The Amethyst-class corvettes were a class of the last wooden warships to be built for the British Royal Navy; each was built at a Royal Dockyard. Three were ordered under the 1871–72 Programme and two under the 1872–73 Programme. Built in the early and middle 1870s, they mostly served overseas and were retired early as they were regarded as hopelessly obsolete by the late 1880s. The lead ship of the class, HMS Amethyst, served alongside HMS Shah in the action against the Peruvian warship Huáscar on 29th May 1877.
Design Unlike earlier wooden corvettes in the Navy, the Amethyst class corvettes had clipper bows (like the earlier Amazon Class sloops), while the last two had frigate sterns. All were initially ship-rigged (except for Encounter, which was barque-rigged), but after their first commission the Modeste, Diamond and Sapphire (but not Amethyst) were re-rigged as barques. They were completed with fourteen 64-pdr guns, of which twelve were truck-mounted on the broadsides and two were on rotating slides as bow and stern chasers. The guns were 64 cwt in the first three ships and 71 cwt in the last two.
Ships ShipBuilderLaid downLaunchedCompletedFateCostSheerness Dockyard19 June 18711 January 1873July 1873Sold for scrap October 1888£63,098Brassey 1888, p. 288.Devonport DockyardChesneau & Kolesnik, p. 5128 July 1871Lyon & Winfield, p. 28819 April 1873July 1873Sold for scrap, November 1887N/ADevonport Dockyard27 November 187123 May 1873January 1874Sold for scrap, 8 January 1888N/ASheerness Dockyard187326 August 1873July 1875Sold for scrap August 1889£76,796Devonport Dockyard17 June 187324 September 1874August 1875Sold for scrap, 24 September 1892£78,297
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