HMS Driver (1840)

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

HMS Driver
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Driver
Ordered12 March 1840
BuilderPortsmouth Dockyard
Cost£39,707
Laid downJune 1840
Launched24 December 1840
Commissioned5 November 1841
FateWrecked on 3 August 1861
General characteristics [1]
Class and typeDriver-class wooden paddle sloop
Displacement1,590 tons
Tons burthen1,055 62/94 bm
Length180 ft (54.9 m) (gundeck)
Beam36 ft (11.0 m)
Depth of hold21 ft (6.4 m)
Installed power280 nhp
Propulsion
  • Seaward & Capel 2-cylinder direct-acting steam engine
  • Paddles
Sail planBrig-rigged
Complement149 (later 160)
Armament
  • As built:
  • 2 × 10-inch/42-pounder (84 cwt) pivot guns
  • 2 × 68-pounder guns (64 cwt)
  • 2 × 42-pounder (22 cwt) guns
  • After 1856:
  • 1 × 110 pdr Armstrong gun
  • 1 × 68-pounder (95 cwt) gun
  • 4 × 32-pounder (42 cwt) guns

HMS Driver was a Driver-class wooden paddle sloop of the Royal Navy. She is credited with the first global circumnavigation by a steamship when she arrived back in England on 14 May 1847.[2][3]

  1. ^ Winfield (2014), p. 160.
  2. ^ History Channel: This day in history - May 14 Archived 13 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ "Arrival Of The Driver Steam-Sloop From New Zealand". London Standard. p. 4 – via British Newspaper Archive.