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

Template:UK-Espigele was the last Royal Navy warship given a figurehead.

Performance

Although built with masts and rigged as schooners, Template:UK-Espiegele 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).