HMS COLUMBINE INFO NEEDED

[Guest]

Hi guys and girls, I have just joined this forum in an attempt to gain some more information on a naval vessel. I am building a scale model of this boat from photographs I found on the internet. What I know so far is :- 

She was built around 1895 and purchased by the navy in 1897

She is a tender/saloon launch 23' long, and I presume use for tendering admirals/commodores from ship to shore when war ships were anchored off.

She had a steam engine and coal fired boiler.

Below are photos of the original boat (now on Lake Windermere) and my model (not finished yet as I am still working on the cabin and later the gas and steam lines radio control and lots of other finishing touches.

I have searched for more details but unsuccessfully.

If this is not the correct forum for me to ask this, can any one suggest other avenues I may take?

Thank you in anticipation.

Robert (Terrigal NSW Australia)

 

 

[seaJane]

There used to be a Windermere Steamboat Museum, but on searching for it I find that the soon-to-be-opened https://windermerejetty.org has taken its place; and I can't find Columbine in their collection when I search (she may be privately owned, of course). 

 

But they do have a contact address at the foot of their page and may be able to advise. 

 

I can't find anything on the Historic Ships Register, the - admittedly incomplete - Small Boats Register at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall (Falmouth) or the National Maritime Museum. 

[Guest]

Thank you seaJane, I did have contact with the private owner a few years back in an effort to obtain more photos. However he is quite elderly and not tech savy so he wasn't able to help in that direction. As the photo shows I am well into the build and really interested in the early history of the Columbine. When the new museum gets under way I shall contact them to see if they can shed some light for me. Again many thanks for your reply.

Robert

[seaJane]

No trouble! We used to go up there regularly, despite the five-hour drive, when my mother-in-law was alive and living in Silverdale, but not since she died. My sister-in-law still lives nearby, however, so perhaps one day we can go looking for Columbine .

[daggers]

I found some details, specification and small photos by Googling “steamboat columbine AND Windermere”.  The owner appears to be a member of an association of like minded owners.

D 

[seaJane]

I seem to recall my search brought up a video of Columbine and ?Jane (not me!) on Windermere some time last year.

[daggers]

I did come across a Utube of about 15 minutes showing a rally of steamboats on the Lake a few years back, but could not recognise Columbine, but she might have been there!

[Chris51982]

Hi, I know this post is quite old but I am about to be the new owner of Columbine if I can be of any assistance.

[horatio2]

Lucky man! A lovely old boat. And  welcome to the GWF.

I am aware that, as a turn of the century RN tender, she is listed by Wkipedia as "HMS COLUMBINE". That said, can it be confirmed from other sources that this 23-Foot steam launch was actually a commissioned RN vessel? Where was she employed? She is smaller than a warship's sea boat, (whaler 24-27-foot) and half the size of a WW1 steam picket boat. She seems a bit small to be a commissioned warship, although that does not detract from her appealing build lines.

Although an interesting vessel, her service does not extend to WW1, the time period for this Great War (1914-1918) Forum.

[KizmeRD]

Columbine is a lovely steam launch, but she does not have the original layout of an Admiralty Pattern 23 ft steam cutter. Possibly the boiler and engine have been replaced sometime during its long life, and the machinery moved forward to create room to construct the after cabin. Would have originally had a mast fitted too. Certainly never a commissioned warship in her own right, so no HMS prefix.

MB

 

[horatio2]

Many thanks, MB. Very helpful. Much altered over more than a century so she does not now have an naval 'look'. Probably one of numerous similar harbour service boats.

[Chris51982]

Good evening, I am happy to confirm a few details of Columbine. You are indeed correct she was never commissioned in her own right and would never have carried the prefix HMS. Also the name Columbine was given her after restoration so any attempt to trace her history that way wouldn't work I'm afraid.

She was built in 1895 but as you say has been much altered since. She was sunk on the Norfolk Broads and rescued in 1980 for restoration. The boiler and engine have been changed twice during preservation so the original steam plant is long gone. Also thr rear cabin is a 1980 addition.

The hull itself is the only relatively unaltered part of the vessel.

I am curious though, surely being launched in 1895 she would have been in service during the Great War? 

Edited 7 October , 2021 by Chris51982

[horatio2]

Wikepedia states sold in 1905. She was a very small, light boat and by 1905 would have seen ten years of hard work with the Fleet; by WW1she would have been twenty years old and probably worn-out.

[KizmeRD]

Admiralty steam cutters of WW1 vintage tended to be a larger and newer class of 35’ hulls, introduced into service from 1910 onwards.

MB

[Chris51982]

Thank you everyone, some very helpful information. I have yet to take a handover of all the material the previous owner had on her and hopefully I I'll be able to put together a more accurate history.

It seems that whatever her role, she has survived through interesting times.

The irony of course is that I serve in the RAF and not the Navy 

Thanks again.

CA

[KizmeRD]

Chris - Good luck with tracing the boats history, we’d all be interested to hear if you come up with any WW1 provenance.

(For your information, I understand that she got converted into a motor boat during her working life on the Norfolk Broads - so nice to see her returned to steam).

MB

Edited 7 October , 2021 by KizmeRD

[KizmeRD]

Does anyone on the forum have a copy of N.B.J. Stapleton’s ‘Steam Picket Boats and other small steam craft of the Royal Navy’ (pub. 1980)? - After all, there were in fact some 50’ steam picket boats (of very similar age to the 23’ steam cutters) still being used as ship’s boats on pre-Dreadnought battleships during the Great War.

MB

Edited 8 October , 2021 by KizmeRD

[seaJane]

Failing personal possession, there are copies in the copyright deposit libraries (inter-library loan) and on bookfinder.com secondhand.