HMS Pioneer (1856)

HMS Pioneer was a 4-gun Intrepid-class gunvessel launched on 19 January 1856 from the Pembroke Dockyard.[2] She saw active service in China and was decommissioned in 1864.

History
Name:	HMS Pioneer
Ordered:	18 April 1855
Builder:	Pembroke Dockyard
Laid down:	July 1855
Launched:	19 January 1856
Commissioned:	31 May 1856
Decommissioned:	October 1864
Fate:	Sold for breaking up at Plymouth in 1865
General characteristics
Class and type:	Intrepid-class gunvessel
Displacement:	868 49/94 bm
Length:	200 ft (61 m) pp
Beam:	30 ft 4 in (9.25 m)
Depth of hold:	14 ft 6 in (4.42 m)
Installed power:	1,150 ihp (860 kW)[1]
Propulsion:	2-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine Single screw
Sail plan:	Barque
Speed:	11.3 knots (20.9 km/h)
Complement:	100
Armament:	As built: 1 × 68-pounder muzzle-loading rifle 4 × 32-pounder (25cwt) muzzle-loading smoothbore guns Later: 1 × 7-inch/110-pounder breech loader 1 × 40-pounder breech loader 4 × 20 pounder breech loaders[1]

Service history

She was commissioned to the North America and West Indies Station before serving as part of the Channel Squadron.[3] She was then assigned to the East Indies Station and China Station where she participated in the Taiping Rebellion. She was then assigned to the Australia Station in 1862 serving until 1863.[4]

Map showing her part in the Invasion of the Waikato in New Zealand

Fate

Upon returning to Plymouth, she was sold to Marshall in October 1864 for breaking in 1865.[1]

Named in her honour

The Queensland Governor, George Bowen, named the Pioneer River in Queensland, Australia after the ship in which he visited the river in 1862.[5]

References

1. Winfield (2008) p.220-221
2. Bastock, p.32.
3. "HMS Pioneer". Archived from the original on 26 May 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
4. Bastock, p.33.
5. "Pioneer River (entry 26973)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government. Retrieved 4 January 2016.