The Satellite class was a class of 12-gun composite sloops

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...

 built for 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...

 between 1883 and 1888, and reclassified as corvette

Corvette

A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...

s in 1884.

Design

Designed by Nathaniel Barnaby

Nathaniel Barnaby

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

, 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....

, the hull was of composite construction; that is, iron keel, frames, stem and stern posts with wooden planking. This class of composite sloops was unique in having an internal steel deck over the machinery and magazines for protection. The Satellite class were reclassified as corvettes in 1884, and no more composite or wooden corvettes were built - in fact, Pylades was the last corvette built for the Royal Navy until the Second World War.

Propulsion

Propulsion was provided by a horizontal compound expansion of 1400 ihp driving a single screw.

Armament

The class was designed with two 6-inch/100-pounder (81cwt) breech loaders and ten 5-inch/50-pounder (38cwt) breech loaders, plus a single light gun and four (or more) machine guns. Heroine, Hyacinth and Royalist were built with eight 6-inch/100-pounder (81cwt) breech loaders in place of the 5-inch/6-inch mixture, and Satellite was converted to the same fit.

Ships

Name	Ship Builder	Launched|2	Fate
	Sheerness Dockyard	13 August 1881	RNVR drill ship at North Shields North Shields North Shields is a town on the north bank of the River Tyne, in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside, in North East England...  on the River Tyne River Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England in Great Britain. It is formed by the confluence of two rivers: the North Tyne and the South Tyne. These two rivers converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Waters'.The North Tyne rises on the...  in 1904. Sold to J G Potts for breaking on 21 October 1947
	Devonport Dockyard	3 December 1881	Sold to King of Bristol for breaking on 28 August 1902
	Devonport Dockyard	20 December 1881	Sold to King of Bristol for breaking on 25 August 1902
	Devonport Dockyard	7 March 1883	Hulk in February 1900. Renamed Colleen on 1 December 1913 and transferred to the Irish Free State Irish Free State The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...  Government on 19 February 1923
	Devonport Dockyard	21 March 1883	Hulk in 1906. Became a coal hulk in 1912 and was renamed C7. Became an accommodation ship in 1916 and was renamed Hart. Sold at Gibraltar Gibraltar Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...  in 1948
	Sheerness Dockyard	25 November 1882	Hulk in 1897. Became a training ship in April 1908 and was renamed Ganges. Renamed Powerful III in September 1913 and Impregnable IV in November 1919. Sold on 31 August 1929
	Sheerness Dockyard	5 November 1884	Sold to Cohen of Felixstowe for breaking on 3 April 1906.

Operational lives

These ships were designed to patrol the far-flung reaches of Britain's maritime empire

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

, and so Rapid and Royalist both went to the Australian Station, Satellite to the Pacific Station

Pacific Station

The Pacific Station, often referred to as the Pacific Squadron, was one of the geographical divisions into which the Royal Navy divided its worldwide responsibilities...

, Pylades to the North America and West Indies Station and Heroine, Caroline and Hyacinth all to the China Station

China Station

The China Station was a historical formation of the British Royal Navy. It was formally the units and establishments responsible to the Commander-in-Chief, China....

.