The Eclipse class was a class of seven 6-gun wooden screw sloops built for the Royal Navy between 1867 and 1870. They were re-armed and re-classified as 12-gun corvettes in 1876. Two further vessels were proposed but never ordered.
 HMS Sirius
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Eclipse class |
| Builders |
|
| Operators |  Royal Navy |
| Preceded by | Amazon class |
| Succeeded by | Fantome class |
| Built | 1867–1870 |
| In service | 1867–1921 |
| Completed | 7 |
| Scrapped | 7 |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Type | Wooden screw sloop (later corvette) |
| Displacement | 1,760 long tons (1,790 t) |
| Tons burthen | 1,268 bm |
| Length | 212 ft (64.6 m) (p/p) |
| Beam | 36 ft (11.0 m) |
| Draught | 16 ft 6 in (5.0 m) |
| Depth | 21 ft 6 in (6.6 m) |
| Installed power | 1,946–2,518 ihp (1,451–1,878 kW) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Sail plan | Barque or Ship rig |
| Speed | 12–13 knots (22–24 km/h; 14–15 mph) |
| Complement | 180 |
| Armament |
|
Design
editA development of the Amazon class, they were designed by Edward Reed, the Royal Navy's Director of Naval Construction. The hull was of wooden construction, but with iron cross-beams, and a ram bow was fitted.[1]
Propulsion
editPropulsion was provided by a two-cylinder horizontal steam engine driving a single screw. Spartan, Sirius and Tenedos had compound steam engines, and the remainder of the class had single-expansion steam engines.
Sail plan
editAll the ships of the class were built with a ship rig, but this was replaced with a barque rig.
Armament
editThe Eclipse class was designed with two 7-inch (6½-ton) muzzle-loading rifled guns mounted in traversing slides and four 64-pounder muzzle-loading rifled guns.[1] They were re-classified as corvettes in 1876, carrying a homogenous armament of twelve 64-pounder muzzle-loading rifled guns.
Ships
edit| Name | Ship Builder | Launched | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Danae | Portsmouth Dockyard | 21 May 1867 | Lent to the War Department as a hulk in 1886 and sold on 15 May 1906[1] |
| Blanche | Chatham Dockyard | 17 August 1867 | Sold to Castle for breaking in September 1886 |
| Eclipse | Sheerness Dockyard | 14 November 1867 | Lent to the War Department for use as a storage hulk between 1888 and 1892. Anchored in the Hamoaze as a floating magazine and No. 3 (Devonport) Division, Metropolitan Police barracks on census night in 1911. Sold in 1921.[1] |
| Sirius | Portsmouth Dockyard | 24 April 1868 | Sold to Castle for breaking at Charlton in 1885[1] |
| Spartan | Deptford Dockyard | 14 November 1868 | Sold to Castle for breaking on 7 November 1882[1] |
| Dido | Portsmouth Dockyard | 23 October 1869 | Hulked in 1886. Renamed Actaeon II in 1906. Sold to J B Garnham for breaking on 17 July 1922[1] |
| Tenedos | Devonport Dockyard | 13 May 1870 | Sold to G Pethwick of Plymouth for breaking in November 1887[1] |
| Proserpine | - | - | Authorised on 18 December 1866 but never ordered[1] |
| Diomede | - | - | Authorised on 18 December 1866 but rescinded on 30 April 1867[1] |
Notes
editBibliography
edit- Ballard, G. A. (1938). "British Sloops of 1875: The Smaller Ram-Bowed Type". Mariner's Mirror. 24 (April). Cambridge, UK: Society for Nautical Research: 160–75.
- 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.
- 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.