Editing USS Wyvern (section)

== HMS Wyvern, Scorpion Class Schooner/Battleship (1862-1922) ==


The two ships of the Scorpion class, HMS Scorpion and HMS Wivern, were the first warships ever which were built to the order of a foreign country and subsequently acquired for service in the Royal Navy.

In 1862 a contract was placed with Laird & Son Co by Captain James D. Bulloch, a naval agent for the Confederate States of America, for two double-turreted warships designed for ramming attacks at a cost of £93,750 each, exclusive of armament and ammunition. They were intended, together with other warships, to break the Federal blockade of Confederate coastal cities, to combat the Federal fleet, and possibly to attack Federal coastal cities. 
In January 1863 the Foreign Secretary, Lord John Russell, notified Bulloch that the ships would be prevented from sailing if they were doing so to form part of the fleet of a nation currently at war. This was mostly because whilst the British government was reasonably supportive of the South they saw no future in fighting a drawn out war with the North. This knowledge and the successes of Union arms in 1863 enabled Northern representatives in England to threaten war if the rams were not seized.

Bulloch therefore arranged for some French bankers to purchase the ships, nominally on behalf of the Egyptian government, it is assumed with the intention of transferring them to the Confederate flag once they were at sea. Her true ownership was to be concealed by the fiction that she was being constructed as the Egyptian warship El Monassir. The Khedive of Egypt was attempting to acquire warships, so this appeared plausible.

[[image:Wyvern_ironclad.jpg|thumb|right|The HMS Wyvern Scorpion Class Ironclad Battleship- 1865]]
She was to have been named Mississippi upon delivery to the Confederates. She would have been superior to all but one of the United States' Navy warships, and thus represented a most serious danger to the Union's control of the seas. However, effective Federal diplomacy prevented the emergence of this threat. Russell, being in contact with the Federal authorities, arranged that the ships should be seized by Britain. 

The British government seized the pair of ironclads in October 1863, a few months after their launch and before they could be completed. In early 1864, both were purchased for the Royal Navy, receiving the new names Scorpion and Wivern (Wyvern). The legality of this seizure was seriously disputed, but the British government had already been somewhat embarrassed by the activities of the Alabama, a ship also built by Laird Son & Co and operated as a Corsair by the confederate forces. 

In order to overshadow discussions as to the legality of their action, the British government purchased the ships for £30,000 in excess of the contract price.
HMS Wivern was a 2750-ton ironclad turret ship built at Birkenhead, England, one of two sister ships secretly ordered from the Laird & Sons shipyard by the Confederate States of America government in 1862.

Completed in October 1865, Wivern was assigned to the Channel Fleet until 1868. After a refit that reduced her sailing rig from a barque to a schooner, the Wivern served briefly as a coastguard ship based at Hull and then went into reserve. In 1870 Wivern was brought back into active service and dispatched to Hong Kong. She remained in Hong Kong until sold for scrap in 1922, having been reduced to harbor duties from 1904.

One of her commanding officers was Captain Hugh Talbot Burgoyne, VC who was later appointed the commanding officer of HMS Captain. The Captain was also a twin turret ship. 

'''General Characteristics:''' 
*Ordered for Confederate Navy: 1862 
*Laid down: April 1862 
*Launched: August 29, 1863 
*Seized by British Government: October 1863 
*Completed: October 10, 1865 
*Broken up: 1922 
*Specification 
*Displacement: 2,751 tons 
*Length: 224 ft 6 inches 
*Beam: 42 ft 4 inches 
*Draught: 15ft 6 inches light, 17 ft deep load 
*Engine: Lairds horizontal direct-acting 
*Propulsion: horizontal direct acting engine, one shaft, 4 boilers, 1450 IHP 
*Speed under power: 10.5 knots 
*Rig: Ship-rig with tripod masts 
*Complement: 153 
*Armament: 4 × 9 in (228 mm) (2 × 2) muzzle-loading rifles 
*Armor: Belt 4.5 inches, Bow 3inches and Stern 2 inches, Turret faces 10 inches, sides 5 inches