HMY Fairy
Fairy
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | |
| Name | HM Yacht Fairy |
| Builder | Ditchburn & Mare, Leamouth, London |
| Laid down | 1844 |
| Launched | 1845 |
| Commissioned | 1845 |
| Decommissioned | 1863 |
| Fate | Broken up, 1868 |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Type | Steam yacht |
| Tons burthen | 312 bm |
| Length | 146 ft (45 m) |
| Beam | 21 ft (6.4 m) |
| Propulsion | Steam engine, single screw |
| Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
HMY Fairy was a small royal yacht and tender to the HMY Victoria and Albert (1843).
History
Built in 1844 by Ditchburn and Mare at Leamouth, she was commissioned in 1845.[1]
She was 146 feet long with a beam of 21 feet and was 312 tons burden, and was able to cruise in shallow waters and as well as her duties as a tender, she sailed from London to Scotland, transported Queen Victoria up and back down the Rhine between Cologne and Bingen during her visit to Germany in 1845, and conveyed the royal family to the Isle of Wight. She was replaced by the HMY Alberta in 1863.[1]
Figurehead
Rather than being carved in London as would have perhaps been expected, given that HMY Fairy was built on the Thames, the figurehead was in fact carved in Portsmouth. No original design survives, but there is record of the Admiral-superintendent at Portsmouth forwarding an estimate in July 1846 for carved work on the Fairy at £4.15.0 (approximately £422 today).[2] It is likely to have been carved by J. E. Hellyer of Portsmouth as a late addition.[3]
Fairy is a simple, small three-quarter-length female bust that would have fitted beneath the yacht's bowsprit. After the yacht was broken up, the figurehead was preserved at Portsmouth dockyard, appearing in the Dockyard Museum's 1911 catalogue.[4]
The figurehead is now part of the collection at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth.[5]
References
- ^ a b c "Royal steam yacht HMY Fairy : National Maritime Museum". nmm.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 23 November 2010. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
- ^ "Inflation calculator". www.bankofengland.co.uk. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
- ^ Pulvertaft, David (2009). The Warship Figureheads of Portsmouth (1st Colour ed.). UK: The History Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-0752450766.
- ^ Pulvertaft, David (2009). The Warship Figureheads of Portsmouth (1st Colour ed.). UK: The History Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-0752450766.
- ^ "Discover the Royal Navy like never before | National Museum of the Royal Navy". www.nmrn.org.uk. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
External links