Blazer, 1856
Type: Gunboat ;
Launched : 23 Feb 1856 ; Disposal date or year : 1877
BM: 232 tons
Propulsion: Screw
Machinery notes: 60 hp
Notes:

All gunboats from 1 Jan 1856, are to be commissioned as independent commands with a crew of 36 men and officers.

23 Apr 1856, Present at Fleet Review, Spithead ; Red Squadron ; Commander Robinson

James Doyle, Crookhaven lightkeeper, reported to the Secretary that on the 23rd of September 1867 a large outer pane of green glass was "broken from exercising of gun". For some reason it was not until the 30th of October that the Irish Lights' Board was informed. It was, according to Doyle, as a result of the Coast Guard exercising nearby in the gunboat Bruiser. When questioned about the incident, the Admiralty replied "on no occasion were the guns of HM Ship Bruiser fired in the vicinity of Crookhaven and on the 23rd inst. the day the glass was broke she was at anchor in Castletownsend but that HMS Blazer on that date was firing at a mark about a mile from the Lighthouse in the direction of the village of Glun [Goleen?]". The Admiralty however denied responsibility for breaking the glass. Later James Doyle wrote to say that J.S. Sloane, Superintendent of Works, told him the glass breakage was "caused by the heat of the sun"(1). Doyle reported in November that another pane of green glass was broken on the 5th. He added that the gunboat Bruiser was "practising on that day"(2).
(1)Journal No.24, Commissioners of Irish Lights, p. 376.
(2) Lighthouse Register 1867, Commissioners of Irish Lights, 8th November 1868.
With thanks to Aidan Power

1868 Renamed YC.29 and converted for use as a steam-dredger