The Eclipse class was a class of seven 6-gun wooden screw sloops built for the Royal Navy between 1867 and 1870. They were re-armed and re-classified as 12-gun corvettes in 1876. Two further vessels were proposed but never ordered.
Design
A development of the , they were designed by Edward Reed, the Royal Navy's Director of Naval Construction. The hull was of wooden construction, but with iron cross-beams, and a ram bow was fitted.Winfield, pp. 290–91
Propulsion
Propulsion was provided by a two-cylinder horizontal steam engine driving a single screw. Spartan, Sirius and Tenedos had compound steam engines, and the remainder of the class had single-expansion steam engines.
Sail plan
All the ships of the class were built with a ship rig, but this was replaced with a barque rig.
Armament
The Eclipse class was designed with two 7-inch (6½-ton) muzzle-loading rifled guns mounted in traversing slides and four 64-pounder muzzle-loading rifled guns. They were re-classified as corvettes in 1876, carrying a homogenous armament of twelve 64-pounder muzzle-loading rifled guns.
Ships NameShip BuilderLaunchedFatePortsmouth Dockyard21 May 1867Lent to the War Department as a hulk in 1886 and sold on 15 May 1906Chatham Dockyard17 August 1867Sold to Castle for breaking in September 1886Sheerness Dockyard14 November 1867Lent to the War Department for use as a storage hulk between 1888 and 1892. Anchored in the Hamoaze as a floating magazine and No. 3 (Devonport) Division, Metropolitan Police barracks on census night in 1911. Sold in 1921.Portsmouth Dockyard24 April 1868Sold to Castle for breaking at Charlton in 1885Deptford Dockyard14 November 1868Sold to Castle for breaking on 7 November 1882Portsmouth Dockyard23 October 1869Hulked in 1886. Renamed Actaeon II in 1906. Sold to J B Garnham for breaking on 17 July 1922Devonport Dockyard13 May 1870Sold to G Pethwick of Plymouth for breaking in November 1887Proserpine--Authorised on 18 December 1866 but never orderedDiomede--Authorised on 18 December 1866 but rescinded on 30 April 1867
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