RN Ironclads

[Brian James]

Ironclad Turret Ship HMS Dreadnought pictured awaiting the torch at Shipbreakers Thos. W. Ward Shipyard in 1909.

[Brian James]

Ironclad Turret Ship HMS Neptune pictured in 1883....Originally designed and built at J & W Dudgeon at Cubbitt Town London for the Brazilian Navy, but acquired for the RN in 1878. Modifications to suit the RN took three years to complete and the ship did not begin her first commission until 1883 with the Channel Fleet..She was designed by Sir Edward Reed in 1872 as a masted version of HMS Devastation, a larger, sea-going version of the Cerberus Class Breastwork Monitors, and was given the provisional name Independencia. Adding masts, however, meant adding a forecastle at the bow and a poop deck at the stern to provide the space required for the masts and rigging. These blocked the firing arcs of the gun turrets so that they were deprived of the axial fire which was the original design's greatest virtue. The ship resembled, instead, an enlarged version of HMS Monarch. The Brazilians had ordered four Whitworth rifled muzzle loader 12-inch for the gun turrets and a pair of 8-inch breech-loading guns as chase guns, but these were replaced in British service. HMS Neptune mounted a pair of 12.5-inch muzzle-loading rifles in each turret and two 9-inch rifled muzzle-loading guns in the forecastle as chase guns. These guns only traverse 45° to the side. The ship also had six 20-pounder Armstrong guns for use as saluting guns. Two 14-inch torpedo tubes were mounted on the main deck, one on each side, for Whitehead torpedoes. She was broken up on September 15th 1903.