Eclipse-class sloop
# Eclipse-class sloop

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 Amazon class, 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.

### 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

| Name | Ship Builder | Launched | Fate |
| - | - | - | - |
| Danae | Portsmouth Dockyard | 21 May 1867 | Lent to the War Department as a hulk in 1886 and sold on 15 May 1906 |
| Blanche | Chatham Dockyard | 17 August 1867 | Sold to Castle for breaking in September 1886 |
| Eclipse | Sheerness Dockyard | 14 November 1867 | Lent 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. |
| Sirius | Portsmouth Dockyard | 24 April 1868 | Sold to Castle for breaking at Charlton in 1885 |
| Spartan | Deptford Dockyard | 14 November 1868 | Sold to Castle for breaking on 7 November 1882 |
| Dido | Portsmouth Dockyard | 23 October 1869 | Hulked in 1886. Renamed Actaeon II in 1906. Sold to J B Garnham for breaking on 17 July 1922 |
| Tenedos | Devonport Dockyard | 13 May 1870 | Sold to G Pethwick of Plymouth for breaking in November 1887 |
| Proserpine | - | - | Authorised on 18 December 1866 but never ordered |
| Diomede | - | - | Authorised on 18 December 1866 but rescinded on 30 April 1867 |
