HMS Gannet (1879) and the Chatham Dockyard, England

The Chathan Historic Dockyard was a major Royal Navy shipyard on the Medway, in Kent, to the east of London. It was here that the HMS Victory was built and fitted out in the late 1700s. The dockyard continued in use by the Royal Navy until the 1984. It has since become an extensive open air museum.

A view of Chatham Dockyard in 1785 by Joseph Farrington


One of the major exhibits at Chatham is the sloop, HMS Gannet of 1879. HMS Gannet was an Osprey/Dotterel class sloop, designed for overseas colonial service. These light 'cruisers' were unarmoured and only lightly armed and were intended for police actions, defence of trade and, in the event of war, cruiser warfare against foreign merchantmen. HMS Gannet was commissioned in April 1879 and dispatched to Panama for Pacific service. She observed the Chilean - Bolivian nitrate war later the same year, before conducting a four year tour around the Pacific, returning to the UK in 1883, where she was paid off and placed in reserve.

After a refit and modernization HMS Gannet was despatched to the Mediterranean in 1885. From there she travelled through the Suez to take up station off the coast of Sudan, where she was involved in anti-slavery patrols. In September 1888 HMS Gannet took part in her first and only military action, turning her 5 inch guns on Sudanese rebels attacking the port city of Suakin. She returned to Malta for a refit in November 1888, before undertaking survey duties in Mediterranean. She would perform hydrological survey work in the Mediterranean until 1895 before returning to Chatham and placed in harbour reserve. In 1900 she struck from the effective list.

In 1903 HMS Gannet was transferred to London to relieve HMS President as a drill/training ship. She was renamed HMS President II and substantially altered with the addition of workshops and training halls over her decks.

In 1913, the ship was transferred to the Mercury Training School near Southampton. Mercury TS was used as a vocational school and accommodation for homeless children. In this form, the ship, now renamed Mercury, served until 1968. By this time the ship looked to be in generally poor condition, but after a quick survey it was discovered the hull was very sound. Being one of the rare survivors from the 1870s a campaign was initiated to save her. In 1971, the Royal Navy donated the ship to the Maritime Trust. In 1987 HMS Gannet was transferred to Chatham Dockyard for restoration to her 1888 configuration.

HMS Gannet arrives in the Chatham dockyard and the restoration begins.

Despite having been afloat for more than a century, her iron hull was found to be completely sound.

As she looked during our visit in 2015. Sadly for us it rained the entire time we were at Chatham so we did not get many good photos.

Her 5 inch bow gun. This gun could be rotated to fire through one of two bow ports or swung to fire through a broadside port. Unfortunately this proved to be the only interior shot that worked out. You'll note that due to the many open ports and hatches in the deck, there was a lot of rain entering the ship.

Looking back towards the Gannet and the covered berth.

One of the many museum buildings.

This extremely detailed model man-of-war ship is constructed from polished cow bones by a French prisoner-of-war of the Napoleonic period. Prisoners-of-war had to pay for their own food and accommodation during their imprisonment so were often put to work as labourers or used any artisanal skills they may have had to earn additional cash. Model ships like this, carved from cow bones and pieces of wood and string were sold to collectors. These are highly desirable and expensive today. 

A model of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's magnificent Great Eastern. The largest ship in the world at the time of its construction. In the foreground is a model of the barge used to transport Cleopatra's Needle from Egypt.

For more information about the Chatham Dockyard and its many attractions can be found here: https://thedockyard.co.uk/

More about HMS Gannet: https://thedockyard.co.uk/explore/three-historic-warships/hms-gannet/


The excellent Drachnifel Naval Historiographer talks about Chatham Dockyard.