HMS Encounter was an early wooden screw sloop of the Royal Navy. She was ordered as one of a pair of Encounter-class sloops in 1845, but her sister-ship, Harrier, was suspended six months after the order, and cancelled in 1851. Encounter had her armament radically altered in 1850 and she was broken up at Devonport in 1866.
Design and construction
Encounter was designed by the master shipwright of Portsmouth Dockyard, John Fincham, in 1844 and was ordered from Pembroke Dockyard on 5 February 1845. Harrier, a second vessel to the same design, was ordered on 26 March 1846 but was suspended in September the same year and cancelled in 1851. Built with a traditional wooden construction, Encounter was lengthened at Deptford Dockyard before commissioning. She was fitted with a John Penn and Sons 2-cylinder horizontal single-expansion trunk steam engine driving a single screw. Her engine was rated at 360 nominal horsepower and developed, giving a maximum speed of. She was equipped with a full sailing rig. She was armed with one 56-pounder gun, one 10-inch gun, four 8-inch/68-pounder guns and two 32-pounder carronades. By 1850 these had been changed for a homogeneous armament of twelve 32-pounder muzzle-loading smoothbore guns, and another pair of weapons were added in 1856.
The Royal Navy ran a series of "Experimental Squadrons" during the 1830, and 1840s, with Encounter taking part in the 1851 event. The intention was to trial different types of vessel in a variety of sea and wind conditions, with the aim of building experience of the comparative characteristics of new ships.
1853 Naval Review
The port line of the 1853 Naval Review was led by the brand new 91-gun ship-of-the line , with Encounter taking seventh place. Queen Victoria, embarked in the yacht Fairy, inspected the ships as she passed between the port and starboard lines on the afternoon of 10 August 1853 on her way to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.
Deployed to Chinese waters, Encounter took part in April 1854 in joint British-American operations against Chinese imperial troops in Shanghai with and. Imperial Chinese troops had begun assaulting foreigners, sacking warehouses and exacting tolls on boats sailing up and down the Huangpu River. On 3 April two British citizens were accosted by sword-wielding soldiers, and the British and US ships resolved to drive off the Chinese troops. Sixty US sailors and marines and 30 sailors from American merchant ships moved against the left flank of the Chinese entrenchments, while a force of 150 British sailors and marines, and additional "Shanghai volunteers," attacked on the right. Supported by gunfire from two privately owned field pieces and a howitzer, the Allied force routed the Chinese defenders, who "fled in great disorder, leaving behind them a number of wounded and dead." From September to mid-October 1854, Encounter was part of a squadron of four ships led by vice admiralSir James Stirling. With the start of the Crimean War, Stirling was anxious to prevent Russian ships from sheltering in Japanese ports and menacing allied shipping and led the squadron to Nagasaki where he concluded the Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty with representatives of the Tokugawa shogunate. On 3 November 1854 Encounters boats took part in attacks on pirates in the Macao River. Ten days later her boats attacked and captured a shore battery and destroyed junks in Coulan Bay.
Crimean War
The eastern theatre of the Crimean War saw British ships attacking Russian possessions in the Far East. On 1 June 1855 a squadron consisting ofEncounter,,,, and the French frigate Alceste entered the harbour of Petropalovsk. They discovered that the Russian ships had sailed for the River Amur. On 3 June, Encounter, Barracouta and Pique sent armed boats to Rakouina Harbour to capture the Russian whaler Aian. On 7–8 June, the same three ships destroyed the batteries and magazines at Petropalovsk.
On 7 October 1856, Encounter assisted in the refloating of the British merchant shipInchinnan, which had been driven ashore at Shanghai on 4 September. The Second Opium War broke out on 8 October. Encounter was sent from Hong Kong up the Pearl River to Canton and on 27 October opened fire on selected targets in the city. On 12–13 November she took part in the bombardment and capture of the Bogue forts. On 4 December she took part in the capture of the French folly fort. British forces withdrew from Canton on 8 January 1857. A Parliamentary grant of £33,000 was given to be shared between 56 ships for services on the China Station between 1856 and 1858, in which the ship's company of Encounter shared.
Refit and return to China
Between February 1858 and September 1859 she refitted in Devonport, and on commissioning escorted the gunboats and to China via Madeira, Rio de Janeiro and Singapore. Between 11 May and 15 December 1862 Encounters commanding officer, Captain Roderick Dew, in charge of a squadron of French and English gunboats supported Chinese troops in action against rebel and pirate forces attacking the treaty ports. On 21 July 1864 Encounter arrived at Plymouth Sound. She paid off for the last time on 3 August 1864.
