HMS Grappler (1856)
HMS Grappler (1856)


Royal NavyVessels

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NameGrappler (1856)Explanation
TypeGunboat   
Launched29 March 1856
HullWooden
PropulsionScrew
Builders measure232 tons
Displacement 
Guns4
Fate1885
ClassAlbacore
Ships bookADM 135/207
Note1868 sold and converted to tug, 1885 burnt
Snippets concerning this vessels career
DateEvent
20 March 1856Commanded by Lieutenant William Greenhill Silverlock
29 June 1859Commanded by Lieutenant Alfred Prowse Hasler Helby, Pacific
27 February 1862
- 28 July 1865
Commanded by Lieutenant Edmund Hope Verney, stationed at Esquimalt, British Columbia, Canada.
In the spring of 1863 the gunboats Forward, Grappler, and Devastation were called upon to assist in the capture of several Indian criminals implicated in two murders. William Brady had been killed by a party of Cowichans on a boat trip in the Gulf Islands. About the same time a band of Lamalchi Indians, who were a branch of the Cowichans, murdered Frederick Marks, a farmer settler, and his married daughter Caroline Harvey, on Saturna Island. Lieutenant Lascelles, commander of Forward felt himself forced, on account of 'the defiant attitude of the natives', to bombard and destroy an Indian villiage on Kuper Island. Eventually a number of people were apprehended and brought to Victoria for trial, where several were found guilty and hanged. Lascelles agressive attitude was not uniformly appreciated.
31 Oct 1864 Grapler's commission ended, and many of the best crewmen left. 1 Nov 1864 recommissioned. 13 May 1865 pennant hauled down for the last time (Grapler was sold and replaced later in the year by gunvessel Sparrowhawk).
10 November 1881
- 7 February 1884
Commanded by Captain Hon. Edmund Robert Fremantle, senior naval officer at Gibraltar


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