HMSKingfisher
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMSKingfisher
Builder	Sheerness Royal Dockyard
Cost	Hull £39,300, machinery £11,850[1]
Laid down	23 September 1878
Launched	16 December 1879
Commissioned	17 August 1880
Fate	Training ship 1892 RenamedLark RenamedCruizer 1893 Sold 1919[1]
General characteristics
Class and type	Doterel-class screw compositesloop[1]
Displacement	1,130 tons[2]
Length	170 ft (52 m)[2]
Beam	36 ft (11 m)[2]
Draught	15 ft 9 in (4.80 m)[1]
Installed power	1,090indicated horsepower
Propulsion	Two-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine 3 × cylindrical boilers 1 × 13 ft 1 in (3.99 m) screw
Sail plan	Barque rigged
Speed	11.6 kn (21.5 km/h)[1]
Range	1,480 nmi (2,740 km) at 10 kn (19 km/h)[1]
Complement	140
Armament	2 ×7-inch (90cwt) muzzle-loading rifled guns 4 ×64-pounder guns 4 × machine guns 1 × light gun

HMSKingfisher was aDoterel-class screwsloop of theRoyal Navy. She was built atSheerness Dockyard and launched on 16 December 1879. She conducted anti-slavery work in the East Indies in the late 1880s before being re-roled as a training cruiser, being renamed HMSLark on 10 November 1892, and then HMSCruizer^[a] on 18 May 1893. She was sold in 1919.

TheDoterel class were a development of theOsprey-class sloops and were of composite construction, with wooden hulls over an iron frame. The original 1874 design by theChief Constructor,William Henry White was revised in 1877 bySir Nathaniel Barnaby and nine were ordered. Of 1,130 tons displacement and approximately 1,100indicated horsepower, they were capable of approximately 11 knots and were armed with two7-inch muzzle loading rifled guns on pivoting mounts, and four64-pound guns (two on pivoting mounts, and two broadside). They had a complement of approximately 140 men.

Kingfisher was laid down atSheerness Royal Dockyard in 1878 and launched on 16 December 1879.^[1] She was commissioned on 17 August 1880,^[1] and was classified as both a sloop of war and as a colonial cruiser. She was capable of attaining nearly 12knots (22 km/h) under full steam or 15 knots under sail.

The primary purpose of ships of theKingfisher's class was to maintainBritish naval dominance through trade protection, anti-slavery, and long-term surveying.

Kingfisher served on theEast Indies andPacific Stations. She recommissioned at Bombay on 8 Apr 1888.^[5] Much of her time was spent conducting anti-slavery patrols out ofZanzibar.

She was re-classified as a training ship on 10 November 1892, being renamedLark.^[1] She was renamedCruizer on 18 May 1893.^[1]

In June 1902 she served in theMediterranean under the command of CommanderFrancis William Kennedy.^[6] In 1913, she was serving as an accommodation ship atMalta.^[4]

She was sold in 1919.^[1]

• Media related toHMS Kingfisher (ship, 1879) at Wikimedia Commons
• Dittmar, F.J.; Colledge, J.J. (1972).British Warships 1914–1919. Shepperton, UK: Ian Allan.ISBN 0-7110-0380-7.
• Preston, Antony; Major, John (2007).Send a Gunboat: The Victorian Navy and Supremacy at Sea, 1854–1904 (2nd ed.). London: Conway.ISBN 978-0-85177-923-2.
• 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.OCLC 52620555.

• Doterel-class sloops
• Ships built in Sheerness
• 1879 ships
• Victorian-era sloops of the United Kingdom

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from December 2016
• Use British English from December 2016
• Commons category link is on Wikidata