![]() Collingwood at anchor | |
History | |
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Name | Collingwood |
Namesake | Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood |
Builder | Pembroke Dockyard |
Laid down | 12 July 1880 |
Launched | 22 November 1882 |
Completed | July 1887 |
Fate | Sold for scrap, 11 May 1909 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Admiral-class ironclad battleship |
Displacement | 9,500 long tons (9,700 t) |
Length | 325 ft (99.1 m) (p.p.) |
Beam | 68 ft (20.7 m) |
Draught | 26 ft 11 in (8.2 m) |
Installed power | 7,000 ihp (5,200 kW) (normal) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 16.8 kn (31.1 km/h; 19.3 mph) (forced draught) |
Range | 8,500 nmi (15,700 km; 9,800 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
Complement | 498 |
Armament |
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Armour |
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HMS Collingwood was the lead ship of her class of ironclad battleships built for the Royal Navy during the 1880s. 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 a guardship in Ireland. Collingwood was not significantly damaged during an accidental collision in 1899 and was paid off four years later. The ship was sold for scrap in 1909 and subsequently broken up.
At the time of her design, she was not considered as being the forerunner of any class; she was designed by the Director of Naval Construction, Sir Nathaniel Barnaby, as a one-off as an answer to the French Amiral Baudin-class ironclads, which carried three heavy guns on the centreline and a number of smaller pieces on the broadside. He made several proposals to the Board of Admiralty, but they were all rejected. [1] Barnaby's final submission was inspired by the four French Terrible-class ironclads laid down in 1877–1878 and was a return to the configuration of Devastation with the primary armament positioned fore and aft of the central superstructure, but with the breech-loading main armament mounted in barbettes, as per the French ships, [2] [3] which allowed them to be sited 10 feet (3.0 m) further above the waterline than Devastation's guns. [4] The Board modified Barnaby's design by adding 25 feet (7.6 m) of length and 2,000 indicated horsepower (1,500 kW ) to guarantee a speed of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) at deep load. It also substituted four smaller 42- long-ton (43 t ) guns for Barnaby's two 80-long-ton (81 t) guns. The additional length and the Board's acceptance of the hull lines from Colossus increased the size of the ship by 2,500 long tons (2,540 t). [5]
Barnaby was severely criticised, particularly by Sir Edward Reed, himself a former Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy, because Collingwood's waterline armour belt was concentrated amidships and did not extend to the ends of the ship. Reed believed that this weakness meant that the ship could be sunk from the consequent uninhibited flooding if her unarmoured ends were riddled by shellfire and open to the sea. Barnaby deliberately selected a hull shape with narrow, fine ends to limit the volume of the hull that could be flooded and situated the armoured deck below the waterline to prevent it from being pierced by enemy shells and flooding the lower part of the ironclad. Furthermore, he heavily subdivided the hull to limit the amount of water that could enter through any one hit and placed coal bunkers above the armoured deck to absorb the fragments from exploding shells. Unbeknownst to his critics, Collingwood was tested in 1884 with her ends and the large spaces in her hold ballasted with water and her draught only increased by 17.5 inches (440 mm) and she lost a minor amount of speed. The price was that the ship lacked buoyancy at her ends and tended to bury her bow in oncoming waves rather than be lifted over them. Her speed was greatly reduced in a head sea and the resulting spray made working the guns very difficult. Collingwood tended to roll heavily and was not regarded as a good seaboat. Despite these issues, her basic configuration was followed by most subsequent British ironclads and predreadnought battleships until the revolutionary Dreadnought of 1905. [6]
The ship had a length between perpendiculars of 325 feet (99.1 m), a beam of 68 feet (20.7 m), and a draught of 27 feet 10 inches (8.5 m) at deep load. She displaced 9,500 long tons (9,700 t ) at normal load [3] and had a complement of 498 officers and ratings. [7]
The ship was powered by a pair of 2-cylinder inverted compound-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller. The Humphreys engines produced a total of 7,000 indicated horsepower (5,200 kW) at normal draught and 9,600 ihp (7,200 kW) with forced draught, using steam provided by a dozen cylindrical boilers with a working pressure of 100 psi (689 kPa ; 7 kgf/cm2 ). [7] She was designed to reach a speed of 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph) at normal draught and Collingwood reached 16.6 knots (30.7 km/h; 19.1 mph) from 8,369 ihp (6,241 kW) on her sea trials, using natural draught. She was the first British ironclad to be equipped with forced draught and the ship only reached a speed of 16.84 knots (31.19 km/h; 19.38 mph) from 9,573 ihp (7,139 kW) while using it during her sea trials because her engines were incapable of handling the additional steam. [8] Collingwood carried a maximum of 1,200 long tons (1,219 t) of coal that gave her a range of 8,500 nautical miles (15,700 km; 9,800 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). [9]
