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Creating defences against enemy torpedoes posed many difficulties for the Admiralty in the 19th century. One challenge was to defend the British fleet from torpedo boats while the ships were at anchor. In the 1880s, the Royal Navy started to use steam pinnaces for this task. They brought together developments in marine engineering and armaments.
From the 1860s, the shipbuilding firm of J Samuel White of Cowes on the Isle of Wight had been developing a range of steam launches. In 1880, White carried out trials of two 48ft steam pinnaces. One had a single screw and the other twin screws. Both boats had surface condensers. The 87hp single-screw boat had a speed of 12.15 knots, while the 121hp twin-screw vessel could reach 13.4 knots. To increase the manoeuvring power, White introduced a double-rudder system with the dead wood cut away.
Technological advances in the small boats used by ships of war were surveyed by A Spyer in 1887. There were considered to be three distinct classes: launches, pinnaces and cutters. Spyer described in great detail the boiler construction, operation and test results of the various classes. By 1886, a trial of a 52ft pinnace, with a compound engine with a surface condenser, recorded a speed of 15 knots over a measured mile.
In the previous year, the firm of Hotchkiss et Cie developed the Quick Fire three-pounder gun. Explosive shells firing at a rate of 15 rounds a minute provided a defence against roving torpedo boats. The pinnaces would be able to carry the gun at a speed comparable to a torpedo boat, and could be hoisted aboard a ship. When used by the Admiralty, two were carried on battleships and cruisers, and launched to provide defence against torpedo boats when ships were moored.
As well as a Hotchkiss gun, pinnaces carried a light Maxim machine gun on the cabin roof and rifles stowed in the cockpit. In A Short History of Naval and Marine Engineering, Captain E C Smith noted that by 1885, the Navy had 250 steam pinnaces and launches. Eighty-five pinnaces were being carried on seagoing ships, while the rest were ready for coastal defence. Many were fitted for firing spar torpedoes.
When larger torpedo boat destroyers were developed in the 1890s, the role of steam pinnaces changed and they became general-purpose support boats for warships. By 1914, there were more than 600 of these boats, and they remained in service until the 1930s.
Today, only one steam pinnace survives in its original form. Steam Pinnace 199 was built by J Samuel White in 1911. The vessel was intended to serve on one of the super-dreadnoughts that were being built at the time but instead, in 1916, it was converted to be an admiral’s barge. So it could fulfil its duties, it gained a counter stern and a brass-topped funnel.
Through the years, Steam Pinnace 199 has had a varied career, being a duty boat for a hospital, and a dockyard launch during the Second World War. The boat was sold by the navy in 1948, and was in private hands until it was acquired by the Royal Naval Museum in 1979.
By that time, the original steam machinery had been removed and replaced by a diesel engine. A four-year programme of research ensued, to locate and instal appropriate steam machinery. The boat was able to be used in the 1980s, but further work on it was required in 1999. This enabled the vessel to be used through the 2000s.
Steam Pinnace 199 is maintained and operated by a group of volunteers from the Society of Friends of the Royal Naval Museum, and can be seen steaming in Portsmouth Harbour and on the Solent during the summer.