HMS Lion (1847)


HMS Lion was a 80-gun second rate ship of the line built for the Royal Navy in the 1840s. She was fitted with steam propulsion in 1858–1859. In 1871 Lion was converted into a training ship at HM Dockyard, Devonport. The ship was sold for scrap in 1905.

Description

The Vanguard class was designed by Sir William Symonds, Surveyor of the Navy, with each ship built with a slightly different hull shape to evaluate their speed and handling characteristics. Lion had a length at the gundeck of and at the keel. She had a beam of, a draught of and a depth of hold of. The ship's tonnage was 2,589 tons burthen. The Vanguards had a wartime crew of 720 officers and ratings.
The Vanguard class ships of the line were armed with twenty 32-pounder cannon and two 68-pounder carronades on her lower gundeck, twenty-eight 32-pounder cannon and another pair of 68-pounder carronades on the upper gundeck. On her quarterdeck were fourteen 32-pounder cannon and on the forecastle deck were eight more 32-pounder cannon.

Modifications

When Lion was ordered to be modified for steam propulsion in 1856, she was fitted with a two-cylinder horizontal trunk steam engine of 400 nominal horsepower that drove a single propeller shaft. On trials the engine produced which gave the ship a speed of.

Construction and career

Lion was ordered from Pembroke Dockyard on 18 March 1840 and laid down the following July. She was launched on 29 July 1847 and completed on 26 September. The ship was not fitted out and Lion was placed in ordinary. Her construction cost £59,113. Between February 1858 and May 1859, she was fitted with steam propulsion.
Lion was sold for scrap on 19 March 1870.

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