HMS Iris (1840)

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

The old Frigate Iris with her freight of Cable alongside Great Eastern at Sheerness in 1865. The cable passing from the hulk to Great Eastern.
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Iris
NamesakeIris (mythology)
Ordered20 February 1837[1]
BuilderDevonport Dockyard
Cost£17,233
Laid downSeptember 1838[1]
Launched14 July 1840
Decommissioned16 October 1869
FateSold as a cable vessel
General characteristics
Class and typeSpartan-class sixth-rate frigate (later "corvette")
Displacement911 33⁄94 (bm)[1]
Length
  • 131 ft (40 m) (overall)
  • 106 ft 1 in (32.33 m) (keel)[1]
Beam40 ft 6+1⁄4 in (12.351 m)[1]
Depth of hold10 ft 9 in (3.28 m)[1]
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Complement240
Armament
  • Upperdeck: 18 × 24-pounder guns
  • QD: 6 × 32-pounder guns
  • Fc: 2 × 32-pounder gunnades

HMS Iris was a 26-gun sixth-rate frigate launched on 14 July 1840 from Devonport Dockyard. She spent some time with the West Africa Squadron suppressing the slave trade and later with the East Indies Station was involved in operations in Borneo. Iris was the first flagship of the Australia Station between 1859 and 1861 during which time she participated in the First Taranaki War.[2] In 1864 she was extensively modified to allow her to ferry transatlantic telegraph cable to the cable-laying ship Great Eastern. She was decommissioned and sold off in 1869.

  1. ^ a b c d e f Winfield, R.; Lyon, D. (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC 52620555. p. 115
  2. ^ Bastock, p. 27.