NAVYPEDIA

Photo

Nymphe 1866

Ships

Name	No	Yard No	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Comp	Fate
Amazon			Pembroke DYd	1864	23.5.1865	1866	collision 10.7.1866
Vestal			Pembroke DYd	1864	16.11.1865	1867	sold 12.1884
Niobe			Deptford DYd	1864	31.5.1866	1871	wrecked 21.5.1874
Dryad			Devonport DYd	4.1865	25.9.1866	1867	sold 9.1885
Daphne			Pembroke DYd	1865	23.10.1866	1867	sold 11.1882
Nymphe			Deptford DYd	1865	24.11.1866	1867	sold 12.1884

Technical data

Displacement normal, t	Amazon: 1525 Vestal: 1597 Niobe: 1570 Dryad: 1574 Daphne: 1640 Nymphe: 1555
Displacement full, t
Length, m	57.0 pp
Breadth, m	11.0
Draught, m	4.69 hold depth
No of shafts	1
Machinery	Amazon, Niobe, Dryad, Daphne: sails + 4 boilers, 1 2-cyl HSE Vestal, Nymphe: sails + 4 boilers, 1 3-cyl HSE
Power, h. p.	Amazon: 1455 Vestal: 2154 Niobe: 1833 Dryad: 1464 Daphne: 1927 Nymphe: 2172
Max speed, kts	Amazon, Niobe: 12.3 Vestal: 12.8 Dryad: 12 Daphne: 12.5 Nymphe: 13.1
Fuel, t	coal 200
Endurance, nm(kts)
Armament	2 x 1 - 178/16 MLR Mk III, 2 x 1 - 160/16 64pdr 64cwt MLR
Complement	150

Graphics

Project history

Designed by Sir Edward Reed, this class was the first break through from the traditional sloop. The vessels were the first to be constructed with a poop and a topgallant forecastle, and the first to be fitted with Reed's design of ram bow, hither to only appearing in armoured ships. They were also the heaviest of this rate ever officially termed sloops in the navy. In design they were the smaller antecedents of the ram-bowed Eclipse class corvettes (1867/70). In design, the Amazon class had the same beam as the Eclipse corvettes, an identical form of timber construction, with iron cross beams, and the same general internal arrangements for berthing, bunkering and stores - on a length of 7.6m less than even the smaller corvettes. A five to one ratio of length to beam was adopted as an acceptable proportion for sloops. This class was characterized by the very full beam towards both ends of the ship and their fine-lined extremities. With timber in short supply, the dockyards were forced to use different kinds of timber to build these ships. Amazon and Vestal were of teak, while Niobe and Nymphe had frames in English oak, with teak cladding, and Daphne had English oak frames and Italian oak planking. Dryad was constructed half English and half Italian oak frames, with teak planking, and Niobe and Nymphe had decks made of fir.     The 178mm guns were slide-mounted, pivoted to the ship's centreline to enable them to be traversed to fire from either side. The two 64pdrs were truck-mounted, one on each side.If stern fire were required, there were ports under the poop to which one of the broadside guns could be moved. They were far better steamships than their predecessors. Amazon, Daphne and Niobe logged 12kts on trials. The class, rigged as barques, marked the final change in rig, sloops hitherto being a mixture of barque- and ship-rig. The ships had fixed screws of 4.5m diameter, and the best that they could do under canvas was 11kts. They were the last class of all wooden-hulled sloops to be built.

Modernizations

1871, all: + 1 x 1 - 160/16 64pdr 64cwt MLR

early 1870s, Dryad, Nymphe, Vestal: were armed with 9 x 1 - 160/16 64pdr 64cwt MLR

Naval service

Amazon was sunk in a collision with collier Osprey in the English Channel on 10.7.1866. Niobe was wrecked off Cape Blanc (Miquelon Island) 21.5.1874.