HMS Gannet 1879 - 1888
HMS Gannet, an Osprey/Doterel class sloop, was ordered by the Admiralty on 14th February 1876 and constructed at Sheerness Royal Dockyard. Laid down in December 1876 and launched 20 months later on 31st August 1878, HMS Gannet commissioned as an operational unit of the Royal Navy for the first time on the 17th April 1879.
First Commission Pacific Station; 17th April 1879 - 20th July 1883
Soon after her completion in 1879, HMS Gannet was ordered to the Pacific Station to serve her first commission under the flag of Admiral De Horsey. In May 1879, she sailed from Portsmouth, via the Atlantic Ocean, for the Pacific port of Panama, arriving there the following year. Gannet shadowed the action during the 'nitrate' war between Chile and the Peru-Bolivia Alliance and she was present off Callao, Peru, when the Peruvians scuttled their own fleet to prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemy. After a long cruise around the Pacific, Gannet returned to pay off at Sheerness in July 1883. During her four-year commission on the Pacific Station, Gannet sailed over 60,000 miles.
Second Commission Mediterranean Station; 3rd September 1885 - 1st November 1888
In 1885, following a two-year refit, Gannet re-commissioned at Sheerness and sailed for the Mediterranean Station, where she was initially used in fleet support duties to General Graham's forces in the Sudan and in slavery patrols, before being ordered to join the squadron protecting the Sudanese port of Suakin.
Recalled from a mid-commission refit at Malta, Gannet relieved HMS Dolphin at Suakin on the 11th September 1888 and on the 17th September, opened fire with her Poop deck 5" guns in support of land forces against an attack by rebel forces. During the following 27 days Gannet's main armament fired over 200 shells and her Nordenfelt machine guns fired nearly 1,200 rounds in the defence of Suakin. HMS Starling relieved Gannet on the 15th October. Although Osman Digna's rebel forces were not defeated until December 1888, the siege was lifted and with it the immediate threat to Suakin. Without Gannet's assistance the port of Suakin may well have fallen to the rebel besiegers.
HMS Gannet paid off at Malta on the 1st November 1888.