The Amazon class was a class of six screw sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy between 1865 and 1866.
 HMS Dryad at anchor, with sails airing
| |
| 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)[1] |
| Installed power | 300 horsepower[1] |
| Propulsion |
|
| Sail plan | Barque |
| Complement | 150[1] |
| Armament |
|
Construction
editDesign
editDesigned by Edward Reed,[2] the Royal Navy Director of Naval Construction, they were equipped with a ram bow.[2] 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.[2]
Propulsion
editPropulsion 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.[2]
Sail plan
editAll the ships of the class were built with a barque rig.[2]
Armament
editThe 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.[2]
Ships
edit| Name | Ship Builder | Launched | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | Pembroke Dockyard | 1865 | Sunk in collision with SS Osprey, off Start Point, English Channel 10 July 1866[1] |
| Vestal | Pembroke Dockyard | 1865 | Sold to Castle for breaking in December 1884[2] |
| Niobe | Devonport Dockyard | 1866 | Wrecked off Cape Blanc on Miquelon Island, off the Atlantic Coast of Newfoundland and Labrador 21 May 1874[1] |
| Dryad | Devonport Dockyard | 1866 | Sold in September 1885 and broken up in April 1886[2] |
| Daphne | Pembroke Dockyard | 1866 | Sold for breaking on 7 November 1882[2] |
| Nymphe | Devonport Dockyard | 1866 | Sold for breaking in December 1884[2] |
Notes
editBibliography
edit- 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) [1969]. 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.