Cadmus Class Sloop (1900)

Six Cadmus class sloops were completed for the Royal Navy from 1901 to 1904. They were the last class of cruiser-like masted sloops built in Britain. When the term was revived during the First World War it was used for a completely new type of anti-submarine escort.

Overview of six vessels
Citations for this data available on individual ship pages
Name	Builder	Laid Down	Launched	Commissioned	Fate
Espiegle	Sheerness DYd	1900	8 Dec, 1900	21 Jan, 1902	Sold 17 Sep, 1923
Fantome	Sheerness DYd	1900	23 Mar, 1901	5 Jun, 1902	Sold 30 Jan, 1925
Merlin	Sheerness DYd	1901	30 Nov, 1901	1 May, 1903	Sold 3 Aug, 1923
Odin	Sheerness DYd	1901	30 Nov, 1901	8 Jan, 1903	Sold 12 Nov, 1920
Clio	Sheerness DYd	1902	14 Mar, 1903	19 Jan, 1904	Sold 12 Nov, 1920
Cadmus	Sheerness DYd	1902	29 Apr, 1903	13 Apr, 1904	Sold 1 Sep, 1921

Design & Construction

Espiegle was the last Royal Navy warship given a figurehead.

Performance

Although built with masts and rigged as schooners, Espiegle was never given sails and the rigging was removed from all six in 1914.

On trial all six exceeded their design speed by around half a knot.

Armament

As Completed

• six 4-inch QF Mk III
• four 3-pounders
• three machine guns

See Also

• Wikipedia

Bibliography

• Chesneau, Robert; Kolesnik, Eugene (editors) (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. (on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk).
• Lyon, David; Winfield, Rif (2004). The Sail & Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy, 1815-1889. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1861760329. (on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk).