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Amazon-class sloop

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HMS Dryad at anchor, with sails airing
Class overview
NameAmazon class sloops
Builderslist error: <br /> list (help)
Pembroke Dockyard
Devonport Dockyard
Operators Royal Navy
Built1865 - 1866
In commission1865 - 1885
Completed6
Lost2
General characteristics
TypeScrew sloop
Displacement1574 tons
Length187 ft (57 m)
Beam36 ft (11 m)
Draught17 ft (5.2 m)[1]
Installed power300 horsepower[1]
Propulsionlist error: <br /> list (help)
Two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine
Single screw
Complement150[1]
Armamentlist error: mixed text and list (help)

As built:

  • Two 7-inch (6½-ton) muzzle loading rifled guns
  • Two 64-pounder muzzle loading rifled guns

As converted (Dryad, Nymphe & Vestal):

  • Nine 64-pounder muzzle loading rifled guns[2]

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[2], the Royal Navy Director of Naval Construction, the hull was of wooden construction, and they were equipped with a ram bow.[2]

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.[2]

Sail Plan

All the ships of the class were built with a barque rig.[2]

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.[2]

Ships

Name Ship Builder Launched Fate
HMS Amazon Pembroke Dockyard 1865 Sunk in collision with SS Osprey, off Start Point, English Channel 10 July 1866[1]
HMS Vestal Pembroke Dockyard 1865 Sold to Castle for breaking in December 1884[2]
HMS Niobe Devonport Dockyard 1866 Wrecked off Cape Blanc on Miquelon Island, off the Atlantic Coast of Newfoundland 21 May 1874[1]
HMS Dryad Devonport Dockyard 1866 Sold in September and broken up in April 1886[2]
HMS Daphne Pembroke Dockyard 1866 Sold for breaking on 7 November 1882[2]
HMS Nymphe Devonport Dockyard 1866 Sold for breaking in December 1884[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Cruisers at Battleships-Cruisers website". Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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.