Cormorant-class gunvessel

HMS Cormorant
Class overview
Name	Cormorant class
Operators	Royal Navy
Preceded by	Philomel class
Succeeded by	Plover class
Built	1860-1867
In service	1860-1890
Completed	9
Lost	1
Scrapped	8
General characteristics [1][2]
Type	First-class gunvessel
Displacement	877 tons
Tons burthen	694 66/94 bm
Length	185 ft 0 in (56.4 m) (overall) 165 ft 7+1⁄4 in (50.5 m) (keel)
Beam	28 ft 4 in (8.6 m)
Draught	11–12 ft (3.4–3.7 m)
Depth of hold	14 ft 0 in (4.3 m)
Installed power	200 nhp 689–892 ihp (514–665 kW)
Propulsion	2-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine Single screw
Sail plan	Barque[3]
Speed	c. 11 knots (20 km/h) (under steam)
Complement	90
Armament	1 × 7-inch/110-pdr Armstrong breech-loading gun 1 × 68-pdr muzzle-loading smoothbore gun 2 × 20-pdr Armstrong breech-loading gun

The Cormorant-class gunvessels (sometimes known as Eclipse-class gunvessels) were a class of 4-gun first-class gunvessels built for the Royal Navy in the 1860s. They were somewhat unsuccessful; intended for shore bombardment in shallow water, they exceeded their design draft by 50%. Seven of the 13 ships ordered were suspended, with 3 finished or converted as survey ships and the other 4 cancelled. Racehorse was wrecked after only 4 years, and those ships that were completed as planned had short operational lives, in some cases less than 10 years. The survey vessels (Myrmidon, Sylvia and Nassau) lasted longest, with the last ship of the class, Sylvia, being broken up in 1890.