HMS Rover was an 18-gun iron screw corvette

Corvette

A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...

 of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. She was built by the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company

Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company

The Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, Limited was a shipyard and iron works straddling the mouth of Bow Creek at its confluence with the River Thames, at Leamouth Wharf on the west side and at Canning Town on the east side...

, Leamouth

Leamouth

Leamouth is the area to the west of the mouth of the River Lea at the River Thames at . The northern part of the area lies within a meander of the Lea; the southern part is bounded in the west by the former East India Docks, on two sides by the Lea and by the River Thames to the south...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 to a design by Edward James Reed

Edward James Reed

Sir Edward James Reed , KCB, FRS, was a British naval architect, author, politician, and railroad magnate. He was the Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy from 1863 until 1870...

 and launched in 1874.

Design and construction

Rover was the result of an 1872 design by Edward James Reed

Edward James Reed

Sir Edward James Reed , KCB, FRS, was a British naval architect, author, politician, and railroad magnate. He was the Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy from 1863 until 1870...

, she was laid down at the yards of the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company

Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company

The Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, Limited was a shipyard and iron works straddling the mouth of Bow Creek at its confluence with the River Thames, at Leamouth Wharf on the west side and at Canning Town on the east side...

 at Leamouth in 1872. As designed, she had a single layer of oak

Oak

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...

, with zinc

Zinc

Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...

 sheathing. Crewed by 315 men, her armament initially consisted of two 7in/112pdr (4½-ton) MLR guns on slides at the bow and stern with sixteen 6.3in/64pdr (63cwt) MLR guns on broadside trucks. When rearmed between 1879 and 1880, after her first commission, she was fitted with fourteen 6in/80pdr (81cwt) BLs, twelve of them slide-mounted on the sides; one bow and one stern chaser were also fitted; 8 machineguns, one light gun and two 14in torpedo chutes. Rover was fitted with a 3-cylinder horizontal compound expansion engine, driving a single hoisting screw and fired by 10 cylindrical boilers. With 4,964 ihp she was capable of 14.5 knots (28 km/h) under steam, and 11 knots (22 km/h) under sail. She could carry 420 tons of coal, giving her a range under steam of 1,840 miles at 10 knots (20 km/h)s.

She was launched on 12 August 1874 and completed by 21 September 1875. Her hull cost £104,718, a further £65,021 was spent on her machinery, provided by Ravenhill, Eastons & Co.

Career

Rover spent nearly twenty years in the navy, being sold for scrap in 1893. Among the men who had served aboard her during this time was the explorer Robert Falcon Scott

Robert Falcon Scott

Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13...

, who spent nine months aboard Rover starting in late 1886.