HMS Comus (1878)
HMS Comus
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Comus |
| Builder: | J. Elder & Co., Glasgow |
| Laid down: | 1876 |
| Launched: | 4 April 1878 |
| Fate: | sold in 1904 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Comus-class corvette |
| Displacement: | 2,380 long tons |
| Length: | 225 ft (69 m) |
| Beam: | 44.6 ft (14 m) |
| Draught: |
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| Propulsion: | 2 engines of 2,590 ihp driving single screw |
| Speed: | 13 kt |
| Complement: | 250 |
| Armament: |
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HMS Comus was a corvette (reclassified in 1888 as a third-class cruiser) of the Royal Navy. She was the name ship of her class. Launched in April 1878, the vessel was built by Messrs. J. Elder & Co of Glasgow at a cost of ₤123,000.
Comus and her classmates were built during a period of naval transition. Sail was giving way to steam, wooden hulls to metal, and smooth-bore muzzleloading guns to naval rifles. Comus shows this transition; she was driven by both sails and a reciprocating steam engine; her hull was iron and steel but sheathed with wood and copper; and some of her muzzleloading guns were replaced by rifled breechloaders.
Comus was active for about two decades, but in that time went to the ends of empire, from the British Isles to the Caribbean and Nova Scotia to southwest Africa in the western hemisphere, and in the eastern, from the southern Indian Ocean to the northwest Pacific, and from the China station to the Strait of Magellan.
Comus was a single-screw corvette (later classified as a third-class cruiser) designed for distant cruising service for the British Empire. Built with iron frames and steel plating, she was sheathed with wood and coppered. The hull was unprotected except for a 1.5 in (38 mm) of armour over the machinery spaces. with some additional protection offered by the coal bunkers flanking the engine spaces and magazines.
Comus had a ship rig, with sqaresails on all three masts. She and her class were among the last of the saiing corvettes. The vessel was also equipped with a steam engine driving a single screw with 2,590 indicated horsepower; to reduce resistance, this propeller could be hoisted into a slot cut in the keel when the vessel was under sail.
The ship initially carried two 7-inch muzzle-loading rifles, four breechloading 6-inch 80-pounder guns and eight 64-pdr muzzle-loading rifles, but the breech loaders proved unsatisfactory and were replaced in the rest of the class with more 64-pounders.
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