The Forester class compound hull gunboat HMS Mallard was launched from the Hull yard of Earle’s Shipbuilding and Engineering Co Ltd on 4th August 1875. She was one of a fleet of ten identical 4-gun boats in her class displacing 400 surface tons. She was commissioned at Devonport on 7th March 1876 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Alfred Warry. Throughout her military career she was based in various locations in North America and the Caribbean before she was sold to Mr W Sayer of Liverpool in 1889. She was converted to a coastal steamer and registered in Liverpool that year. The converted vessel measured 125.8′ x 23.6′ x 12.1′ and her tonnage was 213 gross tons, 74 net tons. She was powered by a 2 cylinder compound steam engine by Earle’s delivering 108 registered horse power.
HMS Foxhound (sistership)
Lloyd’s register 1921
On 13th July 1921 she was en route from Dysart to Aberdeen with a cargo of 105 tons of coal when she was caught in heavy seas in the outer Firth of Forth and developed a leak. It was soon evident that she would not survive and the crew were forced to launch the ship’s boat and abandon ship. Luckily the baldie Snowdrop was close by and sped to the scene picking up the crewmen unharmed before taking them to safety in Anstruther. Mallard sank soon after in a position close to May Island.
St Andrews Citizen 30th July 1921
The broken wreck of the Mallard lies in position 56° 11.804’N, 002° 35.521’W. She lies in 34 metres and rises 3 metres from the seabed oriented 000/180 degrees. The wreck was first discovered during a NATO training exercise in 1989 but it was not until 2015 that is was positively identified by a team of local divers who recovered the ship’s bell.
