Amethyst-class corvette

HMS Diamond in Farm Cove, Sydney c. 1887
Class overview
Name:	Amethyst-class
Builders:	Devonport Dockyard, Sheerness Dockyard
Operators:	Royal Navy
Preceded by:	Volage class
Succeeded by:	HMS Rover
Built:	1871–75
Completed:	5
Scrapped:	5
General characteristics (as built)
Type:	Wooden screw corvette
Displacement:	1,934 long tons (1,965 t)
Tons burthen:	1,405 bm
Length:	220 ft (67.1 m) (p/p)
Beam:	37 ft (11.3 m)
Draught:	18 ft (5.5 m)
Installed power:	2,031–2,364 ihp (1,515–1,763 kW)
Propulsion:	1 shaft 1 × 2-cylinder compound expansion steam engine 6 cylindrical boilers
Sail plan:	Ship rig
Speed:	12–13 knots (22–24 km/h; 14–15 mph)
Range:	2,060–2,500 nmi (3,820–4,630 km; 2,370–2,880 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement:	225
Armament:	14 × 64-pounder 71-cwt or 64-cwt rifled muzzle-loading (RML) guns

The Amethyst-class corvettes were the last wooden warships built at a royal dockyard. Built in the early 1870s, they mostly served overseas and were retired early as they were regarded as hopelessly obsolete by the late 1880s.

Ships

Ship	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Completed	Fate	Cost
Amethyst	Devonport Dockyard[1]	28 July 1871[2]	19 April 1873[2]	July 1873[2]	Sold for scrap, November 1887[2]	N/A
Diamond	Sheerness Dockyard[1]	1873[2]	26 August 1873[2]	July 1875[2]	Sold for scrap August 1889[2]	£76,796[2]
Encounter	Sheerness Dockyard[1]	19 June 1871[2]	1 January 1873[2]	July 1873[2]	Sold for scrap October 1888[2]	£63,098[3]
Modeste	Devonport Dockyard[1]	27 November 1871[2]	23 May 1873[2]	January 1874[2]	Sold for scrap, 8 January 1888[2]	N/A
Sapphire	Devonport Dockyard[1]	17 June 1873[2]	24 September 1874[2]	August 1875[2]	Sold for scrap, 24 September 1892[2]	£78,297[2]

Notes

Footnotes

1. Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 51
2. Lyon & Winfield, p. 288
3. Brassey 1888, p. 288.

Bibliography

• Ballard, G. A. (1937). "British Corvettes of 1875: The Last Wooden Class". Mariner's Mirror. Cambridge, UK: Society for Nautical Research. 23 (October): 435–45.
• Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
• Brassey, T. A. (1888). The Naval Annual 1887. London: J Griffin and Co.
• Winfield, Rif & Lyon, David (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC 52620555.