The ''Camelion'' class was a class of screw-driven
sloops of wood construction, designed by Isaac Watts and operated by the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
. Eight ships of the class were built from 1858 to 1866 with another eight cancelled. They were initially rated as second-class sloops, but were later reclassified as
corvette
A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...
s.
Design
The class was designed by Issac Watts as second-class
sloops of 17 guns, and were a lengthened version of the .
[
]
Construction
Built of a traditional wood structure, they were long at the gundeck, in beam
Beam may refer to:
Streams of particles or energy
*Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy
**Laser beam
*Radio beam
*Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles
**Charged particle beam, a spatially lo ...
and displaced 1,365 tons. A barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts of which the fore mast, mainmast, and any additional masts are Square rig, rigged square, and only the aftmost mast (mizzen in three-maste ...
rig was fitted to allow easy sail handling with a relatively small crew of 180.[
]
Propulsion
They were fitted with a two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine (although ''Perseus'' and ''Reindeer'' received single trunk steam engines) driving a single screw. These engines generated 200 nominal horsepower
Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are th ...
, giving a speed of approximately .[
]
Armament
They were armed with five 40-pounder breech-loading guns and twelve 32-pounder muzzle-loading smoothbore guns, although ''Reindeer'' was completed with a single 110-pounder and five 64-pounder guns.[Winfield p.216]
Ships
The first two vessels were ordered on 3 April 1854, although neither was laid down for several years. Another three were ordered on 1 April 1857 and a further three on 27 March 1858. The final eight ships were ordered in two batches on 5 March 1860 and 25 March 1861, but were either cancelled, or in the case of ''Circassian'' and ''Trent'', completed as ironclad sloops under new names.
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
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External links
Royal Navy cruisers at www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk
{{Camelion class sloop
Ship classes of the Royal Navy
Sloop classes
Camelion