HMS Urgent (1855)

HMS Urgent was an iron screw troopship of the Royal Navy. She served her later years as a storeship and depot ship based in Jamaica.

Construction and commissioning
Urgent was originally constructed by C. J. Mare, of Blackwall, under the name Assaye. Also being constructed by Mare at this time was a near-sistership to Assaye, the Russian Sobraon. Assaye may have also been being built for Russian owners, as both ships were purchased by the Admiralty in 1854 to serve as auxiliaries in the Crimean War. Assaye was purchased under an Admiralty order dated 13 June 1854, and was launched on 2 April 1855. She completed fitting out for sea at Sheerness Dockyard on 29 September 1855, having by then cost a total of £89,936. She entered service as HMS Urgent, while her near-sister Sobraon was named HMS Perseverance (1854).

Service
From March 1859 she was under the command of Henry William Hire for service in the East Indies and China, and on 20 August 1859 was at Peiho. From July 1864 she was under Samuel Hood Henderson, and was at Portsmouth in 1870.

After service as a troopship, Urgent was moved to Jamaica and to serve as a depot ship, and was commissioned there in her new role on 21 July 1877.

In 1880, her tender was the gunboat HMS Tyrian (1861), which was also used as a tug. From 1880 to 1885, her tender was the schooner HMS Sparrowhawk (1877), which was surveying the area at the time. From February 1878 until 1890 Urgent flew the broad pendant of the Hon. William John Ward, the son of Edward Southwell Ward, 3rd Viscount Bangor. In 1886 Urgent came under the command of Francis Mowbray Prattent, and between September 1889 and 1890 she flew the broad pendant of Rodney Maclaine Lloyd. She finally flew the broad pendant of Daniel M K Riddel from March 1901.

She was sold for scrapping to Butler & Co in June 1903, after the naval establishment was moved ashore.