HMS Calypso (1883)

HMS Calypso
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Calypso
BuilderHM Dockyard Chatham
CostHull: £82,000; machinery: £37,500[1]
Laid down1881
Launched7 June 1883
Commissioned21 September 1885 (first commission)
RenamedHMS Briton, 15 February 1916
ReclassifiedTraining ship, 2 September 1902
FateSold 7 April 1922; burned off Jobs Cove near Embree, NL
General characteristics [1]
Class and typeCalypso-class corvette
Displacement2,770 long tons (2,810 t)
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 J. and G. Rennie compound-expansion steam engine driving a single screw
Sail planBarque rig[Note 1]
Speed13.75 knots (25.47 km/h; 15.82 mph) powered; 14.75 knots (27.32 km/h; 16.97 mph) forced draught
Armament
ArmourDeck: 1.5 in (38 mm) over machinery
H.M.S. Calypso, sketched by a young Robert Falcon Scott in 1883

HMS Calypso was a corvette (designated as a third-class cruiser from 1887[2]) of the Royal Navy and the lead ship of her namesake class. Built for distant cruising in the heyday of the British Empire, the vessel served as a warship and training vessel until 1922, when she was sold.

Originally classified as a screw corvette, Calypso was also one of the Royal Navy's last sailing corvettes but supplemented an extensive sail rig with a powerful engine. Among the first of the smaller cruisers to be given steel hulls instead of iron, the hull nevertheless was cased with timber and coppered below the water line, as were wooden ships.[3]

Unlike Calliope, the more famous member of the class, Calypso had a quiet career, consisting mainly of training cruises in the Atlantic Ocean. In 1902 the warship was sent to the colony of Newfoundland and served as a training ship for the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve before and during the First World War. In 1922 Calypso was declared surplus and sold, then used as a storage hulk. Her hull still exists, awash in the Bay of Exploits south of Embree in Newfoundland.

  1. ^ a b Winfield (2004), p.273
  2. ^ Winfield (2004), p.265
  3. ^ Archibald (1971), p. 43.


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