HMS Shearwater (1900)

Sloop of the Royal Navy

{|

Three cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engine
Twin screws
|Ship sail plan=Barque rigged, changed to barquentine rigged, later removed
|Ship speed= under power
|Ship range=
|Ship endurance= at
|Ship complement=120–130
|Ship armament=*As HMS Shearwater:
6 × QF 4 inch (102 mm) guns
4 × QF 3 pounder (47 mm) guns
As HMCS Shearwater:
4 × QF 4 inch (102 mm) guns
4 × QF 3 pounder (47 mm) guns
|Ship armour=Protective deck of to steel over machinery and boilers. The ship had a length overall of 204 feet (62 m) and was 180 feet (55 m) between perpendiculars. Shearwater had a beam of 33 feet (10 m) and a draught of 11 feet (3 m). The ship displaced 980 tons and had a complement of 130. The Condor class was constructed of steel to a design by William White, the Royal Navy Director of Naval Construction. The bridge was located on the poop deck and the ships were designed with a clipper bow and a slightly raked funnel. All other ships of the class had their sails removed during the first few years of the twentieth century.

The class was armed with six 4 inch/25 pdr (1 ton) quick firing breech loaders and four 3 pounder quick firing breech loaders. The Condor class had a protective deck of to steel over machinery and boilers. She left the Nore in early November to relieve on the Royal Navy's Pacific Station. In July 1902 she toured the Bering Sea, and in November that year she visited Honolulu, followed by a visit to Fanning Island in December. The station itself was suspended in 1905, and the facilities at Esquimalt, British Columbia passed to the Canadian Department of Marine and Fisheries. Shearwater and remained at Esquimalt, and in 1910 the Naval Service Bill was passed, creating the Royal Canadian Navy. Shearwater recommissioned, still as a Royal Navy vessel, at Esquimalt on 27 November 1912. At the onset of the First World War, Algerine and Shearwater were deployed as part of an international squadron off the coast of Mexico, protecting foreign interests during their civil war. Two German cruisers, and were reported on the west coast of North America on 4 August 1914 when news of the war broke. was ordered south to cover their withdrawal to Esquimalt, all ships arriving safely a week later.

After arriving at Esquimalt, two of Shearwaters 4 inch guns were taken ashore and used with a shore battery position to defend the Seymour Narrows, while the crew of Shearwater was sent to Halifax, Nova Scotia to man HMCS Niobe, which was short of trained sailors. Shearwater was paid off from the Royal Canadian Navy on 13 June 1919. She was sold to the Western Shipping Company in May 1922 and renamed Vedas. Her register was closed in 1937 and she was broken up at Windsor, Ontario.