PS Rising Star
 Rising Star | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Chile | |
| Name: | Rising Star |
| Builder: | Blent's Yard, Rotherhithe |
| Launched: | 1818 |
| Honours and awards: | First steam warship ever built[1] |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 410 t |
| Propulsion: | 70 HP |
| Armament: | 20 guns |
PS Rising Star was a paddle steamer warship, nicknamed the Rising Sun. It was a revolutionary design[2]:33 that included twin funnels and an internal retractable paddle wheel. She was the first ever British steam warship to cross the Atlantic from east to west, in 1821.[3]
She was built in Rotherhithe for Thomas Cochrane (later tenth Earl of Dundonald).[4] Cochrane, a Scot who had a very high reputation as a superior seaman, aimed to construct a warship that would eliminate the differences in capability between the Chilean and the Spanish naval forces.[4] Cochrane intended the vessel to be used as a steam warship within the Chilean War of Independence. He made efforts to conceal the ship's real purpose, to be used to sail to the North Pole.[2]:34
Propulsion and guns
She was driven by a centerline paddle wheel powered by engines of 70 n. h. p., of twin cylinders which were constructed by Maudslay and Sons and Field.[5]
Cochrane was excited about the prospect of a ship that did not have to depend on the wind for power and he contributed ₤3000 of his own money into the venture. Edward Ellice, a South-America trader, supplied ₤4000.
The Rising Star was inevitably a small warship, but made up for its size as with a conventional battery of twenty guns, which was distributed along its open spar deck, ten in each broadside.[6]
The voyage to Chile
Due to delays in her construction (which took place in Kier's yard in 1820) she was not built in time, and only ran her trials on the Thames in June 1821, where she managed six knots under steam.[3][7] Although Cochrane had originally ordered the Rising Star to be constructed, when she was eventually fully finished he did not take her out himself; Major Hon. William Cochrane had the pleasure of doing so instead.[4]
Rising Star had not been properly designed and the engine was too small to propel her. Since the miscalculation could not be easily remedied, Alvarez Condarco, the Chilean Minister in London asked Cochrane to leave for Chile without delay, so that he could take immediate command of the First Chilean Navy Squadron.
Rising Star eventually sailed from Gravesend on 22 October 1821, heading for Valparaíso, although just off the coast of Portugal she sprang a leak and had to be put into dock at Cork for repairs to the hull.[3] Once she was repaired, she set off again for Valparaíso, and this time made the voyage without interference and arrived on 22 April 1822, although this meant that the voyage which was intended to make it in time for the war, ended up being six months later.[3]She was sold to Winter y Brittain of Buenos Aires and she sank 1830 in the Irish Sea.[9]
References
- ↑ The Coming of Lord Cochrane, retrieved on 21 December 2012
- 1 2 Brian Vale (15 December 2007). Cochrane in the Pacific: Fortune and Freedom in Spanish America. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-446-6. Retrieved 21 December 2012.
- 1 2 3 4 Deeson, A. F. L. An illustrated history of Steamships. Buckinghamshire: Spurbooks Ltd. p. 54.
- 1 2 3 Fletcher, R. A. Warships and their Story. p. 88.
- ↑ Dumplington, B; Muriel, M. (2002). The Story of the Paddle Steamer. Venton. pp. 22–23.
- ↑ Sondhaus, L. (2001). Naval Warfare, 1815-1914. London: Routledge. p. 20.
- ↑ Villers, A. Pioneers of the Seven Seas. p. 124.
- ↑ Dumplington, B; Muriel, M. Brunel's Three Ships. p. 30.
- ↑ Chilean Navy site, Estrella Naciente, retrieved on 21 December 2012