In 1879 the _Comus_ class, usually called the “C” class, as their names began with that letter, and the _Leander_ class were introduced, constructed partly of steel and partly of iron, their hulls being given a sheathing of wood. Their engines and boilers were given a protective steel deck over them 1½ inches thick, but otherwise they had little enough in the way of protection. The most famous of the former class was the _Calliope_, which, in March, 1889, made such a magnificently successful struggle against a hurricane, and fought her way from Samoa Harbour in the teeth of one of the most severe storms experienced in the Pacific. The consummate seamanship and cool daring displayed by Captain Kane in that struggle, lasting for hours, when six American and German gunboats in the harbour were wrecked, have made his feat memorable in the annals not only of the British Navy, but in the heroic records of the seamanship of all ages. It is no detraction from the merits of Captain Kane’s exploit to say that credit is due also to the members of his crew, whatever their station--and not least to the unknown hero who was at the wheel in that battle between man’s science and Nature’s force. All shared in the glory of the feat; from Captain Kane and his officers to the engineering staff who kept a set of unreliable engines going at a pressure they were never built to withstand, and to the half-naked coal-trimmers in the bunkers and firemen in the stokehold, who stuck to their work in the semi-darkness, knowing full well that in the case of failure on anyone else’s part, or breakdown in the engines, they were doomed to die like rats in a trap. The incident directed attention to the splendid sea-going capacities of these vessels, and for many years afterwards the “lines” of the smaller cruisers bore a strong resemblance to those of the _Calliope_ and her sisters.