HMS Sapphire (1874)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Sapphire.

HMS Sapphire at anchor.
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Sapphire
Namesake	Sapphire
Builder	Devonport Dockyard
Cost	£78,297
Laid down	17 June 1873
Launched	24 September 1874
Completed	August 1875
Fate	Sold for scrap, 24 September 1892
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Amethyst-class wooden screw corvette
Displacement	1,934 long tons (1,965 t)
Tons burthen	1,405 bm
Length	220 ft (67.1 m) (p/p)
Beam	37 ft (11.3 m)
Draught	18 ft (5.5 m)
Installed power	2,364 ihp (1,763 kW)
Propulsion	1 shaft 1 × 2-cylinder compound expansion steam engine 6 cylindrical boilers
Sail plan	Ship rig
Speed	13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Range	approximately 2,500 nmi (4,600 km; 2,900 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	225
Armament	12 × 64-pounder 71-cwt rifled muzzle-loading (RML) guns 2 × 64-pounder 64-cwt RML guns

HMS Sapphire was an Amethyst-class corvette built for the Royal Navy at Devonport Dockyard and launched on 24 September 1874.

She commenced service on the Australia Station in August 1875. She left the Australia Station in July 1879 and returned to England and was refitted and rearmed. After refit she commissioned for the China Station in 1883 until 1890. She returned to Plymouth and was paid off.

Looking forward from the poop deck, circa. 1878

Fate

She was sold on 24 September 1892 to G. Cohen.

See also

• Sapphiretown, South Australia

Bibliography

• Ballard, G. A. (1937). "British Corvettes of 1875: The Last Wooden class". Mariner's Mirror. 23 (October). Cambridge, UK: Society for Nautical Research: 435–45.
• Bastock, John (1988), Ships on the Australia Station, Child & Associates Publishing Pty Ltd; Frenchs Forest, Australia. ISBN 0-86777-348-0
• Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
• 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.