Satellite class sloop

HMS Satellite
Class overview
Name:	Satellite-class sloops
Builders:	Devonport Dockyard Sheerness Dockyard
Operators:	Royal Navy Irish Free State
Cost:	£62,900 (Satellite) - £71,000 (Caroline) (approx £5.25 million at 2008 prices)
Built:	1883–1888
In commission:	1883–1947
Completed:	7
General characteristics
Displacement:	1,420 tons
Length:	200 ft (61 m)
Beam:	38 ft (12 m)
Draught:	15.7 ft (4.8 m)
Installed power:	1,400 hp (1,044 kW)
Propulsion:	Horizontal compound expansion steam engine Single screw
Sail plan:	Barque-rigged
Range:	Approximately 6,000 nmi (11,000 km) at 10 kn (19 km/h)
Complement:	170-200
Armament:	As designed: Two BL 6-inch/100-pounder (81cwt) Mk II guns Ten BL 5-inch (127.0 mm) 50-pounder (38cwt) guns One light gun Four machine guns Heroine, Hyacinth, Royalist & Satellite: Eight BL 6-inch/100-pounder (81cwt) Mk II guns One light gun Four machine guns
Armour:	Internal steel deck over machinery and magazines

The Satellite class was a class of 12-gun composite sloops built for the Royal Navy between 1883 and 1888, and reclassified as corvettes in 1884.

Construction

Design

Designed by Nathaniel Barnaby, the Royal Navy Director of Naval Construction, the hull was of composite construction; that is, iron keel, frames, stem and stern posts with wooden planking. This class of composite sloops was unique in having an internal steel deck over the machinery and magazines for protection. The Satellite class were reclassified as corvettes in 1884, and no more composite or wooden corvettes were built - in fact, HMS Pylades was the last corvette built for the Royal Navy until the Second World War.

Propulsion

Propulsion was provided by a horizontal compound expansion of 1,400 indicated horsepower (1,044 kW) driving a single screw.

Sail Plan

All the ships of the class were built with a barque rig.

Armament

The class was designed with two 6-inch/100-pounder (81cwt) Breach-Loaders and ten 5-inch/50-pounder (38cwt) Breech Loaders, plus a single light gun and four (or more) machine guns. Heroine, Hyacinth and Royalist were built with eight 6inch/100-pounder (81cwt) Breach-Loaders in place of the 5-inch/6-inch mixture, and Satellite was converted to the same fit.

Ships

Name	Ship Builder	Launched	Fate
HMS Satellite	Sheerness Dockyard	13 August 1881	RNVR drill ship at North Shields on the River Tyne in 1904. Sold to J G Potts for breaking on 21 October 1947
HMS Heroine	Devonport Dockyard	3 December 1881	Sold to King of Bristol for breaking on 28 August 1902
HMS Hyacinth	Devonport Dockyard	20 December 1881	Sold to King of Bristol for breaking on 25 August 1902
HMS Royalist	Devonport Dockyard	7 March 1883	Hulk in February 1900. Renamed Colleen on 1 December 1913 and transferred to the Irish Free State Government on 19 February 1923
HMS Rapid	Devonport Dockyard	21 March 1883	Hulk in 1906. Became a coal hulk in 1912 and was renamed C7. Became an accommodation ship in 1916 and was renamed Hart. Sold at Gibraltar in 1948
HMS Caroline	Sheerness Dockyard	25 November 1882	Hulk in 1897. Became a training ship in April 1908 and was renamed Ganges. Renamed Powerful III in September 1913 and Impregnable IV in November 1919. Sold on 31 August 1929
HMS Pylades	Sheerness Dockyard	5 November 1884	Sold to Cohen of Felixstowe for breaking on 3 April 1906.

Operational Lives

These ships were designed to patrol the far-flung reaches of Britain's maritime empire, and so Rapid and Royalist both went to the Australian Station, Satellite to the Pacific Station, Pylades to the North America and West Indies Station and Heroine, Caroline and Hyacinth all to the China Station.

See also

• Media related to Satellite class sloop at Wikimedia Commons

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.