Comus-class corvette
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HMS Curacoa at Sydney circa. 1890
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Comus class |
| Operators: |
 Royal Navy
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| Preceded by: | Bacchante class |
| Succeeded by: | Calypso class |
| Built: | 1878 - 1881 |
| Completed: | 9 |
| Scrapped: | 9 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 2,380 tons |
| Length: | 225 ft (69 m) |
| Beam: | 44 ft (13 m) |
| Draught: | 19 ft (6 m) |
| Propulsion: | Single screw driven by compound engines of 2,590 ihp ( MW) |
| Sail plan: | Barque or ship rig |
| Speed: | 13.75 kt (25.5 km/h) powered; 14.75 kt (27.3 km/h) |
| Armament: |
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| Armour: | Deck: 1.5 in (38 mm) over engines |
The Comus class was a class of Royal Navy steam corvettes, re-classified as third-class cruisers in 1888. All were built between 1878 and 1881. The class exemplifies the transitional nature of the late Victorian navy. In design, materials, armament, and propulsion the class members resemble their wooden sailing antecedents, but blended with characteristics of the all-metal mastless steam cruisers which followed.
Despite their qualities they had relatively short commissions, as they soon were rendered superfluous by the "flood of warships" built under the Naval Defence Act of 1889. By the turn of the century all were in reserve, relegated to subsidiary duties, or being scrapped.
Great Britain had a worldwide empire, founded upon and sustained by seaborne commerce. To protect this trade and police its empire, Britain constructed many small and medium-sized cruisers, the latter typically armed with guns up to six inches in calibre. They were designed to serve long periods at sea, and therefore were equipped with sails. The nine Comus-class corvettes and their later derivatives — the two Calypso-class corvettes — were ships of this type.
Planning for six metal-hulled corvettes began in 1876. These vessels, which became the Comus-class corvettes, were designed by Nathaniel Barnaby. Among the Royal Navy’s last sailing corvettes, they supplemented an extensive sail rig with powerful engines. Unlike their French rivals, which built fast steamers and needed neither long range nor a full rig of sail, the Royal Navy required their cruisers to be capable of long voyages away from coaling stations. Their ships therefore had a beamy hull to handle their sails, making them slower under steam than their French counterparts.
The British vessels were similar in appearance and layout to the older wooden and composite-hulled small cruisers they were intended to replace, albeit larger and more powerfully armed. The vessels were among the first of the smaller cruisers to be given metal hulls, with frames of iron or steel. The forefoot was a ram forged from brass, a feature then in vogue. In common with older wooden vessels, their hulls had copper sheathing over timber beneath the waterline, but that timber simply served to separate the iron hull from the copper sheathing so as to prevent electrolytic corrosion. The timber extended to the upper deck; it was in two layers from the keel to 3 ft (.9 m) above the water line, and one layer above.
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Wikipedia