Volage-class corvette

Circa 1892 photograph of HMS Volage, lead ship of the class
Class overview
NameVolage class
BuildersThames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, Blackwall, London
Operators Royal Navy
Preceded byBriton class
Succeeded byAmethyst class
Built1867–1871
Completed2
Scrapped2
General characteristics (as built)
TypeIron screw corvette
Displacement3,078 long tons (3,127 t)
Tons burthen2,322 bm
Length270 ft (82.3 m) (p/p)
Beam42 ft 1 in (12.8 m)
Draught21 ft 5 in (6.5 m)
Installed power4,130 ihp (3,080 kW)
Propulsion
Sail planShip rig
Speed15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Range2,000 nmi (3,700 km; 2,300 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement340
Armament

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.