Name HMS Blanche Completed November 1867 Construction started 1865 Draft 5.03 m | Laid down 1865 Decommissioned 1881 Launched 17 August 1867 Builder Chatham Dockyard | |
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Fate Sold for scrap, September 1886 Class and type Eclipse-class wooden screw sloop (later corvette) | ||
HMS Blanche was a 1760-ton, 6-gun Eclipse-class wooden screw sloop built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1860s by Chatham Dockyard.
Contents
She was sent to the Australia Station in January 1868, arriving in April 1868. She undertook a punitive action against Solomon Island natives in September 1869. During 1870, she joined in the search for the schooner Daphne, which was unsuccessful. Under the command of Captain Cortland Simpson, she undertook a survey of Rabaul's Harbour in 1872. Blanche Bay is named after HMS Blanche. She finished service on the Australia Station in 1875. While sailing to England she was almost lost rounding Cape Horn in bad weather.
After being refitted and rearmed, she was sent to the North America and West Indies Station, where she remained until 1881.
Crew
A memorial to Paymaster James McAvoy and Lieutenant Thomas Thompson Auderton Smith was erected in St James' Church, Sydney by the captain and officers of Blanche in 1872.
Fate
She was placed in reserve and in 1886 was sold to Castle for £3,600 for breaking.