The Calypso class comprised two steam corvettes of the Royal Navy. Built for distant cruising in the heyday of the British Empire, they served with the fleet until the early twentieth century, when they became training ships. Remnants of both survive, after a fashion; HMS Calliope in the name of the naval reserve unit the ship once served, and HMS Calypso both in the name of a civilian charity and the more corporeal form of the hull, now awash in a cove off Newfoundland.
HMS Calypso
Calliope, looking aft from forecastle, poop deck aft and quarterdeck in waist of ship in foreground, with one 6-inch and two 5-inch guns De Maus Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library
A closer view of the waist; sailors are training a 5-inch (127.0 mm) breechloader on a Vavasseur mounting; behind it is a 6-inch (152.4 mm) breechloader in a sponson
Aft quarterdeck, right rear of views above; double wheel and Nelson's Trafalgar signal on fore edge of poop deck
HMS Calliope was a Calypso-class corvette of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom which served from 1887 until 1951. Exemplifying the transitional nature of the late Victorian navy, Calliope was a sailing corvette—the last such ship built for the Royal Navy—but supplemented the full sail rig with a powerful engine. Steel was used for the hull, and like the earlier iron-hulled corvettes, Calliope was cased with timber and coppered below the waterline, in the same manner as wooden ships.
HMS Calliope
Starboard quarterdeck, while at Port Chalmers, New Zealand De Maus Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library
Starboard view
Illustrated London News for 27 April 1889; artist's conception of HMS Calliope being cheered on by the crew of USS Trenton as Calliope escapes from Apia Harbour. Calliope actually passed to Trenton's port side.
