Ariel-class gunboat

HMS Coquette, by William Frederick Mitchell (1873)
Class overview
NameAriel-class gunboats
Builders
  • Pembroke Dockyard
  • Chatham Dockyard
Operators
Preceded byBritomart class
Succeeded byForester class
CostHull £10,600, machinery £3,900 (Swinger)[1]
Built1871–1873
In commission1871–1895
Completed9
Lost0
General characteristics [1]
Class and typeComposite gunboat
Displacement
  • 430 tons
  • (except Ariel & Zephyr – 438 tons)
Tons burthen295 bm
Length125 ft 0 in (38.1 m)
Beam
  • 22 ft 6 in (6.9 m)
  • (except Ariel & Zephyr – 23 ft)
Draught10 ft 3 in (3.1 m) max
Installed power60 nhp
Propulsion
  • 1 × 2-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine (except Swinger – single-expansion)
  • 2 × boilers
  • 1 × (hoisting) screw
Sail planThree-masted barquentine rig
Speed9.5 kn (17.6 km/h)
Complement40 (later 60)
Armament

The Ariel-class gunboat was a class of nine 4-gun composite gunboats built for the Royal Navy between 1871 and 1873. Although most were sold by 1890, one of them survived into the 1920s as a salvage vessel in private ownership. They were the first class of Royal Navy gunboat built of composite construction, that is, with iron keel, stem and stern posts, and iron framing, but planked with wood.

  1. ^ a b Winfield (2004), p. 297