Britomart-class gunboat

The Britomart-class gunboat was a class of sixteen gunboats built for the Royal Navy in 1859–1867.

Design

The Britomart class was an improved version of the Dapper class designed by W.H. Walker, and as such comes under the generic group "Crimean gunboats" although this class was ordered and built long after the end of the Crimean War. These were the last Royal Navy gunboats to have wooden hulls: subsequent gunboats were of composite construction, with wooden planking over iron frames.^[1]

Propulsion

The class were fitted with a single-cylinder single-expansion reciprocating steam engine. The single screw could be hoisted to give improved performance under sail.^[1]

Sail plan

The ships were provided with a three-masted barquentine rig, that is, with square sails on the foremast and fore-and-aft sails on the main and mizzen masts.^[1]

Armament

Early ships of the class were armed with two 68-pounder smooth bore muzzle loading cannon (as had been planned, but not implemented, for the Dapper class); but the Heron was fitted with two 112-pounder Armstrong guns. Later ships had two 64-pounder rifled muzzle-loading guns.^[1]

Ships

Citations

^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Winfield, p.231–232
^ a b c A. Preston & J.Major, Send a Gunboat!: The Victorian Navy and Supremacy at Sea, 1854-1904, Conway, 2007, page 65
^ "The Lords of the Admiralty". Western Morning News. No. 217, Vol.II. Plymouth. 12 September 1860. p. 2. Retrieved 20 October 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ a b "Launch of Two Gunboats on the Wear". Newcastle Journal. No. 1481, Vol.XXIX. 9 June 1860. p. 5. Retrieved 20 October 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ "Naval and Military". Daily News. No. 4788. London. 14 September 1861. p. 6. Retrieved 20 October 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ "The Navy". The Sun. No. 21380. London. 23 January 1861. p. 1. Retrieved 21 October 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.

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 Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
Winfield, R.; Lyon, D. (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.