# HMS Harrier



## dartmouth_green (May 20, 2009)

Hi can anybody help me please.

My dad is just about to celebrate his 95th birthday, and his dad served on HMS Harrier we believe she was a sloop, info is very sketchy. But we would love to be able to print a picture of my grandad's ship for my dads birthday. any help you can offer would be much appreciated we guess he was on the ship around 1875-1890. we have tried all over the web with no joy please can you help.


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## Steve Woodward (Sep 4, 2006)

Harrier was a Halcyon class Minesweeper - although they performed far more duties than that for wich they were designed, the Halcyon class are well presented on the internet and Harrier better than most ; CLICK HERE to find out all about this little ship, I need add nothing further it is all on her website.
Give your Grandfather our vey best wishes on his birthday

Steve


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## dartmouth_green (May 20, 2009)

Thankyou for your reply but the ship I am looking for was built I believe around 1881 approx, on the site you recomended I could'nt find any that early, please correct me if i'm wrong.


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## Steve Woodward (Sep 4, 2006)

Ok,
My appologies I missed the date reference
you must then be looking for details of the 7th Harrier ( there have been eight) she was built in 1894 by Devonport Royal Dockyard she was a halcyon class Torpedo gunboat - halcyon was I believe intended to be the first completed but instead the Dryad was completed first and sometimes the class are referrred to as the Dryads.
A photo of Harrier appears on THIS WEBSITE click and open , the class is quite well down the page, this site does sell copies of these images

The type torpedo gunboat preceedes destroyers and the Dryads were built just before the first 'torpedo boat destroyer' was buolt, this new design quite out-classed the torpedo gunboat which then rapidly disappeared from the scene.
The Dryad class looked a little odd with two very widely spaced funnels and were simply a follow on of the Alarm class with a few minor modifications.
Harrier as mention was built by Devonport and was laid down on the 21st jan 1993, launched on the 20th feb 1894 and comissioned in february 1895, in 1914 most of the class were converted to minesweepers, Harrier included, she continued in that service throughout WW1.
L 262'06" B 30'06" Draft 11'06" at standard displacement 1,070 tons and a little over 13' full loaded at about 1350 tons
Machinery : twin screw, tripple expansion steam engines, four locomotive type boilers, 2,500 ihp on normal draft giving 16 knots and 3,500 ihp on forced draft for 18.2 knots. The locomotive boilers were troublesome and not a good design causing a frequent loss of speed.
Armament ( as Built) five 18" above water torpedo tubes with 7 torpedoes.
two 4.7" Mk5 C45 guns firing a 45lb shell to a range of 12,000 yards suing a propellant charge of a little under 9lbs, a good crew could fire 10 rounds a minute with this gun, four 6 pounder mk1 Hotchkiss guns, these fired a 6 pound shell to 9,000 yards and could be used against surface or aircraft targets, and a single Nordenfelt 5 barrel machine gun 
Crew 120 when new but would have been a little larger as a minesweeper - two torpedo tubes were removed for the conversion 
Harrier spent a fair bit of her time in the Mediterranean as a new ship, about 1905-6 she became a fisheries protection vessel and from this became the wartime minesweeper 
Post war Harrier may have been a navigation training ship before being sold into commercial use in 1921 - what became of her then is un-doc***ented but someone may well know.
Another image of her is HERE
Steve


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## ian d.cameron (Jul 3, 2005)

Hi Steve and dartmouth_green.
There appears to have been a HMS Harrier build in 1881, a two gun Schooner sold in 1888. but apart from that, nothing on her.
Regards
Ian


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## danube4 (Aug 20, 2005)

ian d.cameron said:


> Hi Steve and dartmouth_green.
> There appears to have been a HMS Harrier build in 1881, a two gun Schooner sold in 1888. but apart from that, nothing on her.
> Regards
> Ian


Dartmouth_Green, could this be what your looking for.

The seventh “HARRIER” was a wood built schooner yatch, specially purchased for £2874 in 1881 for the suppression of the East African slave traffic. She had been built at Cowes in 1872. She became of 190 tons after fitting out, and her length and beam were 92ft. and 19ft. In 1888, after some service on the Australian station, the “Harrier” was sold at Sydney to the London Missionary Society for £1200. The eighth “HARRIER” is a 2-gun twin-screw gunboat, launched at Devonport in 1894. She is of 1070 tons, 3500 horse- power, and 19 knots speed. Her length, beam, and draught are 250ft., 30ft., and 9ft. This vessel became a sea-going tender to the Portsmouth Navigation School. 

PORT BOW VIEW OF THE SCHOONER HMS HARRIER WHICH UNDERTOOK SURVEY WORK AND OTHER GENERAL DUTIES ON THE AUSTRALIA STATION. (NAVAL HISTORICAL COLLECTION


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## dartmouth_green (May 20, 2009)

*Thankyou*

(==D) Thankyou all so much for your help, it has helpped me a great deal, I have found the history of ships very interesting the more research I do.


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## Richard Maskiell (Apr 4, 2007)

The Harrier that was sold in Sydney in 1888 appears to be the vessel registered at Sydney in 1888, ON 93575, schooner of 120 tons and 93.4 x 18.6 feet, described as built in 1876 at Cowes. She was wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef near Cooktown in north Queensland on 24.7.1891.


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