Ariel-class gunboat

HMS Coquette, by William Frederick Mitchell (1873)
Class overview
Name	Ariel-class gunboats
Builders	Pembroke Dockyard Chatham Dockyard
Operators	Royal Navy British Merchant Navy
Preceded by	Britomart class
Succeeded by	Forester class
Cost	Hull £10,600, machinery £3,900 (Swinger)[1]
Built	1871–1873
In commission	1871–1895
Completed	9
Lost	0
General characteristics [1]
Class and type	Composite gunboat
Displacement	430 tons (except Ariel & Zephyr – 438 tons)
Tons burthen	295 bm
Length	125 ft 0 in (38.1 m)
Beam	22 ft 6 in (6.9 m) (except Ariel & Zephyr – 23 ft)
Draught	10 ft 3 in (3.1 m) max
Installed power	60 nhp
Propulsion	1 × 2-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine (except Swinger – single-expansion) 2 × boilers 1 × (hoisting) screw
Sail plan	Three-masted barquentine rig
Speed	9.5 kn (17.6 km/h)
Complement	40 (later 60)
Armament	2 × 6-inch (150 mm) 64-pounder (56cwt) muzzle-loading rifles 2 × 4-inch (100 mm) 20-pounder Armstrong breech loaders

The Ariel-class gunboat was a class of nine 4-gun composite gunboats built for the Royal Navy between 1871 and 1873. Although most were sold by 1890, one of them survived into the 1920s as a salvage vessel in private ownership. They were the first class of Royal Navy gunboat built of composite construction, that is, with iron keel, stem and stern posts, and iron framing, but planked with wood.