High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! HMS Calliope was a Calypso-class corvette of the Royal Navy which served from 1887 until 1951. Like all the remaining frigates and corvette extent in 1887, she was re-classified as a third-class cruiser in the year she was completed, and exemplified the transitional nature of the late Victorian navy. She was a sailing corvette — one of the last — but supplemented her sail rig with powerful engines. Among the first of the smaller cruisers to be given all-steel hulls, she was cased with timber and coppered below the water line, as were wooden ships.