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HMS Dwarf was launched in 1840 as the mercantile Mermaid. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1843 as the Navy's first screw-propelled vessel. She was broken up in 1853.

Mermaid

Mermaid was an iron vessel built at Blackwall for mercantile use. She was fitted with Bennet Woodcroft's patent varying pitch screw propeller.^[1]

She was of 164 tons, and her mean draught on her trial trip was only 5+1⁄2 feet (1.7 m).^[2]

HMS Dwarf

The British Admiralty purchased Mermaid from J. and G. Rennie, Holland Street, Blackfriars, on 22 June 1843,^[3]^[4] according to Sir George Cockburn's advice, and on the condition that she should steam 12 miles per hour (19 km/h) (7 March 1842). The Navy renamed her HMS Dwarf.

Dwarf underwent trials on 15 May 1843. Over six runs she achieved a mean speed of 12.142 miles.^[5] The results of her extensive propeller trials were published in December 1844.^[6]

Dwarf went on to serve as a tender to HMY Victoria and Albert (1843), she was under the command of Lieutenant Commander Edward Halhead Beauchamp-Proctor^[7] until March 1843, when the vessel was paid off at Woolwich.^[3]

Prince Albert while on board HMY Victoria and Albert at Cowes in October 1844 professed interest in the little screw and came on board with Queen Victoria for a closer look.^[8]

In December 1845, Dwarf was sent to Sheerness to take on the duties of that port's admirals' tender.^[3]

Lieutenant Osborne, when in command of Dwarf on the coast of Ireland in 1848, fitting out in the Portsmouth Basin, heard the cry of "a boy overboard," he immediately plunged in with his full uniform on, including his sword, and saved the boy. A first-class certificate was awarded, and he was strongly recommended to the Parent Society in London.^[9]

Dwarf, while moored in Kingstown Harbour, Ireland, sent an armed boat's crew to Ann Kenney and captured an unrecognised emerald silk flag.^[10]

On 26 September 1849, she was run down by and collided with HMS Trident in the Atlantic Ocean 60 nautical miles (110 km) southeast of the Old Head of Kinsale, County Cork. Dwarf was severely damaged. Her crew were taken off by Trident, which towed her into Kinsale, County Cork for repairs.^[11]

Fate

Dwarf was scrapped in 1853.^[3]

The second screw vessel in the Royal Navy was HMS Bee a paddle vessel, built of wood and launched in 1842 as a tender to the Royal Academy, Portsmouth. Bee had additional screw propulsion fitted in 1844. She was broken up in 1874. Both vessels were purely experimental and never intended for active service.^[12]

Citations

^ Barlow, H. B. "H.M.S Dwarf with Woodcroft's Patent Varying Pitch Screw Propeller 1844". National Maritime Museum. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
^ Chatterton (1911), p. 128.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Loney.
^ "HMS Dwarf (1842); Warship; Sloop; Screw (Full hull model; Rigged model) (SLR0790)". National Maritime Museum. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
^ Catalogue of ship models and marine engineering in the South Kensington Museum: with classified table of contents, and an alphabetical index of exhibitors and subjects. George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1878. p. 19. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
^ Hampshire Telegraph and Naval Chronicle (1844).
^ For more on Edward Halhead Beauchamp-Proctor see: O'Byrne, William R. (1849). "Proctor, Edward Halhed Beauchamp" . A Naval Biographical Dictionary. London: John Murray.
^ "Her Majesty at the Isle of Wight, East Cowes". The Standard. 21 October 1844. p. 3. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
^ "Boy saved". Hampshire Telegraph and Naval Chronicle. 27 January 1849. p. 5. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
^ Waterford Mail (8 June 1849). "HMS Dwarf captures an Irish flag". Glasgow Herald. p. 4. Retrieved 27 February 2019. Capture of an Irish Flag. The Ann Kenney, now lying in the river, receiving passengers for Quebec, had a gaudy-looking green ensign flying from her topmast, with a union on one corner, and a harp, without a crown, on the field of the flag. An officer from HMS the Dwarf, with a boat's crew, armed, proceeded on board the Ann Kenney, and made capture of the unrecognised emerald silk. Waterford Mail.
^ "Collision at Sea, Between HMS Trident and Dwarf". Daily News. 3 October 1849. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
^ Smith (1938), p. 72.

References

Chatterton, E. Kebble (1911). The Romance Of The Ship; the story of her origin and evolution. J. B. Lippincott, Philadelphia. Seeley and co, limited, London. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
"Result of the propeller trials are published". Hampshire Telegraph and Naval Chronicle. 28 December 1844. p. 4. Retrieved 27 February 2019. The recent trials of H.M. Steamer Dwarf having been made with the view of determining the relative merits of the different propellers suggested by Messrs. Kennie, Stemman, and Smith, we now have it in our power to give the results in the order that they were tried viz. Steinman, 9.457 miles per hour; Rennie, 9.612; Smith, 9.823. In each case the speed appears to be much the same, as indeed it might be expected from the circumstances of each propeller having precisely the same principle, varying only in a slight degree as regards form and number of threads; that of Mr. Steinman being with four threads, that of Kennie three threads that of Smith's, two threads, which is by far the lightest and most compact of any. We are Informed that the two threaded screw is a model of the one that has proved so successful in H.M. Ship Rattler, at Woolwich in which vessel upwards of twenty trials have been made in order to ascertain the best forms of screw prior to its general adoption. in the Royal Navy. The recent trial or the Great Britain, at Bristol, which is also fitted with Mr. Smith's screw, must, we should think, have removed all doubts as to the fitness of the screw propeller for any class of vessels, however large, and we hope soon to see the principle applied as auxiliary to our line of battle ships, whereby they, according to the opinion of most naval men, would be rendered doubly effective under general circumstances.
Loney, William. "Dwarf". pdavis.nl. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
Smith, Edgar C. (1938). A Short History of Naval and Marine Engineering. Cambridge at the University Press. ISBN 9781107672932. Retrieved 27 February 2019.