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 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| Diomede | - | - | Authorised on 18 December 1866 but rescinded on 30 April 1867[1] |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
Bibliography
- 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.
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