HMS Iris (1877)

HMS Iris as built.
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Iris
Builder:	Pembroke Dockyard
Laid down:	10 November 1875
Launched:	12 April 1877
Completed:	April 1879
Fate:	Sold for scrapping 1905
General characteristics
Class and type:	Iris-class despatch vessel, later second-class cruiser
Displacement:	3,730 tons
Length:	300 ft (91 m) between perpendiculars 333 ft (101 m) length overall
Beam:	46 ft (14.0 m)
Draught:	22 ft (6.7 m)
Installed power:	Trials: 7,330 indicated horsepower (9.8 megawatts) In service: 6,000 indicated horsepower (8 megawatts)
Propulsion:	Maudslay horizontal direct-acting compound steam engine, eight oval and four cylindrical boilers, 780 tons coal
Speed:	Trials: 17.7 knots (32.8 km/h)maximum In service: 17 knots (31.5 km/h) maximum
Complement:	275
Armament:	As completed: 10 x 64-pounder (29-kg) guns Shortly after completion: 2 x 64-pounder (29-kg) guns, 4 x 6-inch (152-mm) breech-loading rifled guns, 4 x 5-inch (127-mm) breech-loading rifled guns 1887: 13 x 5-inch (127 mm) breech-loading rifled guns, 4 x 3-pounder (1.4-kg) quick-firing guns, 4 x torpedo carriages
Armour:	none

HMS Iris was an Iris-class second-class cruiser of the Royal Navy. The Iris-class ships were the first all-steel ships to serve with the Royal Navy and were employed as armed dispatch vessels. She had a double bottom and her Maudslay machinery produced 7,300 hp (5,400 kW), slightly less than her sister ship HMS Mercury, but her 17.35 knots (32.13 km/h) still made her one of the fastest ships of her day. Mercury was identical in most respects, though she had an upright stem and a different arrangement of head sail.

She was laid down at the Pembroke Dockyard on 10 November 1875, launched on 12 April 1877 and completed on 18 April 1879. She was commissioned on 27 April 1880 and her first commander was Captain Edward Seymour, with Lieutenant Robert Archer as First Lieutenant. She served in the Mediterranean from 1879 to 1887, then in the Portsmouth Reserve from 1887 to 1903. She was a tender to HMS St Vincent in 1903 and 1904 and was sold off in 1905.