Opal in Sydney
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Opal
Builder	William Doxford & Sons Ltd, Sunderland
Laid down	13 October 1873
Launched	9 March 1875
Fate	Sold for breaking at Sheerness, August 1892
General characteristics [1]
Class and type	Emerald-class corvette
Displacement	2,120 tons
Tons burthen	1,864 bm
Length	220 ft (67 m) pp
Beam	40 ft (12 m)
Draught	16 ft 6 in (5.03 m) forwards 18 ft (5.5 m) aft
Depth of hold	21 ft 6 in (6.55 m)
Installed power	2,187 ihp (1,631 kW) 350 nhp
Propulsion	2-cylinder horizontal compound expansion steam engine 6 × cylindrical boilers Single hoisting screw
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship (barque from the 1880s)
Complement	232
Armament	As built: 12 × 64-pounder 71-cwt rifled muzzle-loading (RML) guns 2 × 64-pounder 64-cwt RML guns From 1880: 10 × 64-pounder 71-cwt RML guns 2 × 64-pounder 64-cwt RML guns

HMS Opal was an Emerald-class corvette of the Royal Navy, laid down as Magicienne by William Doxford & Sons Ltd, Sunderland and launched on 9 March 1875.^[2]

She was completed with an armament of 14 muzzle-loading 64-pounder rifled guns (2 as bow and stern chasers mounted on centre-line swivelling slides, and 12 on broadside slide mountings) and initially commenced service on the Pacific Station, and while on passage in 1876 hit a rock in the Strait of Magellan. She was damaged and repairs were undertaken at Esquimalt.^[2] She returned to England in 1880 for refit, in which her broadside armament was reduced by 2 guns and she was re-rigged as a barque.^[2]

She sailed for service on the Cape of Good Hope and West Africa Station in 1883.^[2] En route she arrived at Limbe, Cameroon on 19 July 1884, she was carrying the British Consul for the Bights of Benin and Biafra, Edward Hyde Hewett on his mission to claim the Victoria area (the Cameroon) for Britain. He arrived and planted his flag too late, as Gustav Nachtigal had already raised the German flag at Douala a few days earlier on 14 July 1884.^[3]

She then commenced service on the Australia Station in 1885. She returned to England in 1890 and was placed into reserve. She was sold for breaking up at Sheerness in August 1892.^[2]

• Bastock, John (1988), Ships on the Australia Station, Child & Associates Publishing Pty Ltd; Frenchs Forest, Australia. ISBN 0-86777-348-0
• Winfield, R.; Lyon, D. (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC 52620555.

• Media related to HMS Opal (ship, 1875) at Wikimedia Commons