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Dear Martin I note that Steven Gray refers to the last of the RN’s hybrid warships being launched in about 1875. In fact they were being built much later than that. My father’s sloop HMS Clio (see my book Sailor in the Desert) was launched in 1903 and he recalled sailing across the South China Sea in her under canvas. When the war started they tended to use steam and I think when headed for Mesopotamia they disembarked their sails. Your material always worth reading!