HMS Active (1869)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

HMS Active (1869) was a Volage-class iron screw corvette built for the Royal Navy in the late 1860s. She was laid down in 1867, launched on 13 March 1869, and completed in March 1871. Active served on the Cape of Good Hope and West Africa Station as the commodore’s ship, and her crew later took part in campaigns ashore during the Third Anglo-Ashanti War and the Anglo-Zulu War. From 1885 to 1898 she was the flagship of the Training Squadron, and she was sold for scrap in 1906.

Key details
- Builder: Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, Blackwall, London
- Length: 270 ft (82.3 m); Beam: 42 ft 1 in (12.8 m)
- Displacement: 3,078 long tons; Burthen: 2,322 tons
- Hull: Iron hull with a 3-inch oak layer and copper sheathing
- Crew: 340
- Propulsion: 1 two-cylinder horizontal-return steam engine, 5 rectangular boilers, ~4,130 ihp, 1 propeller
- Speed and range: 15 knots maximum; range of 2,000 nautical miles at 10 knots
- Sail plan: Ship rig; lower masts iron, others wood; funnel retractable; propeller hoistable
- Armament (as built): 6 × 7-inch rifled muzzle-loading guns and 4 × 64-pounder 64 cwt RMLs (broadside and chase guns)
- Later armament: In 1879, ten breech-loading 6-inch 80-pounder guns replaced the broadside weapons; two carriages for 14-inch torpedoes added
- Armament specifics: Initially, two 7-inch and two 64-pounders mounted broadside; the rest on forecastle and poop deck as chase guns

Service highlights
- 1873: Commissioned as flagship on the Cape of Good Hope and West Africa Station
- 1874: Participated in the Third Anglo-Ashanti War
- 1879: In the Anglo-Zulu War, 173 crew served ashore as part of a naval brigade with rockets and a Gatling gun; fought at Inyezane and moved toward Eshowe during the siege
- February 1879: Ran aground in Tugela Bay while aiding HMS Tenedos; refloated after about 36 hours
- 1881: South Africa Medal awarded to crew members who served there
- 1879: Rearmed and refitted; placed in reserve
- 1885–1898: Commodore’s flagship in the Training Squadron
- 1898: Decommissioned
- 1906: Sold for scrap on 10 July

Memorial
- A memorial to Active’s men who died during the African campaigns stands in Victoria Park, Portsmouth.