HMS Reynard (1848)

The ship's company of Reynard on a raft, with the ship aground behind them near Pratas Island in 1851
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Reynard
Ordered	25 April 1847 Re-ordered 12 August 1847
Builder	Deptford dockyard
Cost	£10,262 (hull) £8,625 (machinery and fitting)
Laid down	August 1847
Launched	21 March 1848
Commissioned	4 July 1848
Fate	Wrecked 31 May 1851
General characteristics
Type	Screw sloop
Displacement	656 tons
Tons burthen	516 37/94 bm
Length	147 ft 0 in (44.8 m) gundeck 128 ft 4+1⁄2 in (39.1 m) keel for tonnage
Beam	27 ft 10 in (8.5 m) maximum, 27 ft 6 in (8.4 m) for tonnage
Draught	11 ft 6 in (3.5 m) mean
Depth of hold	14 ft 6 in (4.4 m)
Installed power	60 nominal horsepower 165 ihp (123 kW)
Propulsion	2-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine Single screw
Speed	8.2 kn (15.2 km/h) under power
Complement	100
Armament	8 guns: 2 × 32-pdr (56cwt) muzzle-loading smooth-bore guns 6 × 32-pdr (25cwt) muzzle-loading smooth-bore guns

HMS Reynard was part of the 1847 Program, she was ordered on 25 April as a steam schooner from Deptford Dockyard with the name ‘Plumper’.^[1] The vessel was reordered on 12 August as an 8-gun sloop as designed by John Edye. She was launched in 1848, conducted anti-piracy work in Chinese waters and was wrecked near Pratas Island in the South China Sea on 31 May 1851.^[2]

Reynard was the seventh named vessel (spelt Renard or Reynard) since it was introduced for a 18-gun sloop captured from the French on May 1780 by HMS Brune in the West Indies and broken in 1784.^[3]