HMS Donegal (1858)


HMS Donegal was one of two 101-gun second-rate screw-driven built for the Royal Navy during the 1850s. Completed in 1859, she served with the Channel and North America and West Indies Squadrons before she was decommissioned in 1870. The ship was renamed Vernon I in 1886 when she became part of HMS Vernon, the Royal Navy's torpedo and mine school. The ship was sold for scrap in 1925.

Design and description

The Conqueror-class ships were lengthened version of the preceding. Donegal had an overall length of, on the gundeck and on the keel. She had a beam of, a depth of hold of and measured 3245 tons burthen. Her armament consisted of thirty-six shell guns on her lower gundeck and thirty-six 32-pounder (56 cwt) guns on her upper gundeck. Between her forecastle and quarterdeck, she carried twenty-eight 32-pounder guns and a single 68-pounder gun.
The Conquerors were powered by a two-cylinder horizontal trunk steam engine built by John Penn and Sons producing 800 nominal horsepower to drive a single propeller. Donegals engine produced during her service and gave her a maximum speed of. Her crew numbered 930 officers and ratings.

Construction and career

Donegal was ordered on 27 December 1854 and was laid down at HM Dockyard Devonport on 27 September 1855. She was launched on 23 September 1858, commissioned on 26 June 1859 and completed on 27 August. Upon commissioning she sailed to Liverpool to recruit a crew. She then joined the Channel Squadron, where she took part in a number of fleet reviews. In November 1861 she was one of a number of ships transporting troops to Mexico, and in February 1862 she assisted the recovery of equipment and stores from the wreck of her sister HMS Conqueror. On 28 October 1859 William Hall was awarded his Victoria Cross aboard the Donegal whilst she was anchored in Queenstown.
She spent several years as a coastguard vessel at Liverpool. She took the last surrender of the American Civil War on 6 November 1865 when the CSS Shenandoah surrendered after travelling 9,000 miles to do so. The Shenandoah had originally been in the Pacific Ocean when news reached her of the end of the Civil War, necessitating such a long voyage. On her next assignment she carried Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Kellett and a replacement crew to relieve HMS Ocean, then on the China Station under Vice-Admiral Henry Keppel. She was then commanded by Captain William Hewett, seconded by John Fisher. In 1870 she became a tender to HMS Duke of Wellington, which was then a receiving ship in Portsmouth. Donegal was paid off on 30 September 1870.
On 14 January 1886, Donegal was hulked and merged into the Torpedo School at Portsmouth, and her name was changed to Vernon. Between 1888 and 1892 she was commanded by Captain Arthur Knyvet Wilson. On 23 April 1895 she was moved to Portchester Creek, along with the rest of the hulks making up the school.
She remained in this role until the torpedo school moved onshore in 1923, and Donegal was sold for scrap on 18 May 1925 to Pounds, of Portsmouth. Some of the timbers and panelling were used to rebuild the Prince of Wales public house in Brighouse in 1926.