HMS Growler (1841)

HMS Growler was a paddle-driven Driver-class sloop, built in 1841 and broken up in 1854. In 1847 she carried liberated Africans to Sierra Leone for resettlement.

Sister-ship, HMS Driver
History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Growler
Builder: Chatham Dockyard[1]
Cost: £39,461[1]
Laid down: January 1841[1]
Launched: 20 July 18411[1]
Commissioned: 9 March 1842[1]
Fate: Broken up at Portsmouth by January 1854[1]
General characteristics [1]
Class and type: Driver-class wooden paddle sloop
Displacement: 1,590 tons
Tons burthen: 1,055 ​62⁄94 bm
Length: 180 ft (54.9 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 36 ft (11.0 m)
Depth of hold: 21 ft (6.4 m)
Installed power: 280 nhp
Propulsion:
  • Seaward & Capel 2-cylinder direct-acting steam engine
  • Paddles
Sail plan: Brig-rigged
Complement: 149 (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

Construction and commissioning

Growler was ordered under PW1840 along with other Driver-class paddle sloops,[2] laid down at Chatham Dockyard and launched on 20 July 1841.[1] She was completed at Chatham and commissioned on 9 March 1842.[1][3]

Service history

On 31 March 1842, Growler was assigned to the South East Coast of America Station to combat the slave trade.[4] She was re-assigned to the West Africa Squadron in September 1844.[3] In February 1845 she took part in Commodore William Jones's destruction of several barracoons at Dombocorro and elsewhere.[5]

The ship was involved in a scheme to relocate liberated Africans from Sierra Leone to the Caribbean, arriving in Trinidad in December 1847.[6] 150 men, 37 women and 254 children former captives survived the journey, although 45 Africans died on the journey.[7]

Fate

Growler was broken up at Portsmouth, which was completed by 17 January 1854.[1]

References
  • 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.
  1. Winfield (2004), p.160
  2. Friedman, Norman (2012). British Cruisers of the Victorian Era. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 9781473853126. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  3. "HMS Growler". www.pbenyon.plus.com. pbenyon.plus.com. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  4. "HMS Growler at the William Loney R.N. website". Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  5. "Commodore Jones' destruction of the barracoons at Dombocorro and elsewhere in February 1845 (3: Jones' report of a subsequent conference with the Chiefs) at the Loney R.N. website". Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  6. Adderley, Rosanne Marion (2006). "New Negroes from Africa": Slave Trade Abolition and Free African Settlement in the Nineteenth-century Caribbean. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253347033. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  7. Charles Day, Williams (1852). Five Years' Residence in the West Indies Vol. 1. Colburn and co. Retrieved 9 November 2018.


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