HMS Pylades (1854)

Pylades at sea on 12 October 1869
History
United Kingdom
Name	Pylades
Namesake	Pylades
Builder	Sheerness Dockyard
Laid down	9 May 1853
Launched	23 November 1854
Completed	29 March 1855
Commissioned	5 January 1855
Out of service	31 December 1873
Fate	Sold to be broken up 23 January 1875
Class overview
Name	Pylades class
Preceded by	Highflyer class
Succeeded by	Cossack class
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Pylades-class corvette
Displacement	1,956 long tons (1,987 t)
Tons burthen	1,267 bm
Length	192 ft 9 in (58.75 m) o/a 165 ft 0.5 in (50.30 m) pp
Beam	38 ft 4 in (11.68 m)
Draught	19 ft 7 in (5.97 m)
Installed power	1,106 ihp (825 kW)
Propulsion	2-cylinder steam engine Single screw
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Speed	10.119 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	250
Armament	20 × 8 in (200 mm) SBML guns 1 × 10 in (250 mm) pivot gun

HMS Pylades was the sole member of the Pylades class of first-class screw corvettes that served in the Victorian Royal Navy. Pylades was a development of the previous Highflyer class with a greater beam. The vessel served under two commanders who later became admirals, Captains Arthur Acland Hood and Edwin Tennyson d'Eyncourt. A third commander was Captain Michael de Courcy, remembered in the name of De Courcy Island, one of the Gulf Islands off the coast of British Columbia along with Pylades Island, which is named for the corvette. In 1855, Pylades served in the Baltic Sea during the Crimean War. In 1859, the vessel was the last Royal Navy warship to visit the San Juan Islands during the San Juan Boundary Dispute. In 1863, the ship's presence helped diffuse the Chesapeake affair that could have led to the British Empire joining the American Civil War. After serving across the British Empire, the ship was decommissioned and sold to be broken up in 1875.