HMS Sidon (1846)

68-pounder gun and crew on Sidon, off Sebastopol during the Crimean War
History
Name:	HMS Sidon
Builder:	Deptford Dockyard, London
Laid down:	26 May 1845
Launched:	26 May 1846
Fate:	Sold 15 July 1864
General characteristics
Tons burthen:	1329 bm[1]
Length:	211 ft (64 m)
Beam:	37 ft (11 m)
Draught:	27 ft (8.2 m)
Propulsion:	Two direct-acting Seaward engines making 560 horsepower (420 kW)
Speed:	10 kt (19 km/h)
Armament:	Middle deck: 14 × 8 in (203 mm)/60 hundredweight (3 t) guns Two x 68 pounder (31 kg)/88 hundredweight (4.5 t) pivots (fore and aft) Quarter deck: Four x 8 in (203 mm)/52 hundredweight (2.6 t) on slides Fo'c'sle: Two x 8 in (203 mm)/52 hundredweight (2.6 t) on slides.

HMS Sidon was a first-class paddle frigate designed by Sir Charles Napier: her name commemorated his attack on the port of Sidon in 1840 during the Syrian War. Her keel was laid down on 26 May 1845 at Deptford Dockyard, and she was launched on 26 May 1846. She had a fairly short career for a warship, but it included the rescue of the crew of the sinking Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation vessel Ariel on 28 May 1848, and a trip up the Nile that same year, when her passengers included the explorer and botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker. She served in the Black Sea during the Crimean War, 1854-55 under the command of Captain George Goldsmith. In April 1854, in company with HMS Firebrand (Captain William Houston Stewart), she blockaded the coast from Kavarna to the mouths of the River Danube.^[2] In September, during the actual Allied invasion of the Crimea, she was assigned to escorting the French troop transports, and assisted the French line-of-battleship Algiers, which had gone aground in Eupatoria Bay.^[3] She was then sent to monitor Russian movements around Odessa, and on 4 October attacked a marching column of 12,000 men on their way to the Crimea. On this occasion she was hit in the funnel by a Russian rocket.^[4] She was sold for breaking up on 15 July 1864 to Castle and Beech.

References

1. Colledge, p. 321
2. Russian War, 1854, Baltic and Black Sea, Official Correspondence edited by D. Bonner-Smith and Captain A. C. Dewar, Navy Records Society, 1943, pp. 245-6, 251-2.
3. Russian War, 1854, Baltic and Black Sea, Official Correspondence pp. 310-11.
4. Russian War, 1854, Baltic and Black Sea, Official Correspondence, pp. 334-6.

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.
• Lyon, David & Winfield, Rif The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815-1889. Chatham Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1-86176-032-9.