Steam frigates and the smaller steam corvettes, steam sloops, steam gunboats and steam schooners, were steam-powered warships that were not meant to stand in the line of battle. The first such ships were paddle steamers. Later on the invention of screw propulsion enabled construction of screw-powered versions of the traditional frigates, corvettes, sloops and gunboats.
HMS Plumper was part of the 1847 programme, she was ordered on 25 April as a steam schooner from Woolwich Dockyard with the name Pincher. However, the reference Ships of the Royal Navy, by J.J. College, (c) 2020 there is no entry that associates this name to this build. The vessel was reordered on 12 August as an 8-gun sloop as designed by John Fincham, Master Shipwright at Portsmouth. Launched in 1848, she served three commissions, firstly on the West Indies and North American Station, then on the West Africa Station and finally in the Pacific Station. It was during her last commission as a survey ship that she left her most enduring legacy; in charting the west coast of British Columbia she left her name and those of her ship's company scattered across the charts of the region. She paid off for the last time in 1861 and was finally sold for breaking up in 1865.
HMS Hornet was a 17-gun wooden screw sloop of the Cruizer class of the Royal Navy, launched in 1854 and broken up in 1868.
HMS Rattler was a 9-gun steam screw sloop of the Royal Navy, and one of the first British warships to be completed with screw propulsion. She was originally ordered as a paddle wheel 4-gun steam vessel from Sheerness Dockyard on 12 March 1841. She was reordered on 24 February 1842 as a propeller type 9-gun sloop from HM Royal Dockyard, Sheerness, as a new vessel. William Symonds had redesigned the ship as a screw propeller driven vessel.
HMS Fly was an 18-gun sloop of the Royal Navy. She was responsible for the exploration and charting of much of Australia's north-east coast and nearby islands. She was converted to a coal hulk in 1855 and broken up in 1903.
The Cadmus class was a six-ship class of 10-gun screw steel sloops built at Sheerness Dockyard for the Royal Navy between 1900 and 1903. This was the last class of the Victorian Navy's multitude of sloops, gunvessels and gunboats to be constructed, and they followed the traditional pattern for 'colonial' small warships, with a full rig of sails. After them, the "Fisher Reforms" of the Navy ended the construction and deployment of this type of vessel. All of the class survived until the 1920s, remaining on colonial stations during World War I.
The Cruizer class was a class of six 17-gun wooden screw sloops built for the Royal Navy between 1852 and 1856.
HMS Thetis was a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. After nearly a decade of service with the British, she was transferred to Prussia in exchange for two steam gunboats. She served with the Prussian Navy, the North German Federal Navy and the Imperial German Navy as a training ship until being stricken in 1871. Thetis was subsequently converted into a coal hulk and broken up in 1894–95.
The Rosario class was a class of seven screw-sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy between 1860 and 1862. A further six vessels were ordered and laid down, but were cancelled in 1863 before launch. This was the last class of purely wooden sloops built for the Royal Navy.
HMS Brisk was a 14-gun wooden-hulled screw sloop designed by the Committee of Reference as part of the 1847 program. She is considered an enlarged Rattler with the design approved in 1847. She was ordered on 25 April 1847 from Woolwich Dockyard as a 10-gun sloop, but the guns were later increased due to the Russian War, to 14 guns by increasing the number of 32-pounder guns. She was launched on 2 June 1851 from Woolwich Dockyard. She served in the Russian War of 1854- 55 and as part of the Southern African anti-slavery patrol, with a final commission on the Australian Station. She was sold in 1870 for use in a pioneer, but unsuccessful, telegraph service.
HMS Basilisk was a first-class paddle sloop of the Royal Navy, built at the Woolwich Dockyard and launched on 22 August 1848.
HMS Nymphe was an Amazon-class sloop, of the Royal Navy, built at the Deptford Dockyard and launched on 24 November 1866. She served in the East Indies and Australia, and was sold in 1884.
HMS Barracouta was the last paddle sloop built for the Royal Navy. She was built at Pembroke Dockyard and launched in 1851. She served in the Pacific theatre of the Crimean War, in the Second Opium War and in the Anglo-Ashanti wars. She paid off for the last time in 1877 and was broken up in 1881.
