
Alistair Laird
Department Director
£2,000 - £3,000
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Department Director
H.M.S. ships Resolute and Assistance were a matched pair of screw-powered storeships purchased from their builder, Laird Brothers of Birkenhead, whilst still 'on the stocks' in January 1855. Displacing 2,510 tons, both measured 283 feet in length with a 36 foot beam and were powered by Fawcett & Preston single-expansion engines capable of steaming at 10 knots. Costing £66,000 each, the two vessels proved immensely useful ferrying stores to the Crimea for the on-going war there although neither was long-lived. After being sent to the Far East to supply the navy's ships engaged in the so-called Second China War (1857-60), Assistance was wrecked off Hong Kong on 1st June 1860 and declared a total loss. Resolute was converted into a troopship in 1857 and was also sent to the campaign in China. Renamed Adventure at the same time, she survived until broken up at Chatham in 1877.
We are grateful to Dr. Sam Davidson for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.