the Admiralty placed orders for 20 gunboats, initially known as "Improved 60HP Gunboats" which were built to replace the "Dapper" and "Gleaner" classes that had proved themselves in the Crimean War. Their shallow draught (6'6") made them ideal for operations against the Russians in the Baltic and Black Seas.

The Improved class was renamed "Britomart " and of the twenty orders placed, ten were to be built in private yards and ten in Portsmouth Dockyard. Due to a shortage of seasoned oak following the Crimean War the builders were authorised to use any available timber, some of the less scrupulous builders even using "green" unseasoned timber. This led to rot setting in to many of the ships which was not helped by the fact that more than half of the 16 completed were laid up on slips at Haslar, Portsmouth as reserve.

When built they were armed with two 68lb smooth bore cannon weighing 95 cwt each. These were mounted on swivel mounts midships to maintain stability and fired through gates in the ships side. These were replaced in 1867 with 64lb Armstrong rifled Muzzle Loaders weighing 64 cwt each. As these Gunboats usually travelled in company with larger ships it was customary to transfer the guns to the larger ships to improve handling at sea. Power was by sail and by a 60 nhp Horizontal Trunk engine of two 21" dia cylinders running at 90psi built by Penn of Greenwich or Maudsley, Son and Field of Lambeth. These gave a speed of around 9 knots.

Due to the short life of many of the class, the engines were sold on when the ships were broken up and only one of these engines is known to have survived. It was fitted to the SS Xantho which was wrecked off western Australia. The engine was recovered in the late 1990s and is now in the western Australian Maritime Museum.

Of the 16 boats of the class which were built, only 4 outlived HMS Tyrian. HMS Britomart which was one of these ended her days as a dock in Dagenham where she was finally broken up in 1946.