RN Ironclads

[Brian James]

Lead Ship, Ironclad Battleship HMS Devastation pictured c 1896..This was the first Class of ocean-going capital ship that did not carry sails, and the first whose entire main armament was mounted on top of the hull rather than inside it.

[Brian James]

Central Battery Ironclad Battleship HMS Alexandra pictured on departure from HMNB Portsmouth c 1886....Built at Chatham Dockyard and launched on April 7th 1875 and commissioned on January 31st 1877...With engines by Messrs Humphreys and Tennant, Alexandra was the last of a long series of progressive steps in the development of vessels of her type. As the militarily most effective of all of the broadside Ironclads, she was, ironically, designed by Nathaniel Barnaby, one of the earliest and most effective proponents of the virtues of turret-mounted artillery. Her armament was disposed in a central box battery, ( Two x 11-inch muzzle-loading guns, Ten x 10-inch rifled muzzle-loading guns and Six x 13-cwt breech-loaders). Recognising the increasing importance of axial fire, Barnaby arranged the artillery so that, by firing through embrasures, there was the capability of deploying four heavy guns to fire dead ahead, and two astern; all guns could if required fire on the broadside. Alexandra was the last British Battleship to carry her main armament wholly below decks; she was one of only two British ships to mount guns of 11-inch calibre, the other being HMS Temeraire. She was the first British warship to be powered by vertical compound engines, carrying cylindrical high-pressure boilers with a working pressure of 60 pounds-force per square inch, as compared to rectangular boilers working at 30 lbf/in2 (210 kPa) pressure mounted in earlier ships. Twelve boilers were set back to back on either side of a longitudinal bulkhead; each engine drove an outward rotating screw of some 21 feet in diameter. A pair of auxiliary engines, each of 600 indicated horsepower, were fitted to turn the screws while the ship was proceeding under sail. These engines could, if required, propel the ship at a speed of 14.5 knots. At the time of her completion Alexandra was the fastest Battleship afloat...She was sold and broken up in 1908.

[Brian James]

A Royal Portsmouth Dockyard 1873 blueprint of Lead Ship, Pre-Dreadnought Battleship HMS Devastation as completed.

[Brian James]

Admiral Class Ironclad Battleship HMS Howe pictured at Queenstown (now Cobh), in her role as Guard Ship c1896.

[Brian James]

One of Class, Pre-Dreadnought Ironclad Battleship HMS Collingwood pictured c 1897..The ship's essential design became the standard for most of the following British Battleships. Completed in 1887, she spent the next two years in reserve before she was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet for the next eight years. After returning home in 1897, the ship spent the next six years as Guardship in Ireland. Collingwood was not significantly damaged during an accidental collision in 1899 and was paid off four years later. She was sold for scrap in 1909 and subsequently broken up.

[Pelican]

Missing Victorian battleship set for recovery after 150 years

The sinking of HMS Captain off the northwest coast of Spain in 1870 was the greatest maritime disaster of its age.

See - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/1 ... 150-years/

[Brian James]

BL 6 inch, secondary armament gun crew pictured aboard Colossus Class Ironclad Battleship HMS Edinburgh in June 1897.

[Brian James]

Lead Ship, Ironclad Battleship HMS Collingwood pictured fitting out at Pembroke Dockyard in 1887.

[Brian James]

Central Battery Ironclad Battleship HMS Hercules pictured under construction at Chatham Dockyard in 1868. She was the first warship to carry the new 10-inch muzzle-loading rifle, which were ranged four on either side in a box battery. The foremost and aftermost guns could be traversed to fire to within a few degrees of the line of the keel through recessed embrasures in the battery walls. These guns, each of which weighed 18 tons, fired a shell weighing 400 pounds with a muzzle velocity of 1,380 ft/s (420 m/s). A well-trained crew could fire one shot every 70 seconds. A 9-inch gun was placed on the mid-line on the main at stem and stern to provide end-on fire, and the 7-inch guns were mounted either side fore and aft on the upper deck, with firing embrasures cut to allow either end-on or broadside fire. She carried two torpedo carriages for 14-inch Whitehead torpedoes on the main deck from 1878. She was broken up in 1932.

[Brian James]

A rare image of Devastation Class Ironclad Turret Ship HMS Thunderer during Naval manoeuvres off Portsmouth in 1893.