Bacchante-class corvette

Summary

The Bacchante class was a group of three iron screw corvettes in service with the Royal Navy from the late 1870s.

HMS Bacchante
Class overview
Name
  • Bacchante-class corvette
  • (later Bacchante-class cruiser)
BuildersPortsmouth and Chatham Dockyards
Operators Royal Navy
Preceded byEmerald class
Succeeded byComus class
Built1875–1877
In commission1877–1905
Planned4
Completed3
Cancelled1
Retired3
General characteristics
Class and type
  • Iron screw corvettes
  • (cruisers from 1877)
Displacement3,913-4,070 tons[2]
Length280 ft (85 m)
Beam45 ft (14 m)
Draught23 ft (7.0 m)[1]
Propulsion
  • Three-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine
  • 10 × cylindrical boilers
  • 1 × 21 ft (6.4 m) diameter screw[1]
Sail planShip-rigged
Speed15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)[1]
Complement375 (later 420)[1]
Armament

Design and construction edit

The ships were designed by Nathaniel Barnaby in 1872, with the first two ordered from Portsmouth Royal Dockyard in 1872 and Euryalus from Chatham Royal Dockyard in 1873. These were the last ships to be built of iron for the Royal Navy, with teak planking. Although similar, the three ships differed in design and appearance, and thus did not technically form a single class. A fourth ship (Highflyer) was ordered in 1878 from Portsmouth Dockyard, but was cancelled in 1879. In 1887, like all the remaining corvettes, they were redesignated cruisers by the Royal Navy.

Ships edit

Name Ship builder Launched Fate
Boadicea Portsmouth Dockyard 16 October 1875[2] Sold 6 January 1905[1]
Bacchante Portsmouth Dockyard 19 October 1876[2] Sold 10 May 1897[1]
Euryalus Chatham Dockyard 31 January 1877[2] Sold 10 May 1897[1]
Highflyer Cancelled 1879

References edit

  Media related to Bacchante class corvette at Wikimedia Commons

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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.
  2. ^ a b c d "Bacchante-class at Battleships-Cruisers website". Retrieved 26 November 2008.