The Amazon class was a class of six screw sloop

Screw sloop

A screw sloop is a propeller-driven sloop-of-war. In the 19th century, during the introduction of the steam engine, ships driven by propellers were differentiated from those driven by paddle-wheels by referring to the ship's screws...

s of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy between 1865 and 1866.

Design

Designed by Edward Reed

Edward James Reed

Sir Edward James Reed , KCB, FRS, was a British naval architect, author, politician, and railroad magnate. He was the Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy from 1863 until 1870...

, the Royal Navy Director of Naval Construction

Director of Naval Construction

The Director of Naval Construction was a senior British civil servant post in the Admiralty, that part of the British Civil Service that oversaw the Royal Navy. The post existed from 1860 to 1966....

, they were equipped with a ram bow. The hull was of wooden construction, but they were the first class of sloops to incorporate a form of composite construction; they had iron cross beams while retaining wooden framing.

Propulsion

Propulsion was provided by a two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine by Ravenhill, Salkeld & Company driving a single 15 ft (4.6 m) screw. Vestal and Nymphe were fitted with three-cylinder Maudslay engines.

Armament

The class was designed with two 7-inch (6½-ton) muzzle loading rifled guns mounted on slides on centre-line pivots, and two 64-pounder muzzle loading rifled guns on broadside trucks. Dryad, Nymphe and Vestal were rearmed in the early 1870s with an armament of nine 64-pounder muzzle loading rifled guns, four each side and a centre-line pivot mount at the bow.

Ships

Name	Ship Builder	Launched	Fate
	Pembroke Dockyard	1865	Sunk in collision with SS Osprey, off Start Point Start Point, Devon Start Point is a promontory in the South Hams district. It is one of the most southerly points in Devon, England, . It marks the southern limit of Start Bay, which extends northwards to the estuary of the River Dart.... , English Channel English Channel The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...  10 July 1866
	Pembroke Dockyard	1865	Sold to Castle for breaking in December 1884
	Devonport Dockyard	1866	Wrecked off Cape Blanc on Miquelon Island, off the Atlantic Coast of Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400... 21 May 1874
	Devonport Dockyard	1866	Sold in September 1885 and broken up in April 1886
	Pembroke Dockyard	1866	Sold for breaking on 7 November 1882
	Devonport Dockyard	1866	Sold for breaking in December 1884