HMS Dryad (1866)
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HMS Dryad at anchor, with sails airing
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Dryad |
| Builder: | Devonport Dockyard |
| Laid down: | April 1865 |
| Launched: | 25 September 1866 |
| Decommissioned: | September 1885 |
| Honours and awards: |
Abyssinia (1868) |
| Fate: | Broken up in April 1886 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Screw Sloop |
| Displacement: | 1,574 tons |
| Length: | 187 ft (57 m) |
| Beam: | 36 ft (11 m) |
| Draught: | 17 ft (5.2 m) |
| Installed power: |
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| Propulsion: |
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| Sail plan: | Barque-rigged |
| Speed: | 11.9 knots (22.0 km/h) |
| Complement: | 150 (170 after armament converted) |
| Armament: |
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HMS Dryad was a 4-gun Amazon-class screw sloop, launched at Devonport in 1866. She served on the East Indies and North American Stations, taking part in the Abyssinian War, a confrontation with the French at Tamatave and the Egyptian War. She was sold for breaking in 1885.
Designed by Edward Reed, the Royal Navy Director of Naval Construction, the hull was built of oak, with teak planking and decks, and she was equipped with a ram bow.
Propulsion was provided by a two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine by Ravenhill, Salkeld & Company driving a single 15 ft (4.6 m) screw.
All the ships of the class were built with a barque rig.
The class was designed with two 7-inch (180 mm), 6½-ton muzzle-loading rifled guns mounted on slides on centre-line pivots, and two 64-pounder muzzle-loading rifled guns on broadside trucks. Dryad, Nymphe and Vestal were rearmed in the early 1870s with an armament of nine 64-pounder muzzle-loading rifled guns, four each side and a centre-line pivot mount at the bow.
Dryad's keel was laid in April 1865, and she was launched on 25 September 1866. Her first Captain was Commander Thomas Fellowes, who took command on 3 May 1867, and under whom she formed part of the East Indies Fleet.
In 1868, the ship's company of Dryad took part in the Abyssinian War. A Naval Brigade, composed of 80 men from several ships, was landed at Zula on 25 January, and was placed under the command of Commander Fellowes. They were armed with 12-pound rockets, which were ideally suited to operations in the rugged terrain of Abyssinia. William Simpson of the Illustrated London News reported that
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