Dates: 1884 - 1951
HMS Calliope was a Calypso class third class cruiser of the Royal Navy which served from 1887 until 1951. Classified as both a small cruiser and a corvette, she exemplified the transitional nature of the late Victorian navy. She was among the last of the sailing corvettes but supplemented her sail rig with powerful engines. Among the first of the smaller cruisers to be given all-metal hulls, she was cased with timber and coppered below the water line, as were wooden ships.
She was known for "one of the most famous episodes of seamanship in the 19th century", when she was the only ship to avoid being sunk or stranded in the tropical cyclone which struck Samoa in 1889. After retirement from active service, she served as a training ship until 1951, when she was sold for breaking.
Calliope and her sister Calypso made up the Calypso class, a subclass within, or a follow-on class of, the successful Comus class designed by Nathaniel Barnaby. These vessels were among the last sailing corvettes ever built for the Royal Navy. They differed from prior ships in having an all-metal hull, of both steel and iron, although the metal plating of the hull was timber-cased and coppered below the waterline.
Calypso and Calliope differed from the nine ships of the Comus class in armament; they were also slightly longer, had a deeper draught, and displaced 390 tons more. Calliope’s engines were of 4,023 i.h.p., over 50% more powerful than those of her nine half-sisters, which gave her one more knot of speed, a difference which would be crucial in the incident which made her famous. These compound engines could drive Calliope at 13? knots, or 14? knots with forced draught.She nevertheless was a fully-rigged sailing ship, enabling her to serve in areas where coaling stations were rare. Calliope was well-suited to distant cruising service for the British Empire at its Victorian peak.
