RN Screw Sloops

[Brian James]

HMS Beagle..She was a two-ship Class of 8-gun Screw Steel Sloops,she was built at Portsmouth Dockyard 1889,whilst her sister ship Basilisk was built at Sheerness Dockyard in the same year. Beagle and Basilisk were constructed of copper-sheathed steel to a design by William White, the Royal Navy Director of Naval Construction. They were powered by a twin-screw three-cylinder horizontal triple-expansion steam engine developing 2,000 indicated horsepower (1,500 kW) and carried a Barquentine sail rig.They were essentially the same design as the preceding Nymphe Class, but built of steel rather than of composite wood-and-steel construction.
In common with other designs of Royal Navy sloop of the period, the Beagle Class were not intended or designed to fight a modern fleet action; they were intended to patrol Britain's extensive maritime empire, and this is how they were employed. Beagle conducted three foreign commissions between 1890 and 1900, at least two of which were on the South Atlantic Station.She was refitted in 1900, during which her 5-inch breech-loading guns were replaced with quick-firing guns. Basilisk also spent all or part of her career on the South Atlantic Station.Beagle was sold for breaking on July 11th 1905,her sister Basilisk became coal hulk C7 and eventually sold as Maggie Grech in 1905.

[Brian James]

Fantome Class composite 4 gun Sloop HMS Egeria pictured in the Brisbane River in 1889.
Egeria was constructed of an iron frame sheathed with teak and copper (hence composite), and powered by a two-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine. This engine, provided by Humphrys, Tennant & Co.,drove a single 11-foot diameter screw and generated an indicated 1,011 horsepower. Steam was provided by three cylindrical boilers working at 60 pounds per square inch.In 1898, Egeria arrived in British Columbia where she was engaged in coastal surveys for the Royal Navy until 1910, by which time coast surveying responsibilities had been transferred to the Canadian Hydrographic Service.She was sold for breaking up in 1914. Her hulk was beached at Burrard Inlet, she was soaked in oil and set afire. The explosion killed three men.

[Brian James]

Condor Class steel screw 10 gun Sloop HMS Shearwater pictured at Esquimalt BC in April 1909.

[Brian James]

Satellite Class,12 gun composite screw Sloop HMS Royalist pictured at Queens Wharf,Wellington,NZ c1900.

[Brian James]

Satellite Class Composite Sloop HMS Pylades pictured at Farm Cove Sydney c1899.Built at Sheerness Dockyard and launched on November 5th 1884,she was later re-classified as a Corvette and was the last Corvette built for the RN until the Second World War.She commenced service on the Australia Station in 1894.Pylades was what is known as 'composite' built. Soon after the building of ships with iron was commenced, this composite system of construction was adopted in the British merchant service, and some very fast and celebrated vessels were thus constructed. The iron framing, with wooden skin planking, enabled considerable strength to be obtained, and the possibility of sheathing the bottom with metal in order to avoid fouling, appeared to be another advantage in favour of the composite system. Soon, however, it was shown that the galvanic action set up between the copper on the 'yellow metal' sheathing, and the iron frames tended to rapidly deteriorate the ironwork, and perhaps, sooner or later, hasten the loss of the vessel. So rapid, indeed, was this wasting of the frame found to be, that the composite system had been,as regards Merchantmen, abandoned. Some ships, however, were still built 'composite' for the Royal Navy, especially such craft as were intended for use on foreign stations, and whose duties would render frequent docking impossible. Such vessels were built with frames of steel, then sheathed with wood, and coppered.

[Brian James]

Alert Class Sloop HMS Torch pictured with Red Breast Class Composite Gunboats HMS Ringdove and HMS Goldfinch in Sunderland Graving Dock,Cockatoo Island Dockyard,Sydney c1897.

[Brian James]

Alert Class Sloop HMS Torch pictured at Sydney c1900.

[Brian James]

Composite Screw,Pygmy Class Gunboat HMS Partridge pictured at the International Columbian Naval Review at New York in 1893.

[Brian James]

Satellite Class Composite Screw Sloop HMS Royalist pictured at Sydney c1898.

[Brian James]

Lead Ship, Ironclad Screw Sloop HMS Bacchante pictured shortly after commissioning in 1877.Built at Portsmouth Dockyard, she was armed with fourteen 7-inch muzzle-loading rifled guns and two 64-pounder torpedo carriages, and rated at 4070 tons.The two oldest sons of the Prince of Wales had entered the navy in 1877, and by 1879 it had been decided by the Royal Family and the Government that the two should undertake a cruise. They were assigned to Bacchante, which was then part of a squadron intended to patrol the sea lanes of the British Empire. Queen Victoria was concerned that Bacchante might sink, drowning her grandchildren. Confident in their ship, the Admiralty sent Bacchante through a gale to prove she was sturdy enough to weather storms. The Princes, with their tutor John Neale Dalton, duly came aboard on September 17th 1879. Bacchante was to be their home for the next three years.
They made a number of cruises to different parts of the Empire with the squadron. Serving aboard the squadron's flagship, HMS Inconstant at this time was their relation, Prince Louis of Battenberg. The squadron initially consisted of HMS Inconstant, Bacchante, Diamond and Topaze, the composition altering during the voyages as ships left, or were joined by new ones. Bacchante visited the Mediterranean and the West Indies, followed by later voyages to South America, South Africa, Australia, China and Japan. The Princes made regular diary entries, which were later published as two volumes in 1886 as The Cruise of Her Majesty's Ship Bacchante. She briefly assisted in the First Boer War, before the squadron sailed again for Australia. Shortly after reaching the coast on May 12th, a heavy storm blew up and when it had abated, Bacchante was missing. After three days searching, news reached the squadron that Bacchante had had her rudder disabled, but had been able to reach safety at Albany, Western Australia. Bacchante eventually returned to England in August 1882 and discharged her young Royal midshipmen. By then she had covered 40,000 miles, mostly under sail, and had rounded the Cape of Good Hope twice. She became the only British vessel in which two grandsons of the reigning monarch served at the same time. Bacchante was then paid off and underwent a long refit, which saw her being partially rearmed. She was then dispatched to the East Indies to relieve her sister, HMS Euryalus, as flagship on the station. Bacchante served during the Third Anglo-Burmese War in 1885, transferring three-quarters of her complement to serve on Gunboats on the Irrawaddy River or in the suppression of banditry. She returned to Britain in 1888 and was placed in reserve. She was sold to the shipbreakers Cohen in 1897, and scrapped.