HMS Ringdove (1889)

HMS Sparrow, sister-ship to HMS Ringdove
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Ringdove
Builder:	Devonport Dockyard
Laid down:	1 June 1888
Launched:	30 April 1889
Fate:	Sold in 1920
General characteristics [1]
Class & type:	Redbreast-class gunboat
Displacement:	805 tons
Length:	165 ft 0 in (50.3 m) pp
Beam:	31 ft 0 in (9.4 m)
Draught:	11 ft 0 in (3.4 m) min, 13 ft 9 in (4.2 m) max
Installed power:	1,200 ihp (890 kW)
Propulsion:	Triple-expansion steam engine 2 × boilers Single screw
Speed:	13 kn (24 km/h)
Range:	2,500 nmi (4,600 km) at 10 kn (19 km/h)
Complement:	76
Armament:	6 × 4-inch/25-pounder QF guns 4 × machine guns

HMS Ringdove was a Redbreast-class gunboat of the Royal Navy, built at Devonport Dockyard and launched on 30 April 1889.^[2]

She commenced service on the Australia Station on 5 March 1890, under the command of R. F. Ayscough.^[2] She left the Australia Station in February 1901 and returned to England, where she was paid of at Devonport 10 June 1901 and placed in the fleet reserve to be refit at Haulbowline.^[3] She became a tender to HMS Vernon and was converted into a salvage vessel in 1915 and was renamed HMS Melita.^[2]

Fate

She was sold to the Ship Salvage Corporation on 22 January 1920^[1] and renamed Telima. She was broken up in 1926.

Citations

1. Winfield (2004) p.300
2. Bastock, p.114.
3. "Naval & Military intelligence" The Times (London). Tuesday, 11 June 1901. (36478), p. 10.

References

• Bastock, John (1988), Ships on the Australia Station, Child & Associates Publishing Pty Ltd; Frenchs Forest, Australia. ISBN 0-86777-348-0
• Winfield, Rif & Lyon, David (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. OCLC 52620555.