Starboard view of the screw sloop HMS Torch at anchor. Torch was launched at Sheerness dockyard…

Starboard view of the screw sloop HMS Torch at anchor. Torch was launched at Sheerness dockyard on 28 December 1895, completed in October 1895 and sailed to join the Australian Station in February 1897. In 1898 and 1899 she served in New Zealand waters. In 1901 she formed part of the naval escort during the visit of the Duke and Duchess of York to Australian and New Zealand. In 1910-1911, after many years of patrol work around the Pacific Islands, she was refitted in Sydney and it is probable there were some changes to her rigging and armament. By the time the First Australian Fleet Unit arrived in Sydney in 1913 she was paid off. In 1917 she was handed over to the New Zealand government and renamed Firebrand. She was sold and fitted out with refrigeration for the Chatham Island fishing trade and renamed Rama. On 17 November 1924 she was holed by an uncharted rock approaching the harbour of the Chatham Islands, beached and abandoned.

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