HMS Andromeda was a 32-gun Hermione-class fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was laid down in 1781 and launched in 1784. She was commissioned for the first time in 1788 when Captain Prince William Henry took command of her and sailed for the West Indies. Prince William Henry paid her off in 1789 and she was not commissioned again until 1790 in response to the Spanish Armament. In 1792 Andromeda joined the Royal Navy's Evolution Squadron in the English Channel before sailing for the Leeward Islands where she stayed until the end of 1793 when Captain Lord Northesk brought her home. She was refitted for much of 1794 before in September joining the Downs Station. Captain William Taylor assumed command in 1795, briefly sailing her to Newfoundland before returning to the North Sea Fleet in 1796. She stayed here for 3 years, seizing the 36-gun Batavian frigate Zefir in the Firth of Forth in March 1798 and participating in the Raid on Dunkirk in July 1800. After another period of service in the Leeward Islands Andromeda returned home at the Peace of Amiens and was laid up at Portsmouth Dockyard where she was broken up in September 1811.
HMS Calypso was a Royal Navy Echo-class ship-sloop. She was built at Deptford between 1781 and 1783, launched on 27 September 1783 and first commissioned on 1 December 1783 for service off Northern Ireland and Scotland. She served in the North Sea, Atlantic, and the West Indies. Calypso sank whilst acting as a convoy escort on 30 July 1803 after colliding with a West Indiaman merchant ship during a violent storm.
HMS Encounter was ordered as a First-Class Sloop with screw propulsion on 5 February 1845 to be built at Pembroke, in accordance with the design developed by John Fincham, Master Shipwright at Portsmouth. Her armament was to consist of 8 guns. She was to have a more powerful steam engine rated at 360 nominal horsepower. In 1848 she would be altered abaft and lengthened at Deptford prior to completion. A second vessel (Harrier) was ordered on 26 March 1846 but after her keel was laid at Pembroke Dockyard, her construction was suspended on 9 September 1846 then cancelled five years later, on 4 April 1851. Encounter had her armament radically altered in 1850 and she was broken up at Devonport in 1866.
HMS Ariadne was a 20-gun Hermes-class sixth-rate post ship built for the Royal Navy during the 1810s. The vessel was completed in 1816, modified in the early 1820s and only entered service in 1823. Ariadne was assigned to the Cape of Good Hope Station, followed by a stint in the Mediterranean Sea. The ship served on the North America and West Indies Station from 1829 to 1835. She was paid off in 1835, turned into a coal hulk the following year and sold for scrap in 1841.
HMS Medea was one of the initial steam-powered vessels built for the Royal Navy. On 10 January 1831 the new First Lord Sir James Graham, 2nd Baronet gave orders that four paddle vessels be built to competitive designs. The vessels were to be powered by Maudslay, Son & Field steam engines, carry a schooner rig and mount one or two 10-inch shell guns. Initially classed simply as a steam vessel (SV), she was re-classed as a second-class steam sloop when that categorization was introduced on 31 May 1844. Designed by Oliver Lang, the master shipwright of Woolwich. She was launched and completed in 1834, took part in the Syrian Coast Campaign and was broken up in 1867.
HMS Pallas was a 36-gun fifth-rate Apollo-class frigate of the Royal Navy. Placed in ordinary when completed in 1816, Pallas was commissioned for the first time in 1828. Under Captain Adolphus FitzClarence the frigate spent time blockading the Azores before making trips to India and then Nova Scotia, conveying important passengers. The ship sailed to the Mediterranean in 1830 under the command of Captain Manley Hall Dixon, and returned early the following year with the survivors of the wreck of the Countess of Harcourt. Later in the year Pallas joined the West Indies Station, where she served until 1834 when she was paid off. In 1836 the frigate was converted into a coal hulk, in which role she served at Plymouth Dockyard until being sold in 1862.
United Kingdom
A contemporary 1:60 full hull model of Hyacinth at the National Maritime Museum 
