The Britomart-class gunboat was a class of sixteen gunboats built for the Royal Navy in 1859–1867.
Design The Britomart class was an improved version of the designed by W.H. Walker, and as such comes under the generic group "Crimean gunboats" although this class was ordered and built long after the end of the Crimean War. These were the last Royal Navy gunboats to have wooden hulls: subsequent gunboats were of composite construction, with wooden planking over iron frames.
Propulsion The class were fitted with a single-cylinder single-expansion reciprocating steam engine. The single screw could be hoisted to give improved performance under sail.
Sail plan The ships were provided with a three-masted barquentine rig, that is, with square sails on the foremast and fore-and-aft sails on the main and mizzen masts.
Armament Early ships of the class were armed with two 68-pounder smooth bore muzzle loading cannon (as had been planned, but not implemented, for the Dapper class); but the Heron was fitted with two 112-pounder Armstrong guns. Later ships had two 64-pounder rifled muzzle-loading guns.
Ships NameShip builderLaunchedEngine builderFateT & W Smith, North Shields 7 May 1860John Penn and SonsServed on Lake Erie.A. Preston & J.Major, Send a Gunboat!: The Victorian Navy and Supremacy at Sea, 1854-1904, Conway, 2007, page 65 Sold to Henry Castle & Sons on 12 January 1892, and resold to S Williams of Dagenham as a mooring hulk. Broken up in June 1946T & W Smith, North Shields 24 May 1860 John Penn and SonsBecame luggage lighter YC.10 at Malta in 1882. Sold there in 1885T & W Smith, North Shields 3 August 1860John Penn and SonsBroken up at Malta in September 1878C Lamport, Workington 18 July 1860 installed at Plymouth Dockyard Sold to Henry Castle & Sons for breaking at Charlton in August 1889Wm. Cowley Miller, Toxteth Dock, Liverpool 5 July 1860 Miller, Ravenhill & CoSold to Marshall, Plymouth on 6 June 1871Wm. Cowley Miller, Toxteth Dock, Liverpool 5 July 1860 Miller, Ravenhill & CoServed on Lake Ontario. Sold in Jamaica in June 1879 and broken up there in 1881Briggs & Co., Sunderland 7 June 1860 Maudslay, Sons and FieldBroken up at Devonport on 29 September 1876Briggs & Co., Sunderland 7 June 1860 Maudslay, Sons and FieldBreaking completed at Chatham on 15 July 1872Courtenay, Newhaven 7 September 1861 installed at Portsmouth Dockyard Tug in 1883 at Jamaica and sold there in 1891Joseph Banks, Plymouth 15 September 1860 installed at Plymouth Dockyard Wrecked after collision with SS Moratin off Gibraltar on 5 September 1870Portsmouth Dockyard 29 March 1865 Served on Lake Huron. Sold to Castle for breaking at Charlton 5 May 1890Portsmouth Dockyard 22 July 1866 Sold at Portsmouth to Castle for breaking at Charlton in September 1885Portsmouth Dockyard 16 February 1865 Coal hulk at Bermuda in 1874 and sold in 1903Portsmouth Dockyard 27 December 1866 Sold to the Customs Board on 20 December 1890Portsmouth Dockyard 20 November 1867 Sold on 24 August 1886 for breaking (or Bruizer) Portsmouth Dockyard 23 April 1867 Broken up at Devonport in May 1886BramblePortsmouth Dockyard Cancelled 12 December 1863CrownPortsmouth Dockyard Cancelled 12 December 1863ProtectorPortsmouth Dockyard Cancelled 12 December 1863DanubePortsmouth Dockyard Cancelled 12 December 1863 (never started)
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