Mariner-class gunvessel

The Mariner class was a class of 8-gun gunvessels (sloops from 1884) built for the Royal Navy between 1883 and 1888. Melita was built in the Malta Dockyard, the only substantial ship of the Royal Navy ever to be built in the island.

Design
Designed by Nathaniel Barnaby, the Royal Navy Director of Naval Construction, the hull was of composite construction; that is, iron keel, frames, stem and stern posts with wooden planking. The entire class were re-classified in November 1884 as sloops before they entered service.

Propulsion
Propulsion was provided by a 2-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine of 850 ihp driving a single screw. This arrangement provided enough power to drive the ships at 11+1/2 kn, although Icarus and Melita recorded 12.5 knots.

Sail plan
All the ships of the class were built as barque-rigged vessels, except Icarus, which had no main yards provided, making her a barquentine.

Armament
The class was designed and built to carry eight 5-inch 38cwt breech-loading guns, one light gun and eight machine guns. Melita had 40cwt guns instead of 38cwt, and Reindeer had two of her guns removed.

Construction
All the ships were laid down in 1882-83. While most of the ships were completed relatively quickly, Melita took six years to build. The intention behind building her at Malta was to make use of the substantial workforce at Malta Dockyard who were otherwise (it was felt) unemployed when the Mediterranean Fleet was away. The experiment cost £10,000 more than the British-built versions, and incurred substantial delay; it was not repeated, and Melita remained the only warship of any significant size ever built in Malta for the Royal Navy.