HMS Wallaroo

HMS Wallaroo was a Pearl-class cruiser built for the Royal Navy, originally named HMS Persian, built by Armstrong Whitworth, Elswick, Tyne and Wear and launched on 5 February 1890.[2]

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Persian.
HMS Wallaroo c. 1902.
History
United Kingdom
Name:
  • HMS Persian (1890)
  • HMS Wallaroo (1890–1906, 1920)
  • HMS Wallington (1919–1920)
Builder: Armstrong Whitworth, Elswick, Tyne and Wear
Laid down: 15 August 1888
Launched: 5 February 1890
Completed: 27 January 1891
Fate: Sold for scrap, February 1920
General characteristics
Class and type: Pearl-class cruiser
Displacement: 2,575 tons
Length:
  • 278 ft (84.7 m) (oa)
  • 265 ft (80.8 m) (pp)[1]
Beam: 41 ft (12 m)[1]
Draught: 15 ft 6 in (4.7 m)
Installed power:
Propulsion: 2 × screws; 2 × 3-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines[1]
Speed: 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph)
Complement: 210
Armament:
Armour:

Renamed on 2 April 1890, as Wallaroo as part of the Auxiliary Squadron of the Australia Station. She arrived in Sydney with the squadron on 5 September 1891.[2] She was placed into reserve upon arrival until 9 May 1894. She was sent to serve in China during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. On 6 January 1904 while sailing off Montague Island, one of her boilers exploded killing four and wounding three. She left the Australia Station on 11 January 1906.[2]

She was attached to HMS Indus as a training ship for mechanics at Devonport.[2] She became a guard ship at Chatham in November 1914.[3] She was then stationed off Brightlingsea, Essex, as the base ship for the boom and net-protected Swin Anchorage, returning to Chatham in 1916. Her captain was then Cdr Ingham, with Rear-Admiral Charles Napier as overall commander of the Brightlingsea naval base also named "Wallaroo". She was often overflown by raiding Zeppelins and once fired on one. She was renamed HMS Wallington in March 1919.[4] She was sold in 1920, as Wallaroo to G. Sharpe for breaking up.[2]

A Pearl-class cruiser from Brassey's Naval Annual, 1897

Notes
  1. Winfield, p. 276
  2. Bastock 1988, pp. 103–104.
  3. Osborne, Mike (2017). If the Kaiser Comes – Defence Against A German Invasion of Britain in the First World War. England: Fonthill Media Limited. p. 96. ISBN 9781781555750.
  4. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1906–1921, p. 14

References
  • Bastock, John (1988). Ships on the Australia Station. Frenchs Forest, Australia: Child & Associates. ISBN 0-86777-348-0.
  • Brook, Peter (1999). Warships for Export: Armstrong Warships 1867–1927. Gravesend, Kent, UK: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-89-4.
  • Gardiner, Robert, ed. Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships, 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1985. ISBN 0-87021-907-3.
  • 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.


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