 HMS Calliope |
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| Career (United Kingdom) |
 |
|---|---|
| Class and type: | Calypso |
| Name: | HMS Calliope |
| Builder: | HM Dockyard, Portsmouth |
| Launched: | 24 June 1884 |
| Sponsored by: | Lady Phipps Hornby |
| Commissioned: | 1887 |
| Maiden voyage: | 1 March 1887 |
| Renamed: | Helicon (1915-1931) |
| Nickname: | "Hurricane Jumper" |
| Fate: | sold for breaking 1951 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Corvette (small cruiser) |
| Displacement: | 2,770 long tons |
| Length: | 235 ft (72 m) |
| Beam: | 44 ft (13 m) |
| Draught: | 21 ft (6 m) |
| Installed power: | 6 boilers |
| Propulsion: |
2 Compound engines (J and G Rennie) 4,023 ihp ( MW) driving single screw |
| Sail plan: | barque rig[1] |
| Speed: | 13.75 kt (25.5 km/h) powered; 14.75 kt (27.3 km/h) forced draught |
| Complement: | 291 |
| Armament: |
|
| Armour: | Deck: .5 in (13 mm) over engines |
| Notes: | took back her original name after HMS Calliope (1914) was paid off |
HMS Calliope was a Calypso class third class cruiser of the Royal Navy which served from 1887 until 1951. Classified as both a small cruiser and a corvette, she exemplified the transitional nature of the late Victorian navy. She was among the last of the sailing corvettes but supplemented her sail rig with powerful engines. Among the first of the smaller cruisers to be given all-metal hulls, she was cased with timber and coppered below the water line, as were wooden ships.[2]
She was known for "one of the most famous episodes of seamanship in the 19th century", when she was the only ship to avoid being sunk or stranded in the tropical cyclone which struck Samoa in 1889.[3] After retirement from active service, she served as a training ship until 1951, when she was sold for breaking.
Contents |
Calliope and her sister Calypso made up the Calypso class, a subclass of the successful C class corvettes designed by Nathaniel Barnaby. These vessels were among the last sailing corvettes ever built for the Royal Navy. They differed from prior ships in having an all-metal hull, of both steel and iron, although the metal plating of the hull was timber-cased and coppered below the waterline.[4]
Calypso and Calliope differed from their nine half-sisters ships of the C class in armament; they were also slightly longer, had a deeper draught, and displaced 390 tons more.[5] Calliope's engines were of 4,023 i.h.p., over 50% more powerful than those of her nine half-sisters, which gave her one more knot of speed, a difference which would be crucial in the event that made her famous.[6] These compound engines could drive Calliope at 13¾ knots, or 14¾ knots with forced draught.[7] She nevertheless was a fully-rigged sailing ship,[1] enabling her to serve in areas where coaling stations were rare. Calliope was well-suited to distant cruising service for the British Empire at its Victorian peak.[7]
The British Empire was the largest on earth, and to protect that empire and its trade routes Britain had the largest navy. Great Britain assumed the role of peacekeeper on the world’s oceans, and the Royal Navy was the instrument by which the Pax Britannica was kept. That naval force had a global reach, including the western Pacific Ocean, patrolled by the Australia Station. Calliope had been designed for long-range protection of the trade routes of the empire,[8] and in 1887 Captain Henry Coey Kane took Calliope to the Pacific.[9] She was first assigned to the China Station, and reassigned to the Australia Station later in 1887. She was in New Zealand at the end of that year, and was the first vessel to enter the new Calliope Dock.[10] In early 1888 she was hurriedly sent northward to Samoa to watch over a looming diplomatic crisis and potential military confrontation.[10]
This crisis had its roots in the Great Powers' competition for colonies in the last decades of the nineteenth century. The German Empire had been invigorated by its victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War and unification under the Prussian monarchy, and its imperial ambitions which were no longer limited to the continent of Europe. It had shared in the division of Africa, and in the 1880s looked to the Pacific as well. Ships of its Imperial Navy were sent to Apia in Samoa, where German agents had fomented rebellion against the indigenous government. They were countered there by the Asiatic Squadron of the United States Navy. The United States' continental expansion had almost reached its limits in the North American continent, and American ambitions had also become transoceanic. The US therefore had sent a squadron to Samoa to assert its interests in the Pacific and to watch the Germans.[11]
Hence suspicious and competing squadrons of the Imperial German and United States navies found themselves in the harbour at Apia in March 1889. They were watched over by the new corvette HMS Calliope, the sole British vessel present, which had been sent to keep the peace and protect Britain’s own interests in Samoa.[12] The harbour at Apia was primitive, small and nearly surrounded by reefs. Perhaps fit for four ships, it held seven warships and six merchant vessels on 14 March.[13]
The barometer began to fall that day and a tropical cyclone came up, which increased in ferocity over the next two days.[14] Rain fell in sheets, cutting visibility. Winds of 70 to 100 knots (130–185 km/h) blew directly into anchorage, trapping the ships in the V–shaped harbour.[15] The harbour bottom was scoured by currents and anchors lost their purchase. Operating their engines at full speed to resist the wind and waves, ships nevertheless dragged their anchors and were inexorably driven landward. Vessels collided and were thrown on the reefs or ashore, and some sank.[16] By 0900 on the 16th, Calliope, though still riding at anchor, had been hit by one ship and narrowly missed by another, and Captain Kane decided to try to escape the anchorage.[17] In order to relieve the strain on her five anchor cables, Calliope had 90 pounds of steam in her boilers; her engines were being worked “red hot”, and her propeller was making 74 revolutions, sufficient for 15 knots (28 km/h), but the ship was barely able to make headway against the winds and the seas in the harbour, and her anchor cables began parting.[18]
