HMS Calliope (1884)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Calliope.

Broadside view of a metal ship, quiet at anchor in a port. Two small boats are alongside. There are three masts but no sails are set. There is a large smokestack amidships. Guns are sponsoned out from the sides, with gunports between them.
HMS Calliope
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Calliope
BuilderHM Dockyard Portsmouth
CostHull: £82,000; machinery: £38,000[1]
Laid down1 October 1881[2]
Launched24 June 1884[2]
Sponsored byLady Phipps Hornby
Completed25 January 1887
Commissioned25 January 1887[1]
Maiden voyage1 March 1887
Renamed
  • Helicon (June 1915 – October 1931)
  • Calliope (October 1931 – 1951)
Nickname(s)"Hurricane Jumper"
FateSold for breaking 1951
General characteristics [1]
Class and typeCalypso-class corvette
Displacement2,770 long tons
Length235 ft (71.6 m) pp
Beam44 ft 6 in (13.6 m)
Draught19 ft 11 in (6.1 m)
Installed power
  • 6 boilers
  • 4,023 ihp (3,000 kW)
Propulsion4-cylinder compound-expansion J. and G. Rennie steam engine, driving a single screw
Sail planBarque rig[Note 1]
Speed13.75 kn (25.5 km/h) powered; 14.75 kn (27.3 km/h) forced draught
Range4,000 nmi (7,400 km) @ 10-knot (19 km/h)
Complement293 (later 317)
Armament
ArmourDeck: 1.5 in (38 mm) over engines[3]

HMS Calliope was a Calypso-class corvette (later classified as a third-class cruiser) of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom which served from 1887 until 1951. Exemplifying the transitional nature of the late Victorian navy, Calliope was a sailing corvette—the last such ship built for the Royal Navy—but supplemented the full sail rig with a powerful engine. Steel was used for the hull, and like the earlier iron-hulled corvettes, Calliope was cased with timber and coppered below the waterline, in the same manner as wooden ships.[4]

Calliope was known for "one of the most famous episodes of seamanship in the 19th century", when the vessel was the only ship present to avoid being sunk or stranded in the tropical cyclone that struck Apia, Samoa in 1889.[5] After retirement from active service, Calliope served as a training ship until 1951, when it was sold for breaking.

  1. ^ a b c Winfield (2004), p. 273
  2. ^ a b Burgess, Robert (30 March 1952). "Relic of HMS Calliope in Museum Recalls Epic of South Sea Storms". Daily Press (Newport News). p. 43. Retrieved 12 September 2021.
  3. ^ Brassey (1896), p. 262.
  4. ^ Archibald, The Metal Fighting Ship in the Royal Navy (1970), p. 43.
  5. ^ Lyon, Steam, Steel, and Torpedoes (1980), p. 39.


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