The ''Racer''-class sloop also known as the ''Cordelia'' class of swift cruisers
was an 11-gun wooden screw
sloop
A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular ...
class of five ships built for the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...
between 1855 and 1860.
Design
Built of a traditional wooden construction, the ''Racer'' class were a lengthened version of the , which in turn had been intended as "type of screw vessel below the
''Cruizer''". The extra length gave greater speed, and combined with a considerable increase in power, this gave a speed of about , rather more than the of the previous class.
[Winfield (2004) p.216]
The class were armed with a single
32-pounder gun (58 cwt) gun on a pivot mount and ten 32-pounder (25 cwt)
carronade
A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast-iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and was used from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century. Its main fu ...
s on the broadside. These guns were all smoothbore muzzle-loading, and were little changed from the standard guns of Nelson's era.
[Bastock, p.29.]
Propulsion was provided by a two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine developing and driving a single screw. At maximum power under steam, top speed was about . A
barque rig of sails was carried, which meant the ships of the class had three
masts with a square rig on the fore and main masts.
[
]
Ships
The first three ships were ordered on 3 April 1854, although both ''Cordelia'' and ''Gannet'' were ordered as ''Swallow''-class sloops, with the design being changed before construction. ''Icarus'' was ordered on 3 February 1855 and ''Pantaloon'' was ordered on 1 April 1857.[
]
Citations
References
*Bastock, John (1988), ''Ships on the Australia Station'', Child & Associates Publishing Pty Ltd; Frenchs Forest, Australia.
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{{Racer class sloop
Ship classes of the Royal Navy
Sloop classes
Sloops of the Royal Navy
Racer