HMY Fairy
{{Other ships|HMS Fairy}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2017}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=H.M.Y. Fairy CSK 2004.jpg |Ship image size = |Ship caption=Fairy }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United Kingdom |Ship flag={{Shipboxflag|United Kingdom|naval}} |Ship name= HM Yacht Fairy |Ship namesake= |Ship ordered= |Ship builder=Ditchburn & Mare, Leamouth, London |Ship laid down=1844 |Ship launched= 1845 |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned=1845 |Ship decommissioned=1863 |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship fate= Broken up, 1868 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption={{Cite web |url = http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/explore/object.cfm?ID=SLR0823 |title = Royal steam yacht HMY Fairy : National Maritime Museum |work = nmm.ac.uk |accessdate = 2 October 2010 |url-status = dead |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20101123154701/http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/explore/object.cfm?ID=SLR0823 |archivedate = 23 November 2010 }} |Ship type= Steam yacht |Ship displacement= |Ship tons burthen=312 bm |Ship length= {{Convert|146|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship beam= {{Convert|21|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship draught= |Ship propulsion= Steam engine, single screw |Ship sail plan=Full-rigged ship |Ship speed= |Ship range= |Ship complement= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament= |Ship armour= |Ship notes= }} |
HMY Fairy was a small royal yacht and tender to the {{ship|HMY|Victoria and Albert|1843}}.
History
Built in 1844 by Ditchburn and Mare at Leamouth, she was commissioned in 1845.
She was 146 feet long with a beam of 21 feet and was 312 tons burden, and was able to cruise in shallow waters and as well as her duties as a tender, she sailed from London to Scotland, transported Queen Victoria up and back down the Rhine between Cologne and Bingen during her visit to Germany in 1845, and conveyed the royal family to the Isle of Wight. She was replaced by the {{Ship|HMY|Alberta}} in 1863.
Figurehead
Rather than being carved in London as would have perhaps been expected, given that HMY Fairy was built on the Thames, the figurehead was in fact carved in Portsmouth. No original design survives, but there is record of the Admiral-superintendent at Portsmouth forwarding an estimate in July 1846 for carved work on the Fairy at £4.15.0 (approximately £422 today).{{Cite web |title=Inflation calculator |url=https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator |access-date=2025-07-02 |website=www.bankofengland.co.uk |language=en}} It is likely to have been carved by J. E. Hellyer of Portsmouth as a late addition.{{Cite book |last=Pulvertaft |first=David |title=The Warship Figureheads of Portsmouth |publisher=The History Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0752450766 |edition=1st Colour |location=UK |pages=72}}
Fairy is a simple, small three-quarter-length female bust that would have fitted beneath the yacht's bowsprit. After the yacht was broken up, the figurehead was preserved at Portsmouth dockyard, appearing in the Dockyard Museum's 1911 catalogue.{{Cite book |last=Pulvertaft |first=David |title=The Warship Figureheads of Portsmouth |publisher=The History Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0752450766 |edition=1st Colour |location=UK |pages=72}}
The figurehead is now part of the collection at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth.{{Cite web |title=Discover the Royal Navy like never before {{!}} National Museum of the Royal Navy |url=https://www.nmrn.org.uk/ |access-date=2025-07-02 |website=www.nmrn.org.uk}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category| HMY Fairy (ship, 1845)}}
{{Royal Yachts of the United Kingdom}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fairy}}
Category:Royal yachts of the United Kingdom
Category:Ships built in Leamouth
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