The ''Philomel''-class gunvessel was a class of wooden-hulled screw-driven second-class gunvessels built for the Royal Navy between 1859 and 1867, of which 26 were ordered but only 20 completed.
They had a mixed history, with some serving for as little as 5 years, and others surviving into the 1880s. Two of the class were sold and used as Arctic exploration vessels, both eventually being lost in the ice.
Design
The ''Philomel''-class gunvessels were an enlargement of the earlier
''Algerine''-class gunboat of 1856. The first pair of the class were ordered as "new style steam schooners" on 1 April 1857, another three were ordered on 27 March 1858 and a sixth on 8 April 1859; all were built in the naval dockyards. All six were re-classified as second-class gunvessels on 8 June 1859.
With this new classification, a further twelve of the class were ordered by the Admiralty on 14 June 1859, receiving their names on 24 September the same year. They were constructed of wood in contract yards and then fitted out at naval dockyards. Another six of the class were ordered on 5 March 1860 for construction in naval dockyards, with a final pair ordered in 1861.
[Winfield, p.222] Of these final eight, six were subsequently cancelled, and one,
''Newport'' was suspended for 4 years.
Propulsion
The ''Philomel'' class were fitted with a two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine and a single screw (''Ranger'' had a single-trunk engine). The engine, which was produced by a range of contractors, including
George Rennie & Sons and
Robert Napier and Sons
Messrs Robert Napier and Sons was a famous firm of River Clyde, Clyde shipbuilders and marine engineers at Govan, City of Glasgow, Glasgow founded by Robert Napier (engineer), Robert Napier in 1826. It was moved to Govan for more space in 1841. Hi ...
, was intended to produce a
notional horsepower of 80nhp, which equated to about . This was sufficient for a speed under steam alone of about .
Sailing rig
The class were fitted with a
barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...
-rigged sail plan.
[
]
Armament
Ships of the class were armed with a 68-pounder 95 cwt
The 68-pounder cannon was an artillery piece designed and used by the British Armed Forces in the mid-19th century. The cannon was a smoothbore muzzle-loading gun manufactured in several weights, the most common being , and fired projectiles of ...
muzzle-loading smooth-bore gun, two 24-pounder howitzers and two 20-pounder breech-loading guns. All ships of the class later had the 68-pounder replaced by a 7-inch/110-pounder breech-loading gun.[
]
Ships
References
External links
{{Philomel class gunvessel
Gunboat classes
Philomel