The ''Ister''-class frigates were a group of five 36-gun

screw frigate Steam frigates (including screw frigates) and the smaller steam corvettes, steam sloops, steam gunboats and steam schooners, were steam-powered warships that were not meant to stand in the line of battle. There were some exceptions like for exam ...

s ordered for the

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in the early 1860s. Four of the ships were cancelled after they were

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and was the only ship completed.

Description

''Endymion'' was long, with a beam of , and a draught of . She was assessed as 2,486 tons

Builder's Old Measurement Builder's Old Measurement (BOM, bm, OM, and o.m.) is the method used in England from approximately 1650 to 1849 for calculating the cargo capacity of a ship. It is a volumetric measurement of cubic capacity. It estimated the tonnage of a ship bas ...

and displaced 3,200 tons. She was fitted with 36 guns and had a complement of 450. Propulsion was by a 500

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, which was built by

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. The engine drove a single screw propeller of diameter and pitch. The propeller was long, and the tips of the blades were beneath the surface of the water. She was designed to take 36 guns, which were intended to comprise four 100 pounder, rifled muzzle-loading guns (weight 125 Cwt/6,350 kg each), fourteen 8-inch guns (65 Cwt/3,302 kg each), located on the maindeck; and nine 110-pounder breech-loading guns (82 Cwt/6,166 kg each) located on the upper deck. In August, it was reported that ''Endymion'' was then being fitted with three 110-pounder

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guns, four 100-pounder Somerset guns and fourteen 8-inch guns.

Service

All five of the ships in the class were laid down in 1860–61 in various royal dockyards, but HMS ''Blonde'' and HMS ''Astrea'' were cancelled on 12 December 1863. HMS ''Dartmouth'' and HMS ''Ister'' were cancelled a year later, on 16 December 1864. None of these four ships were launched before they were cancelled.Various British Screw Frigates, p. 323 On 1 February 1862, construction of ''Endymion'' was suspended on the orders of the

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, although the Admiralty later decided that she would be completed. Construction restarted on 7 February 1864. ''Endymion'' was the last wooden frigate built at Deptford Dockyard. She was commissioned in 1866 and spent much of her service based at

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. In 1869–70 she sailed around the world as part of a Flying Squadron. ''Endymion'' then served as a guard ship at Hull until 1879 and was lent to the Metropolitan Asylums Board in 1881 for use as an administration and

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. She was sold out of service in 1885, and served as an administration ship until 1904. ''Endymion'' was sold in December 1904 and broken up in 1905.

Footnotes

References

* *{{cite journal, year=1968, title=Various British Screw Frigates, journal=Warship International, publisher=Naval Records Club, location=Toledo, OH, volume=V, issue=4, pages=323 Frigate classes Frigates of the Royal Navy Ship classes of the Royal Navy Victorian-era frigates of the United Kingdom