HMS Rapid (1883)

HMS Rapid was a Satellite-class composite screw sloop of the Royal Navy, built at Devonport Dockyard and launched on 21 March 1883.[3] She was later reclassified as a corvette.

HMS Rapid anchored at Farm Cove, Sydney c. 1888.
History
Name:	HMS Rapid
Builder:	Devonport Dockyard
Laid down:	21 April 1881
Launched:	21 March 1883
Commissioned:	9 September 1884
Renamed:	C7 in 1912 Hart in 1916
Fate:	Hulked in 1906 Converted to a coal hulk in 1912 Accommodation ship in 1916 Sold at Gibraltar in 1948[1]
General characteristics
Class and type:	Satellite-class sloop
Displacement:	1,420 tons
Length:	200 ft (61 m) pp
Beam:	38 ft (12 m)
Draught:	15 ft 9 in (4.80 m)[1]
Installed power:	1,470 ihp (1,096 kW)
Propulsion:	Single horizontal compound-expansion steam engine Single screw[1]
Sail plan:	Barque-rigged
Range:	Approximately 6,000 nmi (11,000 km) at 10 kn (19 km/h)[1]
Complement:	170–200
Armament:	Eight BL 6-inch/100-pounder (81cwt) Mk II guns One light gun Four machine guns[1][2]
Armour:	Internal steel deck over machinery and magazines

Initially on service with the Cape of Good Hope and West Africa Station, Rapid commenced service on the Australia Station in 1886. She was recommissioned three times in Sydney before leaving the Australia Station on 1 December 1897.[3] In March 1902, it was announced that she would be sold out of service owing to defects in her machinery.[4] Six months later, she was instead posted to Gibraltar where she arrived for dockyard work in September 1902.[5] Hulked in 1906, she was converted into a coal hulk in 1912 and was renamed C7. She became an accommodation ship in 1916 and was renamed Hart. She was sold at Gibraltar in 1948.[3]