The Doterel class was a Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 class of screw-driven sloop

Sloop-of-war

In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...

s. They were of composite construction, with wooden hulls over an iron frame. They were a revised version of an 1874 design by the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

's Chief Constructor

Director of Naval Construction

The Director of Naval Construction was a senior British civil servant post in the Admiralty, that part of the British Civil Service that oversaw the Royal Navy. The post existed from 1860 to 1966....

, William Henry White

William Henry White

Sir William Henry White was a prolific British warship designer and Chief Constructor at the Admiralty....

, the . Two of the class were lost, one to an explosion off Chile and one wrecked off Canada. Gannet is preserved at Chatham Historic Dockyard.

Design

The Nathaniel Barnaby

Nathaniel Barnaby

Sir Nathaniel Barnaby, KCB was Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy from 1872 to 1885....

 design was a development of William Henry White

William Henry White

Sir William Henry White was a prolific British warship designer and Chief Constructor at the Admiralty....

's 1874 . The graceful clipper bow of the Opsreys was replaced by a vertical stem and the engines were more powerful. They were of composite construction, with wooden hulls over an iron frame.

Propulsion

Power was provided by three cylindrical boilers, which supplied steam at 60 pound per square inches (413,685.4 Pa) to a two-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine driving a single 13 inch screw. This arrangement produced 900 ihp and a top speed of between 11 and 11.6 kn (21.6 and 22.7 km/h).

Armament

They were armed with two 7-inch (90cwt) muzzle-loading rifled guns on pivoting mounts, and four 64-pounder muzzle-loading rifled guns

RML 64 pounder 64 cwt gun

The RML 64 pounder 64 cwt gun was a Rifled, Muzzle Loading naval, field or fortification artillery gun manufactured in England in the 19th century, which fired a projectile weighing approximately...

 (two on pivoting mounts, and two broadside). Four machine guns and one light gun completed the weaponry.

Sail plan

All the ships of the class were provided with a barque

Barque

A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...

 rig, that is, square-rigged foremast and mainmast, and fore-and aft sails only on the mizzen mast.

Ships

Name	Ship Builder	Laid down	Launched	Commissioned	Fate
Dragon HMS Dragon (1878) HMS Dragon was a Doterel-class sloop of the Royal Navy, built at Devonport Dockyard and launched on 30 May 1878. She served in the East Indies, including the Anglo-Egyptian War of 1882, and the suppression of slavery. She was sold for breaking in 1892.-Design:The Doterel class was designed by...	Devonport Dockyard	26 April 1877	30 May 1878	19 February 1879	Sold for breaking Ship breaking Ship breaking or ship demolition is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships for scrap recycling. Most ships have a lifespan of a few decades before there is so much wear that refitting and repair becomes uneconomical. Ship breaking allows materials from the ship, especially...  24 September 1892
Pegasus HMS Pegasus (1878) HMS Pegasus was a Doterel-class screw composite 6-gun sloop launched on 13 June 1878. She was sold for scrap in 1892.-Design:The Doterel class were a development of the Osprey-class sloops and were of composite construction, with wooden hulls over an iron frame...	Devonport Dockyard	9 May 1877	13 June 1878	5 March 1879	Sold for breaking 11 August 1892
Gannet HMS Gannet (1878) HMS Gannet was a Royal Navy screw sloop launched on 31 August 1878. She became a training ship in the Thames in 1903, and was then lent as a training ship for boys in the Hamble from 1913...	Sheerness Dockyard	1877	31 August 1878	17 April 1879	Training ship 16 May 1903, renamed President, then in 1913 became training ship Mercury. In 1971 was turned over to the Maritime Trust, on display in Chatham Chatham, Medway Chatham is one of the Medway towns located within the Medway unitary authority, in North Kent, in South East England.Although the dockyard has long been closed and is now being redeveloped into a business and residential community as well as a museum featuring the famous submarine, HMS Ocelot,...  Historic Dockyard
Phoenix HMS Phoenix (1879) HMS Phoenix was a sloop launched in 1879. She was wrecked off Prince Edward Island, Canada on 12 September 1882.-Design:The Doterel class was designed by Nathaniel Barnaby as a development of William Henry White's 1874 . The graceful clipper bow of the Opsreys was replaced by a vertical stem and...	Devonport Dockyard	8 July 1878	16 September 1879	20 April 1880	Wrecked off Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population... , Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...  on 12 September 1882
Miranda HMS Miranda (1879) HMS Miranda was a Doterel-class sloop of the Royal Navy, built at Devonport Dockyard and launched on 30 September 1879.-Design:The Doterel class was designed by Nathaniel Barnaby as a development of William Henry White's 1874 . The graceful clipper bow of the Opsreys was replaced by a vertical...	Devonport Dockyard	8 July 1878	30 September 1879	22 July 1880	Sold for breaking 24 September 1892
Kingfisher	Sheerness Dockyard	23 September 1878	16 December 1879	17 August 1880	Training ship 10 November 1892, renamed Lark, then on 18 May 1893 training ship Cruiser. Sold in 1919
Doterel HMS Doterel (1880) HMS Doterel was a sloop launched in 1880. She sank at anchor off Punta Arenas after an explosion on 26 April 1881 with the loss of 143 lives while on her way to join the Pacific Station. Her loss was initially the source of much speculation. Causes considered included an attack by the Fenians, a...	Chatham Dockyard	13 May 1878	2 March 1880	7 December 1880	Exploded by accident and sank off Punta Arenas, Chile Chile Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...  on 26 April 1881, with loss of 143 men
Mutine HMS Mutine (1880) HMS Mutine was a Doterel-class sloop of the Royal Navy, built at the Devonport Dockyard and launched on 20 July 1880. She became a boom defence vessel at Southampton in 1899 and was renamed Azov in 1904. She was sold after World War I.-Design:...	Devonport Dockyard	7 June 1879	20 July 1880	10 May 1881	Became boom defence vessel 1899, renamed HMS Azov in March 1904. Sold for breaking 25 August 1921
Espiegle HMS Espiegle (1880) HMS Espiegle was a Doterel-class sloop of the Royal Navy, built at the Devonport Dockyard and launched on 3 August 1880.-Design:The Doterel class was designed by Nathaniel Barnaby as a development of William Henry White's 1874 . The graceful clipper bow of the Opsreys was replaced by a vertical...	Devonport Dockyard	23 September 1879	3 August 1880	11 October 1881	Became boom defence vessel 1899, renamed HMS Argo in March 1904. Sold for breaking 25 August 1921