On her port and only 20 feet (six metres) away was the coral reef. Ahead were United States ships Vandalia and Trenton; to starboard were other warships. There was only a narrow opening between the vessels to one side and the ground to the other.[19] Hemmed in by the other vessels and the reef, and with her rudder at times within six feet (two metres) of the latter, Calliope manoeuvred while still attached to her cables, and when Captain Kane saw an opening, he slipped the anchors and drove forward.[20] Avoiding the helpless USS Vandalia, he approached the sinking Trenton, coming so close that Calliope’s fore yard-arm was over the American's deck, which it cleared only because Calliope rolled to port and lifted the yard over the Trenton. The crew of the helpless and doomed American ship loudly cheered Calliope as the corvette slipped past. This attempt was called by the American commander on the scene "one of the grandest sights a seaman or anyone else ever saw; the lives of 250 souls depended on the hazardous adventure."[21]
Making for the harbour exit, the British ship's bow and stern alternately rose and plunged into the incoming waves; her propeller at times was spinning in air, and green seas were boarding her and running the length of her deck. There were ten men on her wheel and more below handling relieving tackle on her tiller.[22] Taking two hours to travel four cables,[23] the corvette finally escaped the anchorage into the open sea, an achievement not known to Calliope's crew for some time, as seaspray and spume had reduced visibility to nothing.[18]
The storm kept Calliope at sea the next two days. Re-entering the harbour on the 19th to search for her anchor, her crew discovered that every other ship — twelve in total — had been wrecked or sunk,[24] and nearly every crew had been diminished or decimated by the loss of men killed by the storm.[25] Unable to find the anchor amidst the wreckage,[26] and his ship having sustained significant damage, Captain Kane decided to return to Australia. He turned over Calliope’s diving outfit to the US Navy to assist it in salvage, and received in return boats from the wrecked American ships to replace the boats which had been stripped from her by the storm.[18]
Captain Kane then took the ship to Sydney, where she and her officers and crew received a hero's welcome.[27] The narrowness of Calliope's escape, the excellence of her engines and the dedication of her crew which kept that power plant in operation for many hours during the ordeal,[28] the seamanship of her captain and officers, their bravery in letting go of their anchor and facing the storm trusting only in their ship and themselves, and the respect and encouragement given to her by the crew of the Trenton, made Calliope famous.[29]
The Engineer of the Calliope, Henry George Bourke, was specially promoted from Staff Engineer to Fleet Engineer on 28 May 1889, "for his services in Her Majesty's ship 'Calliope,' during the recent hurricane at Samoa."[30] His success was attributed to the superior properties of West Coast coal from New Zealand used to fire the ship's boilers; this attracted the custom of the British Admiralty.[31]
Captain Kane was made Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 1891 Queen's Birthday Honours.[32] His career prospered as well; he was cited by the Admiralty for his "nerve and decisions", given the command of HMS Victory in 1892, and in 1897 was promoted to rear-admiral.[33]
Calliope returned to service on the Australian station after repairs were complete. At the end of 1889 she was recalled to the United Kingdom.
Arriving back home in early 1890, Calliope was placed in reserve, where she remained for the next seven years.[34] In June 1897 she was present at Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Review of the Fleet at Spithead.[35] That same year she became a tender to HMS Northampton;[34] an older and larger armoured cruiser used as seagoing training ship for boys. Calliope was relieved of that duty in 1905, returned to reserve, and promptly stricken from the effective list. She was laid up at Portsmouth,[36] and in 1906 was listed for sale for a time. The next year she was moved to North East England for a new career.[34]
HMS Calliope became a drill ship at Newcastle upon Tyne for the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Tyne Division.[37] She surrendered her name to another ship between 1915 and 1931, and became the Helicon.[38] After her namesake of 1914 was paid off in the 1930s, Helicon took back her former name of Calliope, which she kept until sold in 1951.[7] When finally scrapped in 1953, her steering wheel was presented to the government of Western Samoa.[39]
Her name also lives on in the Royal Navy. Upon her 1951 retirement, her successor as training ship on the Tyne took her name, and now the shore establishment itself bears the name and honours the memory of HMS Calliope.[40]
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   | The Epic of HMS Calliope - The Epic of HMS Calliope » Naval Historical Society |
| | lithograph of ''HMS "Calliope", 3rd Class Cruiser'' - PU6293 – HMS Calliope 3rd class cruiser |
| | A Footnote to History, Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa - A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa |
| | HMS Calliope (Corvette, 1884-1951) - British Navy Ships--HMS Calliope (1884-1951) |
| | HMS Calliope (Gateshead) - HMS Calliope (Gateshead) : Training Centres : Royal Naval Reserve : Operations and Support : Royal Navy |
| | Hurricane at Apia, Samoa, 15-16 March 1889 - Events of the 1880s--Hurricane at Apia, Samoa, 15-16 March 1889 |
| | Report - Typhoons and Hurricanes: The Storm at Apia, Samoa, 15-16 March 1889 |
| | search page - Historic Photographs Collection |
| | Coal and Coal Mining - Coal and coal mining - The 19th century - Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand |
| | Calliope - SHIPS, FAMOUS - CALLIOPE - 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand |
| | History of HMS Calliope - Unit History : HMS Calliope (Gateshead) : Training Centres : Royal Naval Reserve : Operations and Support : Royal Navy |
| | SHIPS NEARLY ALL NEW; Only Four of the 21 Battleships in the Jubilee Display of 1887 - The New York Times > Log In |
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