HMS Miranda (1851)

HMS Miranda was a 14-gun (15-gun from 1856) wooden screw sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1851 and sold for breaking in 1869. Two of her crew were awarded the Victoria Cross for their bravery during the Crimean War.

Design
Ordered on 25 April 1847 as HMS Grinder, she was re-ordered on 3 November 1847 under the new name of Miranda to a design by the Admiralty under the direction of Lord John Hay. This Admiralty design was a modification of the Royal Navy's first screw sloop, HMS Rattler (1843). Originally classified as a sloop, she was reclassified as a corvette by 1862.

Propulsion
She was designed with a two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion geared steam engine developing an indicated 613 hp and driving a single screw. This was sufficient to achieve 10.75 kn under engines alone. Her machinery was provided by Robert Napier and Sons at a cost of £14,235.

Sail plan
The pictorial record shows Miranda with a full ship rig in 1862, which makes it likely that she carried this rig for her entire life.

Armament
Originally built with fourteen 32-pounder (42cwt) carriage guns in a broadside arrangement, a further 68-pdr (87cwt) pivot gun was added in 1856.

Construction
Miranda was laid down at Sheerness Royal Dockyard in September 1848 and launched on 18 March 1851. She commissioned at Sheerness on 25 February 1854.

History
During the Russian War Miranda served in the Baltic and White Sea in 1854 and in the Sea of Azov in 1855. From 1860 until 1865 she served on the Australia Station, taking part in the New Zealand land wars.

The Russian War (1854 - 1856)
In the autumn 1854, a squadron of three British warships led by Miranda left the Baltic for the White Sea, where they shelled and destroyed Kola. An attempt to storm Arkhangelsk proved abortive, as was the siege of Petropavlovsk in Kamchatka. While the Anglo-French naval squadron successfully shelled the town, a landing of 800 sailors and marines was repulsed.

On 3 June 1855 at Siege of Taganrog on Sea of Azov, Boatswain Henry Cooper and Lieutenant Cecil William Buckley of Miranda landed destroying equipment and setting fire to government buildings. This despite the town being under bombardment and garrisoned by 3,000 Russian troops. For this action the pair were awarded the Victoria Cross. Captain Edmund Moubray Lyons of Miranda reported on 29 May 1855 that in the first four days of the squadron entering the Sea of Azov, the enemy had lost four steamers of war, 246 merchant vessels, together with corn and flour magazines to the value of at least £150,000.

She decommissioned on 21 April 1857 at Sheerness.

Australia and New Zealand
Miranda recommissioned at Sheerness on 4 October 1860 for the Australia Station. During the early 1860s she took part in the New Zealand Wars, and returned to Sheerness to decommission on 3 June 1865.

Disposal
Miranda was sold for breaking to C Lewis on 2 December 1869.