 An example of a Pearl-class ship | |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Pearl class |
| Operators |  Royal Navy |
| Preceded by | Cossackclass |
| Succeeded by | Jasonclass |
| Planned | 10 |
| Completed | 10 |
| Retired | 10 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Corvette |
| Displacement | 1,965 tons |
| Length | 200 ft (61 m) |
| Propulsion | Screw |
| Armament | 20 guns |
The Pearl-class corvettes were a group of ten screw-driven ships built in England from 1855 through 1865. Units of the class saw action in the Crimean War, but they were regarded as mediocre.
In 1856 Sir Baldwin Wake Walker submitted a ship design featuring a light deck supporting pivot guns disposed fore and aft. HMS Pearl, the first Pearl-class corvette to be built, reflected this design, followed by Challenger, Racoon and Clio.
In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term sloop-of-war encompassed all the unrated combat vessels, including the very small gun-brigs and cutters. In technical terms, even the more specialised bomb vessels and fireships were classed as sloops-of-war, and in practice these were employed in the sloop role when not carrying out their specialised functions.
Steam frigates, the larger steam ships of the line 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 steam-powered versions of the traditional ships of the line, frigates, corvettes, sloops and gunboats.
Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Edmund Commerell, was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer, he was present at the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado in November 1845 during the Uruguayan Civil War. He also took part in operations in Sea of Azov during the Crimean War and went ashore with the quartermaster and a seaman, to destroy large quantities of enemy forage on the shore. After a difficult and dangerous journey they reached their objective – a magazine of corn – and managed to ignite the stacks, but the guards were alerted and immediately opened fire and gave chase. The men had difficulty in escaping, but they finally reached their ship and the lookouts later reported that the forage store had burned to the ground. He and his colleague, Quartermaster William Thomas Rickard, were awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
HMS Clio was a wooden 22-gun Pearl-class corvette, built at Sheerness Dockyard and launched on 28 August 1858. She was the flagship of the Australia Station between 3 September 1870 and 16 October 1873, and from 1876 was used as a school ship.
Admiral of the Fleet The Honourable Sir Henry Keppel was a Royal Navy officer. His first command was largely spent off the coast of Spain, which was then in the midst of the First Carlist War. As commanding officer of the corvette HMS Dido on the East Indies and China Station he was deployed in operations during the First Opium War and in operations against Borneo pirates. He later served as commander of the naval brigade besieging Sebastopol during the Crimean War. After becoming second-in-command of the East Indies and China Station, he commanded the British squadron in the action with Chinese pirates at the Battle of Fatshan Creek when he sank around 100 enemy war-junks. He subsequently took part in the capture of Canton during the Second Opium War.
HMS Gorgon was a wooden steam paddle sloop of 6 guns, launched in 1837. In 1840 she took part in the bombardment of Acre, and in 1843 was part of the Royal Navy squadron stationed in the River Plate during the Uruguayan Civil War. She was converted to a troopship and in 1858 assisted Agamemnon in the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable. She was sold for breaking in 1864.
HMS Pearl was a Pearl-class 21-gun screw corvette of the Royal Navy launched in 1855, displacing 2,187 tons.
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.
Sir William Alexander George Young, , was a British colonial administrator who acted in an interim capacity as Governor of Jamaica in 1874, and later served as Governor of Gold Coast from 1884 to his death in 1885. His father may have been an RN paymaster as well: a paymaster of that name was on board HMS Gorgon when she ran aground on the River Plate in May 1844 and was refloated in November that year.
The Groningen class was a class of steam corvettes of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The class comprised Groningen, Citadel van Antwerpen and Vice-Admiraal Koopman
HMS Racoon was a Pearl-class steam corvette.
The Cossack-class corvettes were two 20-gun first-class corvettes, initially under construction in Britain for the Imperial Russian Navy. These ships were seized on 5 April 1854, after the outbreak of the Crimean War.
The Jason-class corvette was a type of wooden screw corvette made between 1859 and 1863. There were a total of seven ships of this class made by the authorization of the Royal Navy.
The Bali class was a ship class of sloops of the Royal Netherlands Navy and Japanese Navy. The class comprised Bali, Kanrin Maru, Soembing and Chōyō Maru
HMS Cyclops was a paddle wheel steam frigate built for the Royal Navy and launched in 1839 and taken out of service in 1861 and sold for breaking in January 1864. She saw action in the Syrian War in 1840 and the Crimean War in 1854, later being involved in laying the first Transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858.
Rear Admiral Victor Alexander Montagu, was an English first-class cricketer and Royal Navy officer. Born to John Montagu, 7th Earl of Sandwich, he was a godson of Queen Victoria. Montagu entered the Royal Navy as a cadet at the age of 11. He served in the Crimean War (1832–56), seeing action in the Baltic campaign and in the Black Sea. Montagu survived the shipwreck of HMS Raleigh in 1857 and afterwards served with the Naval Brigade of HMS Pearl in the Indian Mutiny, being commended by parliament for his actions. As a captain, Montagu commanded the corvette HMS Garnet from 1882. He was involved in an incident in Grenada where he threatened the editor of the Grenada People and, after being criticised in the House of Commons, retired in 1885. He was promoted to rear admiral following retirement.