HMS Shearwater (1900)

The class was originally designed and built with barque-rigged sails, although some pictures show ships of the class with a barquentine rig. Condor was lost in a gale during her first commission, and the contemporary gunnery pioneer Admiral Percy Scott ascribes her sinking to the encumbrance of sails, and furthermore believed that her loss finally convinced that Admiralty to abandon sails entirely.[4] All other ships of the class had their sails removed during the first few years of the twentieth century.

The class was armed with six 4-inch/25 pdr (1 ton) quick-firing breech loaders and four 3-pounder quick-firing breech loaders.[1] The guns were arranged with two on the forecastle, two amidships and two aft.[3] In 1914, two of her 4-inch guns were landed and used to defend Seymour Narrows in British Columbia after the First World War broke out.[5]

The Condor class had a protective deck of 1–1 ¹⁄₂ in (2.5–3.8 cm) to steel over machinery and boilers.[1] The guns were equipped with gun shields which had .22 in (5.6 mm) armour.[3]

Shearwater was commissioned at Chatham 24 October 1901 by Commander Charles Henry Umfreville, with a complement of 104 officers and men.[6] She left the Nore in early November to relieve Icarus on the Royal Navy's Pacific Station.[7] In July 1902 she toured the Bering Sea,[8] and in November that year she visited Honolulu.[9]

The station itself was suspended in 1905, and the facilities at Esquimalt, British Columbia passed to the Canadian Department of Marine and Fisheries. Shearwater and Algerine remained at Esquimalt, and in 1910 the Naval Service Bill was passed, creating the Royal Canadian Navy. Shearwater recommissioned, still as a Royal Navy vessel, at Esquimalt on 27 November 1912.[10] At the onset of the First World War, Algerine and Shearwater were deployed as part of an international squadron off the coast of Mexico, protecting foreign interests during their civil war. Two German cruisers, SMS Leipzig and SMS Nurnberg were reported on the west coast of North America on 4 August 1914 when news of the war broke. HMCS Rainbow was ordered south to cover their withdrawal to Esquimalt, all ships arriving safely a week later.[11]

HMCS Shearwater c.1918

After arriving at Esquimalt, two of Shearwater's 4-inch guns were taken ashore and used with a shore battery position to defend the Seymour Narrows, while the crew of Shearwater was sent to Halifax, Nova Scotia to man HMCS Niobe, which was short of trained sailors.[5]

After discussions between the Royal Canadian Navy and the Admiralty Shearwater recommissioned on 8 September 1914 as a submarine tender for the Canadian CC-class submarines at Esquimalt.[5] She was transferred permanently in 1915 to the Royal Canadian Navy, becoming HMCS Shearwater.[1]

In 1917 Shearwater escorted the two submarines to Halifax, transiting through the Panama Canal. For the remainder of the war, she saw very limited duty as a Royal Canadian Navy support vessel on the Atlantic coast, mostly spent training with the CC-class submarines in Baddeck Bay.[5][12]

Shearwater was paid off from the Royal Canadian Navy on 13 June 1919. She was sold to the Western Shipping Company in May 1922 and renamed Vedas.[5][13] Her register was closed in 1937.[5]

• Chesneau, Roger; Kolesnik, Eugene M. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1860–1905. New York: Mayflower Books. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
• German, Tony (1990). The Sea is at our Gates: The History of the Canadian Navy. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Incorporated. ISBN 0-7710-3269-2.
• Johnston, William; Rawling, William G.P.; Gimblett, Richard H.; MacFarlane, John (2010). The Seabound Coast: The Official History of the Royal Canadian Navy, 1867–1939. 1. Toronto: Dundurn Press. ISBN 978-1-55488-908-2.
• Macpherson, Ken; Barrie, Ron (2002). The Ships of Canada's Naval Forces 1910–2002 (Third ed.). St. Catharines, Ontario: Vanwell Publishing. ISBN 1-55125-072-1.
• 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.