 Circa 1892 photograph of HMS Volage, lead ship of the class
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Volage class |
| Builders | Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, Blackwall, London |
| Operators |  Royal Navy |
| Preceded by | Briton class |
| Succeeded by | Amethyst class |
| Built | 1867–1871 |
| Completed | 2 |
| Scrapped | 2 |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Type | Iron screw corvette |
| Displacement | 3,078 long tons (3,127 t) |
| Tons burthen | 2,322 bm |
| Length | 270 ft (82.3 m) (p/p) |
| Beam | 42 ft 1 in (12.8 m) |
| Draught | 21 ft 5 in (6.5 m) |
| Installed power | 4,130 ihp (3,080 kW) |
| Propulsion |
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| Sail plan | Ship rig |
| Speed | 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Range | 2,000 nmi (3,700 km; 2,300 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement | 340 |
| Armament |
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The Volage class was a group of two screw corvettes built for the Royal Navy in the late 1860s. Both ships spent the bulk of their active service abroad. Volage spent most of her first commission assigned to the Detached or Flying Squadron circumnavigating the world and then carried a party of astronomers to the Kerguelen Islands to observe the Transit of Venus in 1874. The ship was then assigned as the senior officer's ship in South American waters until she was transferred to the Training Squadron during the 1880s.
Active served as the commodore's ship on the Cape of Good Hope and West Africa Station and her crew served ashore in both the Third Anglo-Ashanti and Zulu Wars. She was assigned to the Training Squadron in 1885 after a period in reserve. The sisters were paid off in 1898–99 and sold for scrap in 1904 and 1906, respectively.