HMS Waterwitch

HMS Waterwitch has been the name of several Royal Navy vessels:

• Waterwitch, a brig-sloop purchased in 1834 and sold in 1861; Joseph White of Cowes built the brig in 1832 for Lord Belfast.
• Waterwitch, an iron hydraulic gunboat launched in 1866 and sold in 1890
• Waterwitch, a hydrographic survey vessel originally called Lancashire Witch and purchased in 1893 and sunk in 1912 after being accidentally rammed by a launch belonging to the governor of Singapore.
• Waterwitch, a despatch vessel launched on 17 October 1914 at the Fairfield Shipyard in Glasgow. Originally ordered by the Turkish Government as Rechid Pasha the vessel was purchased by the Royal Navy on completion in 1915. She served at Gallipoli ferrying soldiers, then at Salonika 1916-17 and Istanbul 1918-19. She was returned to Turkey in 1923, her UK registry closed in 1924 and served as a Bosphorus ferry until about 1986. She was then converted into a luxury motor yacht, her steam engines being replaced by twin diesels. She is still in service today as Halas 71 at Istanbul and Fethiye.
• Waterwitch, an Algerine-class minesweeper launched 1941 and sold in 1970
• Waterwitch, renamed from HMS Powderham, a Ham-class minesweeper in 1964

See also

• HMS Witch (D89), a British destroyer in commission in the Royal Navy during the mid-1920s and from 1939 to 1945
• Witch of Endor, a fictional ship featured in the Horatio Hornblower stories

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
• HMS Waterwitch (1914) Parkes & Prendergast (ed.). Jane's Fighting Ships 1919. p. 143. Retrieved 2007-07-07.