The Bacchante class was a group of three iron screw corvettes in service with the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 from the late 1870s.

Design and construction

The ships were designed by Nathaniel Barnaby

Nathaniel Barnaby

Sir Nathaniel Barnaby, KCB was Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy from 1872 to 1885....

 in 1872, with the first two ordered from Portsmouth Royal Dockyard in 1872 and Euryalus from Chatham Royal Dockyard

Chatham Dockyard

Chatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...

 in 1873. These were the last ships to be built of iron for the Royal Navy, with teak

Teak

Teak is the common name for the tropical hardwood tree species Tectona grandis and its wood products. Tectona grandis is native to south and southeast Asia, mainly India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Burma, but is naturalized and cultivated in many countries, including those in Africa and the...

 planking. Although similar, the three ships differed in design and appearance, and thus did not technically form a single class. A fourth ship (Highflyer) was ordered in 1878 from Portsmouth Dockyard, but was cancelled in 1879. In 1877, like all the remaining corvettes, they were redesignated cruisers by the Royal Navy.

Ships

Name	Ship Builder	|Launched	|Fate
HMS Boadicea HMS Boadicea (1875) HMS Boadicea was a launched in 1875.Robert Falcon Scott served on her early in his career....	Portsmouth Dockyard	16 October 1875	Sold 6 January 1905
HMS Bacchante HMS Bacchante (1876) HMS Bacchante was a Bacchante-class ironclad screw-propelled corvette of the Royal Navy. She is particularly famous for being the ship on which the Princes George and Albert served as midshipmen....	Portsmouth Dockyard	19 October 1876	Sold 10 May 1897
HMS Euryalus	Chatham Dockyard	31 January 1877	Sold 10 May 1897
HMS Highflyer			Cancelled 1879