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H.M.S. 'SURPRISE'

Built by:Money Wigram & Son's, at Blackwall.
Yard No.
Launched:6th March 1856 (Delay in building by cessation of hostilities)
Tonnage:680 BM
Length:181 . 0 feet
Breadth:28 . 2 1/2 feet.
Depth:8 feet (Depth in Hold 13 . 11 feet)
Machinery:Built by Ravenhill at Woolwich.
Draught in water 8 . o x 11 . 0 aft (light) 11 . 0 x 11 . 11 1/2.
2 cyls. 45" dia. Stoke 2' . 0". 93 rev per min. Propeller Dia 11 . 0. Pitch 16' . 0".
Single-screw reciprocating, 200 h.p. (nom) 640 - 770 h.p. (ind). 11 knots.
Decks:
Built of:Wood
Type:Vigilant Class Screw Gunboat.
Registered:
Off Number:
Built for:H.M. Government.
Other info:Complement= 90 officers and ratings.
Cost £14,000.
This class of vessels have not the speed. Propeller blade not in water, upper blade out of water (1864).
Armament = 2 x 68 pounders 2 x 32 pounders
History:19th & 26th July 1855 Ordered to be built at £21 per ton.
20th July 1855. Laid Down.
7th March 1856. Conveyed to the East India Dock to be rigged and Fitted for service. Cost £20,683.
18th March 1856. Commanded by Commander Charles Egerton Harcourt-Vernon.
23rd April 1856. Present at Fleet Review, Spithead.
11th March 1857. Commanded by Commander Samuel Gurney Cresswell, East Indies Station.
4th May 1857. Sailed from England for anti-slavery duties on the West Coast of Africa from when she appears to have been sent to serve on the Coast of China where the Second China War was brewing-up.
13th November 1857. Arrived at Hongkong, from Plymouth, for use as a despatch steamer.
15th January 1858. At Amoy.
30th March 1858. At Shanghai.
5th May 1858. At the Gulf of Pechelee.
20th May 1858. Capture of the Forts at the Mouth of the Pel Ho.
23rd May 1858. At Shanghai.
22nd June 1858. At Ningpo.
6th July 1858. At the Gulf of Pechelee.
24th August 1858. At Hongkong.
11th September 1858. Sailed from Hongkong.
21st January 1859. At the Cape of Good Hope and was to sail for Loando as soon as possible.
21st May 1859. At Sierra Leone.
19th June 1859. At Sierra Leone.
21st July 1859. Up the River Gambia.
21st October 1859. The smallpox and yellow fever have quite disappeared from the Sierra Leone and business was improving. Vessel still in port.
12th April 1860. Arrived in England from the West Coast of Africa.
2nd August 1861. Commanded by Commander William Henry Whyte, Mediterranean Station.
2nd July 1862. At Sheerness.
August 1864. Commanded by Commander George Tryon, Mediterranean Station.
24th April 1866. Paid off at Plymouth.
30th November 1866. Broken up by J & E Marshall of Plymouth.



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