Bacchante-class corvette

The Bacchante class was a group of three iron screw corvettes in service with the Royal Navy from the late 1870s.

HMS Bacchante
Class overview
Name	Bacchante-class corvette (later Bacchante-class cruiser)
Builders	Portsmouth and Chatham Dockyards
Operators	Royal Navy
Preceded by	Emerald class
Succeeded by	Comus class
Built	1875–1877
In commission	1877–1905
Planned	4
Completed	3
Cancelled	1
Retired	3
General characteristics
Class and type	Iron screw corvettes (cruisers from 1877)
Displacement	3,913-4,070 tons[1]
Length	280 ft (85 m)
Beam	45 ft (14 m)
Draught	23 ft (7.0 m)[2]
Propulsion	Three-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine 10 × cylindrical boilers 1 × 21 ft (6.4 m) diameter screw[2]
Sail plan	Ship-rigged
Speed	15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)[2]
Complement	375 (later 420)[2]
Armament	As built: 14 × 7-inch/112-pounder muzzle-loading rifled guns 2 × 6.3-inch/64-pounder muzzle-loading rifled guns (not Bacchante) Later: 12 × 6-inch Mk II breech-loading guns 4 × 5-inch breech-loading guns Machine guns[2]

Design and construction

The ships were designed by Nathaniel Barnaby in 1872, with the first two ordered from Portsmouth Royal Dockyard in 1872 and Euryalus from Chatham Royal Dockyard in 1873. These were the last ships to be built of iron for the Royal Navy, with teak planking. Although similar, the three ships differed in design and appearance, and thus did not technically form a single class. A fourth ship (Highflyer) was ordered in 1878 from Portsmouth Dockyard, but was cancelled in 1879. In 1887, like all the remaining corvettes, they were redesignated cruisers by the Royal Navy.

Ships

Name	Ship builder	Launched	Fate
Boadicea	Portsmouth Dockyard	16 October 1875[1]	Sold 6 January 1905[2]
Bacchante	Portsmouth Dockyard	19 October 1876[1]	Sold 10 May 1897[2]
Euryalus	Chatham Dockyard	31 January 1877[1]	Sold 10 May 1897[2]
Highflyer	Cancelled 1879