The ''Jason''-class corvette was a type of wooden screw

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 ...

made between 1859 and 1863. There were a total of seven ships of this class made by the authorization of 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 ...

History

The first three ships were ordered in 1856 as units of the preceding although was quickly converted to a

fourth rate In 1603 all English warships with a complement of fewer than 160 men were known as 'small ships'. In 1625/26 to establish pay rates for officers, a six-tier naval ship rating system was introduced.Winfield 2009 These small ships were divided ...

later, but was first the ''Jason''-class corvette. The authorization to make these ships came from the

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. These points are usually on the ...

at that time, who was in charge of making the . Two ships from the ''North Star'' class were then converted into their own class, the ''Jason'' class. They had covered decks and it was approved on 23 January 1860. Six more vessels were then brought into the ''Jason'' class and ordered by the

to be made in 1860. An additional pair was also added in 1861. However, all of these but were made, the rest were ''Jason'' class and only ''Menai'' survived to become a ''North Star''-class vessel. The remnants of the ''North Star''-class ships were then called the ''Jason''-class ships which were used mostly in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

to patrol or other duties.

Characteristics

These corvettes were open battery ships, first 21 (then 17) guns. This 21-gun design were of the Surveyor Departments design and they were approved on 10 February 1858. All of these ships were referred to as "Troop Frigates"; all of them were ship-rigged with telescopic funnels. The Armstrong breech-loading guns that were on the ships were removed in 1864 following a string of catastrophic accidents. In the big picture, 4 × 8 guns were replaced by 4 × 4-pdrs (28 cwt/8 ft), then all the surviving quartet were all reduced to 17 guns instead of 21 by 1869. ''Jason'' had eight 64-pdrs and eight 8-inch shells and to add it had a 110-pdr Armstrong cannon. ''Wolverine'' and ''Barrosa'' had 17 × 64 pdrs; while ''Rattlesnake'' had a fair 9 × 64-pdrs (8 × 8 in shells) which of course was pivot mounted. Some of the ships had severe engine problems such as ''Wolverine''; its engine was never satisfactory.

Ships

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References

{{Jason class corvette Corvette classes Jason-class corvettes Victorian-era corvettes of the United Kingdom