HMS Wasp (1880)

HMS Wasp was a Banterer-class composite screw gunboat of the Royal Navy, built in 1880 by Barrow Iron Shipbuilding and wrecked off Tory Island in 1884.

Design
The Banterer class was designed by Nathaniel Barnaby, the Admiralty Director of Naval Construction. They were of composite construction, meaning that the iron keel, frames, stem and stern posts were of iron, while the hull was planked with timber. This had the advantage of allowing the vessels to be coppered, thus keeping marine growth under control, a problem that caused iron-hulled ships to be frequently docked. They were 125 ft in length and displaced 465 tonnes. In appearance they were distinguishable from the preceding Foresters (also a Barnaby design) by their vertical stems.

Propulsion
A two-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine by the builder, Barrow Iron Shipbuilding, provided 360 indicated horsepower through a single screw, sufficient to drive Wasp at 9.5 kn.

Armament
Ships of the class were armed with two 6-inch 64-pounder muzzle-loading rifles (a conversion of the smoothbore 32-pounder 58 cwt gun) and two 4-inch 20-pounder breech loading guns. A pair of machine guns were also fitted.

Construction
Her keel was laid at Barrow Iron Shipbuilding as yard number 71 and she was launched on 5 October 1880. She was rigged with three masts, making her a barquentine-rigged vessel.

Career
Wasp was commissioned on 1 December 1881.

Fate
On her final voyage Wasp, under the command of Lieutenant J D Nicholls, was sailing from Westport, County Mayo to Moville, County Donegal to pick up a party of police, bailiffs and court officials. These were to be transported to Inishtrahull Island off Malin Head to carry out evictions for non-payment of rents. The same ship had delivered urgently needed supplies of seed potatoes to the same islanders the previous year. The ship struck rocks off Tory Island on 22 September 1884, and sank with a loss of 52 lives. The wreck was sold to the Cornish Salvage Co. in November 1910.