HMS Orpheus (1860)

	Richard Brydges Beechey's 1863 painting of the disaster.
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Orpheus
Namesake	Orpheus, a figure from Greek mythology, king of the Thracian tribe Cicones.
Ordered	1 April 1857
Builder	Chatham Dockyard
Laid down	12 May 1858
Launched	23 June 1860
Commissioned	Portsmouth 24 October 1861
Fate	Wrecked 7 February 1863
General characteristics
Class & type	Jason-class corvette
Displacement	2,365 tons
Tons burthen	1,702 bm
Length	225 ft (69 m)
Beam	40 ft (12 m)
Draught	18 ft 0 in (5.5 m) (forward); 19 ft 9 in (6.0 m) (aft);
Installed power	400 nominal horsepower; 1,333 indicated horsepower (994 kW);
Propulsion	2-cylinder horizontal single-expansion engine; 4 × boilers; 4 × furnaces; Single screw;
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Speed	11.1 knots (20.6 km/h)
Complement	258
Armament	20 × 8-inch (68pdr/65cwt) muzzle-loading smoothbore broadside guns; 1 × pivot-mounted 7-inch (110-pdr/82cwt) Armstrong breech loader;

HMS Orpheus was a Jason-class Royal Navy corvette that served as the flagship of the Australian squadron. Orpheus sank off the west coast of Auckland, New Zealand, on 7 February 1863: 189 crew out of the ship's complement of 259 died in the disaster, making it the worst maritime tragedy to occur in New Zealand waters.