HMS Pegasus was a Doterel-class

Doterel class sloop

The Doterel class was a Royal Navy class of screw-driven sloops. They were of composite construction, with wooden hulls over an iron frame. They were a revised version of an 1874 design by the Royal Navy's Chief Constructor, William Henry White, the . Two of the class were lost, one to an explosion...

 screw composite 6-gun sloop

Sloop-of-war

In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...

 launched on 13 June 1878. She was sold for scrap in 1892.

Design

The Doterel class were a development of the Osprey-class sloops

Osprey class sloop

The Osprey class was a Royal Navy class of screw-driven sloops built between 1874 and 1877. Nine additional ships were built to a revised design, the . They were the first class of ship in the Royal Navy to use glass scuttles.-Design:...

 and were of composite construction, with wooden hulls over an iron frame. The original 1874 design by the Chief Constructor

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....

, William Henry White

William Henry White

Sir William Henry White was a prolific British warship designer and Chief Constructor at the Admiralty....

 was revised in 1877 by Sir Nathaniel Barnaby and nine were ordered. Of 1,130 tons displacement and approximately 1,100 indicated horsepower, they were capable of approximately 11 knots and were armed with two 7" muzzle loading rifled guns on pivoting mounts, and four 64-pound guns

RML 64 pounder 64 cwt gun

The RML 64 pounder 64 cwt gun was a Rifled, Muzzle Loading naval, field or fortification artillery gun manufactured in England in the 19th century, which fired a projectile weighing approximately...

 (two on pivoting mounts, and two broadside). They had a crew complement of approximately 140 men.

Construction

Pegasus was laid down at Devonport Royal Dockyard

HMNB Devonport

Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...

 in 1877 and launched on 13 June 1878. She was commissioned on 5 March 1879, and was classified as both a sloop of war and as a colonial cruiser. She was capable of attaining 11.4 kn (22.3 km/h) under full steam

Steam engine

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...

 or 15 knots under sail.

Service history

The primary purpose of ships of her class was to maintain British

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

 naval dominance through trade protection, anti-slavery, and long term surveying. Pegasus served on the China Station.

Occupation of Port Hamilton

With a view to forestalling Russian intentions, on 16 April 1885 Pegasus, Agamemnon

HMS Agamemnon (1879)

HMS Agamemnon was a Victorian Royal Navy Ajax class ironclad turret battleship, the sister-ship of .Agamemnon and Ajax were built to the same design, and were smaller and less expensive versions of Inflexible...

 and Firebrand occupied Port Hamilton

Port Hamilton

Port Hamilton or Komundo, officially Geomun-do in Korean is a small group of islands in the Jeju Strait off the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula, located approximately at...

, a small group of islands in the Jeju Strait off the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula

Korean Peninsula

The Korean Peninsula is a peninsula in East Asia. It extends southwards for about 684 miles from continental Asia into the Pacific Ocean and is surrounded by the Sea of Japan to the south, and the Yellow Sea to the west, the Korea Strait connecting the first two bodies of water.Until the end of...

. The base was demolished and the occupation ended on 27 February 1887 after the Russian threat had diminished.