Eclipse-class sloop
.jpg) HMS Sirius | |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | |
| 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: |
|
- For the 1894 class of protected cruiser see: Eclipse-class cruiser
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.
Design
A 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
Propulsion 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
All the ships of the class were built with a ship rig, but this was replaced with a barque rig.
Armament
The 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
| 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 as a hulk for storage of mines from 1888 to 1892. 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
Bibliography
- Ballard, G. A. (1938). "British Sloops of 1875: The Smaller Ram-Bowed Type". Mariner's Mirror. Cambridge, UK: Society for Nautical Research. 24 (April): 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, Rif & Lyon, David (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.
External links
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