There have been five HMS Mersey's ranging from small wooden ships to today's OPV's (Offshore Patrol Vessel). Named after the River Mersey in the north-west of England, United Kingdom that has become synonymous with Liverpool.
The first HMS Mersey was a 'Conway' Class 26-gun Sixth-rate, launched in 1814. It was too late for her to see any action in the Napoleonic War, though it still had a long and distinguished career taking it to Halifax Station in 1818, then joining the South American station in 1824 till it's departure in 1827, when it was then deployed to the Caribbean station that same year, being stationed in this most beautiful of places till 1831. She was eventually broken up in 1852.
The second HMS Mersey was commissioned just six years after the first Mersey in 1858. Her and her sister ship HMS Orlando were the longest wooden warships built for the Royal Navy at 336 feet overall was nearly twice the size of the flagship of Admiral Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar - HMS Victory. At 5643 tons displacement, she was certainly a large and impressive looking ship in her day. She was heavily armed of course, and in comparison to many of her counterparts was quite fast with an approximate speed of 12 and a half knots. Her only deployments were to the North America and West Indies Stations between 1861-62, relatively short duties. The length, the most unique aspect of the ship, was actually an achilles heel of the Mersey and Orlando. The extreme length of the ship put enormous strains on her hull due to the unusual merging of heavy machinery, and a lengthy wooden hull, resulting in her seems opening up, which was obviously a worrying development. In 1875 she was finally laid up and sold for breaking.
The third HMS Mersey was the name of a class of Protected cruisers were relatively modern, in that they were the first cruisers that had discarded their sailing rigs in the design, that was synonymous with the old wooden warships, and were now solely steam powered warships. She was launched at Chatham, United Kingdom in March 1885, but had a relatively mundane career and was sold for breaking in 1905.
In 1914 during the First World War, the Royal Navy procured three Amazon River monitors built by Vickers for Brazil. The three ships were named Humber, Mersey and Severn, and were the first of a new type of specialised shore-bombardment warships. She was 261 feet long, but very un-manoeuvrable and unseaworthy in open waters in anything more than a Force 5 wind. But she have a relatively successful career in WWI and had two prominent incidents during WWI. In 1914, off the Belgian coast, bombarded German troops as well as artillery positions. In 1915 her final action of the war was in the Mediterranean after being towed there where she then assisted in the destruction of the enemy cruiser Konigsberg. In 1921 she was sold to the breakers.
The fifth and current HMS Mersey has finally halted the long absence of a Mersey in the Fleet. She is a River Class Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) designed primarily for fishery protection duties around [UK] waters and was launched at Southampton. She was commissioned into the Fleet on the 28th November 2003, though she is not expected to begin fishery protection duties till February 2004. She is expected to be the pinnacle in OPV's for some time into the 21st century.
River Class Statistics
Her only Battle Honours came in the First World War.
First
Second
Third
Fourth
Fifth
Affiliations
Battle Honours
