![]() Profile of Highflyer dated 1863
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Class overview | |
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Name | Highflyer class |
Operators | ![]() |
Preceded by | Nil |
Succeeded by | HMS Pylades |
Built | 1851-1854 |
In service | 1852-1871 |
Completed | 2 |
Scrapped | 2 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Type | Wooden screw corvette |
Displacement | 1,737+1⁄2 tons |
Tons burthen | 1,153 bm |
Length | |
Beam | 36 ft 4 in (11.07 m) |
Draught | 15 ft 9 in (4.80 m) |
Depth of hold | 22 ft 8 in (6.91 m) |
Installed power | |
Propulsion |
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Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
Speed | 9.4 kn (17.4 km/h) under steam |
Armament |
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The Highflyer-class corvettes were a pair of 21-gun wooden screw corvettes built in the 1850s for the Royal Navy.
Design
Highflyer was ordered as a small wooden frigate to a design by the Surveyor's Department of the Admiralty on 25 April 1847; she and her sister Esk were re-designated as corvettes in 1854. These ships were envisaged as steam auxiliaries, intended to cruise under sail with the steam engine available for assistance. Commensurately they were provided with a full square sailing rig. Esk was built in exchange for HMS <i>Greenock</i> (which went to the Australian Royal Mail Co.) The words of the Admiralty Order stated she should be "a wood screw vessel complete of Highflyer's [class] in exchange when built".[1]
Propulsion
Highflyer was given a geared two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine, provided by Maudslay, Sons & Field, which developed 702 indicated horsepower (523 kW) and drove a single screw.[1] Esk was provided with an oscillating two-cylinder inclined single-expansion steam engine, provided by the builders, was quite different from Highflyer's, but developed broadly the same power — 657 indicated horsepower (490 kW) — and drove a single screw.[1]
Armament
The class was a 21-gun corvette, mounting twenty 32-pounder (42cwt) long guns in a broadside arrangement, and a single 10-inch 84-pounder (85cwt) gun on a pivot. Both ships later swapped their broadside 32-pounders for eighteen 8-inch guns.[1]
Construction
Highflyer was built at Leamouth Wharf by C J Mare & Co., while Esk was ordered from the Millwall yard of J. Scott Russell & Co. on the River Thames.[1]
Ships
Ship | Builder | Laid down | Launched | Completed | Fate |
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Highflyer | C J Mare & Co.[1] | January 1850[1] | 13 August 1851[1] | 10 April 1852[1] | Broken up, May 1871[1] |
Esk | J. Scott Russell & Co.[1] | April 1853[1] | 12 June 1854[1] | 21 December 1854[1] | Broken up, 1870[1] |
Citations
References
- Winfield, R.; Lyon, D. (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC 52620555.
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