HMS Vixen was an armoured composite gunboat of the Royal Navy, notable for being the only ship of her class and the first in the Royal Navy to feature twin propellers. Launched on 18 November 1865 and commissioned in 1866 under Commander Spencer Phipps Brett, she was primarily an experimental vessel designed to evaluate new naval technologies. Her construction was of composite type, with a hull comprising iron frames and bulwarks, covered externally with 140 mm (5.5 inches) of teak wood. The hull was copper-sheathed underwater to prevent marine growth, and her ram bow was reinforced with substantial ironwork. Vixen was powered by two sets of 4-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engines, each driving a 9-foot diameter Maudslay & Griffiths screw propeller, producing a total of 740 indicated horsepower for a top speed of 8.9 knots. Steam was generated by two Maudslay iron fire-tube boilers with six furnaces. She was also equipped with a barquentine rig, although this was removed in 1873 when she was stationed permanently in Bermuda. Her armament included two 7-inch muzzle-loading rifled guns and two 20-pounder breech-loading rifled guns. Designed partly for comparative trials alongside her sister ships Viper and Waterwitch, Vixen's performance was modest, achieving less than 9.5 knots, and she proved to be vulnerable in open sea conditions, nearly being lost in a gale in 1876. Throughout her service, she operated mainly within Bermuda, serving as a floating defensive battery, assisting in dockyard operations, and rescuing vessels like a disabled barque. Her upper decks and rigging were removed in 1873, which helped her survive the 1878 hurricane that damaged other dockyard facilities. By the late 19th century, Vixen was repurposed as an accommodation hulk and was eventually sold for scrap in 1895. She was scuttled in Daniel’s Head Channel in 1896, deliberately sunk to serve as a blockship and to bolster Bermuda’s coastal defenses. Today, her remains lie in about 10 meters of water, becoming a popular diving site and archaeological site, with extensive investigations conducted from the 1980s onward. Her wreck provides valuable insights into early ironclad naval architecture and experimental ship design of the era.

This description has been generated using GPT-4.1-NANO based on the Vessel's wikidata information and then modified by ShipIndex.org staff.