.jpg) HMS Dryad at anchor, with sails airing
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Amazon-class sloops |
| Builders |
|
| Operators |  Royal Navy |
| Built | 1865–1866 |
| In commission | 1865–1885 |
| Completed | 6 |
| Lost | 2 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Screw sloop |
| Displacement | 1574 tons |
| Length | 187 ft (57 m) |
| Beam | 36 ft (11 m) |
| Draught | 17 ft (5.2 m) |
| Installed power | 300 horsepower |
| Propulsion |
|
| Sail plan | Barque |
| Complement | 150 |
| Armament |
|
The Amazon class was a class of six screw sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy between 1865 and 1866.
Construction
Design
Designed by Edward Reed, the Royal Navy Director of Naval Construction, they were equipped with a ram bow. The hull was of wooden construction, but they were the first class of sloops to incorporate a form of composite construction; they had iron cross beams while retaining wooden framing.
Propulsion
Propulsion was provided by a two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine by Ravenhill, Salkeld & Company driving a single 15 ft (4.6 m) screw. Vestal and Nymphe were fitted with three-cylinder Maudslay engines.
Sail plan
All the ships of the class were built with a barque rig.
Armament
The class was designed with two 7-inch (6½-ton) muzzle-loading rifled guns mounted on slides on centre-line pivots, and two 64-pounder muzzle-loading rifled guns on broadside trucks. Dryad, Nymphe and Vestal were rearmed in the early 1870s with an armament of nine 64-pounder muzzle-loading rifled guns, four each side and a centre-line pivot mount at the bow.
Ships
| Name | Ship Builder | Launched | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | Pembroke Dockyard | 1865 | Sunk in collision with SS Osprey, off Start Point, English Channel 10 July 1866 |
| Vestal | Pembroke Dockyard | 1865 | Sold to Castle for breaking in December 1884 |
| Niobe | Devonport Dockyard | 1866 | Wrecked off Cape Blanc on Miquelon Island, off the Atlantic Coast of Newfoundland and Labrador 21 May 1874 |
| Dryad | Devonport Dockyard | 1866 | Sold in September 1885 and broken up in April 1886 |
| Daphne | Pembroke Dockyard | 1866 | Sold for breaking on 7 November 1882 |
| Nymphe | Devonport Dockyard | 1866 | Sold for breaking in December 1884 |
Notes
- ^ "Cruisers at Battleships-Cruisers website". Retrieved 17 September 2008.
- ^ Winfield, R.; Lyon, D. (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC 52620555.
Bibliography
- Ballard, G. A. (1938). "British Sloops of 1875: The Wooden Ram-Bowed Type". Mariner's Mirror. 24 (July). Cambridge, UK: Society for Nautical Research: 302–17.
- Chesneau, Roger; Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
- Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) . 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.
- Winfield, R.; Lyon, D. (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC 52620555.
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