Calypso-class corvette

HMS Calypso
Class overview
Name	Calypso class
Operators	Royal Navy
Preceded by	Comus class
Succeeded by	None
Built	1883–1884
In commission	1885–1907
Completed	2
Scrapped	2
General characteristics [1]
Type	Screw corvette
Displacement	2,770 tons
Length	235 ft 0 in (71.6 m) pp
Beam	44 ft 6 in (13.6 m)
Draught	19 ft 11 in (6.1 m)
Installed power	4,023 ihp (3,000 kW)
Propulsion	6 × boilers 4-cylinder J. and G. Rennie compound-expansion steam engine Single screw
Sail plan	Barque rig
Speed	13.75 kn (25.5 km/h) powered; 14.75 kn (27.3 km/h) forced draught
Complement	293 (later 317)
Armament	4 × BL 6-inch (152.4 mm) Mark II 26 calibre guns 12 × BL 5-inch (127.0 mm) guns 6 × QF Nordenfelt guns 4 × Gardner machine guns 2 × 14-inch (360 mm) torpedo carriages
Armour	Deck: 1.5 in (38 mm) over engines

The Calypso class comprised two steam corvettes (later classified as third-class cruisers) of the Royal Navy. Built for distant cruising in the heyday of the British Empire, they served with the fleet until the early twentieth century, when they became training ships. Remnants of both survive, after a fashion; HMS Calliope in the name of the naval reserve unit the ship once served, and HMS Calypso both in the name of a civilian charity and the more corporeal form of the hull, now awash in a cove off Newfoundland.

The class exemplifies the transitional nature of the late Victorian navy. In design, materials, armament, and propulsion the Calypsos show evidence of their wooden sailing antecedents, blended with characteristics of the all-metal mastless steam warships which followed. Their appearance and layout was similar to the "pure" sailing corvettes, with boiler rooms, machinery spaces, ventilators, and a flue added. Of iron and steel construction, they had coppering over timber below the waterline, as did older wooden vessels. Their armament was not in turrets or barbettes, but arranged in a central broadside battery, with the four largest guns on sponsons to give larger arcs of fire. And they had both a powerful steam engine and an extensive rig of sail. They formed the last class of sailing corvettes in the Royal Navy.^{[1][Note 1]}

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