The old Troopship Tamar lying in Devonport prior to her departure for Hong Kong

The iron screw troopship H.M.S. Tamar, 4,650 tons, was built in Joseph Samuda's yard at Poplar, on the Thames, and launched on 5 January 1863. Measuring 320 feet in length with a 45 foot beam, she was only lightly armed with a 3-6pdrs. but that did not exlude her occasional participation in operational duties such as the Ashantee War of 1873-1874. Her usual role was less active however and she spent her long seagoing career carrying battalions of British troops backwards and forwards across the globe enforcing the Victorian 'Pax Britannia'. Withdrawn from service in the early 1890's, she was recommissioned in May 1895 in preparation for her final voyage to Hong Kong where she was destined to become a Receiving Ship. A familiar sight in the harbour there for over forty years, she was sunk as a blockship on 12 December 1941 as part of the attempts to resist the Japanese assault on the colony.