HMS Orpheus (1860)

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Richard Brydges Beechey's 1863 painting of the disaster.
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Orpheus
Namesake	Orpheus, a figure from Greek mythology, king of the Thracian tribe Cicones.
Ordered	1 April 1857[1]
Builder	Chatham Dockyard
Laid down	12 May 1858[1]
Launched	23 June 1860[1]
Commissioned	Portsmouth 24 October 1861[1]
Fate	Wrecked 7 February 1863
General characteristics
Class and type	Jason-class corvette
Displacement	2,365 tons[1]
Tons burthen	1,702 bm
Length	225 ft (69 m)[1]
Beam	40 ft (12 m)[1]
Draught	18 ft 0 in (5.5 m) (forward) 19 ft 9 in (6.0 m) (aft)[1]
Installed power	400 nominal horsepower 1,333 indicated horsepower (994 kW)[1]
Propulsion	2-cylinder horizontal single-expansion engine 4 × boilers 4 × furnaces Single screw
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Speed	11.1 knots (20.6 km/h)[1]
Complement	258
Armament	20 × 8-inch (68pdr/65cwt) muzzle-loading smoothbore broadside guns 1 × pivot-mounted 7-inch (110-pdr/82cwt) Armstrong breech loader[1]

HMS Orpheus was a Jason-class Royal Navy corvette that served as the flagship of the Australian squadron. Orpheus sank off the west coast of Auckland, New Zealand on 7 February 1863: 189 crew out of the ship's complement of 259 died in the disaster, making it the worst maritime tragedy to occur in New Zealand waters.^[2]