HMS Opal (1875)

Opal in Sydney
History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Opal
Builder: William Doxford & Sons Ltd, Sunderland
Laid down: 13 October 1873
Launched: 9 March 1875
Fate: Sold for breaking at Sheerness, August 1892
General characteristics [1]
Class and type: Emerald-class corvette
Displacement: 2,120 tons
Tons burthen: 1,864 bm
Length: 220 ft (67 m) pp
Beam: 40 ft (12 m)
Draught:
  • 16 ft 6 in (5.03 m) forwards
  • 18 ft (5.5 m) aft
Depth of hold: 21 ft 6 in (6.55 m)
Installed power:
  • 2,187 ihp (1,631 kW)
  • 350 nhp
Propulsion:
  • 2-cylinder horizontal compound expansion steam engine
  • 6 × cylindrical boilers
  • Single hoisting screw
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship (barque from the 1880s)
Complement: 232
Armament:

HMS Opal was an Emerald-class corvette of the Royal Navy, laid down as Magicienne by William Doxford & Sons Ltd, Sunderland and launched on 9 March 1875.[2]

She was completed with an armament of 14 muzzle-loading 64-pounder rifled guns (2 as bow and stern chasers mounted on centre-line swivelling slides, and 12 on broadside slide mountings) and initially commenced service on the Pacific Station, and while on passage in 1876 hit a rock in the Strait of Magellan. She was damaged and repairs were undertaken at Esquimalt.[2] She returned to England in 1880 for refit, in which her broadside armament was reduced by 2 guns and she was re-rigged as a barque. She sailed for service on the Cape of Good Hope and West Africa Station in 1883, before commencing service on the Australia Station in 1885.[2] She returned to England in 1890 and was placed into reserve. She was sold for breaking up at Sheerness in August 1892.[2]

Citations

  1. ↑ Winfield (2004), p.288
  2. 1 2 3 4 Bastock, p.87.

References

  • Bastock, John (1988), Ships on the Australia Station, Child & Associates Publishing Pty Ltd; Frenchs Forest, Australia. ISBN 0-86777-348-0
  • Winfield, Rif & Lyon, David (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC 52620555.


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