The ship had a main armament of 25-calibre rifled breech-loading (BL) 12-inch (305 mm) Mk II guns. The four guns were mounted in two twin-gun barbettes, one forward and one aft of the superstructure. The barbettes were open, without hoods or gun shields, and the guns, mounted on a turntable, were fully exposed. They could only be loaded when pointed fore and aft with an elevation of 13°. The 714-pound (324 kg) shells fired by these guns were credited with the ability to penetrate 20.6 inches (523 mm) of wrought iron at 1,000 yards (910 m), [10] using a charge of 295 pounds (134 kg) of prismatic brown powder. At maximum elevation, the guns had a range of around 9,400 yards (8,600 m). [11]
The secondary armament of Collingwood consisted of six 26-calibre BL 6-inch (152 mm) Mk IV guns on single mounts positioned on the upper deck amidships, three on each broadside. They fired 100-pound (45 kg) shells that were credited with the ability to penetrate 10.5 inches (267 mm) of wrought iron at 1000 yards. [10] They had a range of 8,830 yards (8,070 m) at an elevation of +15° using prismatic black powder. Beginning around 1895 all of these guns were converted into quick-firing guns (QF) with a much faster rate of fire. Using cordite extended their range to 9,275 yards (8,481 m). [12] For defence against torpedo boats the ships carried a dozen QF 6-pounder 2.2-inch (57 mm) Hotchkiss guns and eight QF 3-pdr 1.9-inch (47 mm) Hotchkiss guns. They also mounted four 14-inch (356 mm) above-water torpedo tubes, one pair on each broadside. [3]
Collingwood's waterline belt of compound armour extended across the middle of the ship between the rear of each barbette for 140 feet (42.7 m). It had a total height of 7 feet 6 inches (2.3 m) deep of which 5 feet (1.5 m) was below water and 2 feet 6 inches (0.8 m) above at normal load; at deep load, the ship's draught increased by another 6 inches. The upper 4 feet (1.2 m) of the belt armour was 18 inches (457 mm) thick and the plates tapered to 8 inches (203 mm) at the bottom edge. Lateral bulkheads at the ends of the belt connected it to the barbettes; they were 16 inches (406 mm) thick at main deck level and 7 inches (178 mm) below. [13]
Each barbette was a roughly pear-shaped, 11-sided polygon, 60 by 45 feet (18.3 m × 13.7 m) in size with sloping walls 11.5 inches (292 mm) thick and a 10-inch (254 mm) rear. The main ammunition hoists were protected by armoured tubes with walls 10–12 inches thick. [4] The conning tower also had 12-inch thick walls as well as roofs 2 inches (51 mm) thick. The deck of the central armoured citadel had a thickness of 3 inches (76 mm) and the lower deck was 2–2.5 inches (51–64 mm) thick from the ends of the belt to the bow and stern. [4] [9]
Collingwood, named after Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, Horatio Nelson's second-in-command in the British victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, [14] was the second ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy. [15] The ship was laid down at Pembroke Dockyard on 12 July 1880 [9] and launched by Mrs. Louise Chatfield, wife of the dockyard's Captain-Superintendent, Captain Alfred Chatfield, [16] on 22 November 1882. [9]
While conducting gunnery trials on 4 May 1886, Collingwood's rear left gun partially shattered and all of the Mk II guns were withdrawn from service. They were replaced by heavier Mk Vw models with approximately the same performance. [11] Excluding her armament, she cost £636,996.
The ship was commissioned at Portsmouth on 1 July 1887 for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee Fleet review and was paid off into reserve in August. [17]
Collingwood was recommissioned for the annual summer manoeuvres for the next two years, before she was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet, where she served from November 1889 until March 1897, with a refit in Malta in 1896. [17] Captain Charles Penrose-Fitzgerald commanded the ironclad when she joined the Mediterranean Fleet in 1889. [18] The ship became the coastguard ship at Bantry, Ireland, upon her return. [17] Collingwood accidentally collided with the cruiser HMS Curacoa in Plymouth harbour on 23 January 1899, badly damaging the latter ship, but was not significantly damaged herself. [19] She took part in the fleet review held at Spithead on 16 August 1902 for the coronation of King Edward VII, [20] and was back in Ireland later that month when she received the Japanese cruisers Asama and Takasago to Cork. [21] The ship was paid off into the reserve in June 1903 and was transferred to East Kyle in January 1905. Collingwood remained there until she was sold for scrap [17] to Hughes Bolckow at Dunston, Tyne and Wear [9] for £19,000 [17] on 11 May 1909. [14]
The Majestic class of nine pre-dreadnought battleships were built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1890s under the Spencer Programme, named after the First Lord of the Admiralty, John Poyntz Spencer. With nine units commissioned, they were the most numerous class of battleships. The nine ships, HMS Majestic, Caesar, Hannibal, Illustrious, Jupiter, Magnificent, Mars, Prince George, and Victorious, were built between 1894 and 1898 as part of a programme to strengthen the Royal Navy versus its two traditional rivals, France and Russia. This continued the naval re-armament initiatives begun by the Naval Defence Act 1889.
The Royal Sovereign class was a group of eight pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the 1890s. The ships spent their careers in the Mediterranean, Home and Channel Fleets, sometimes as flagships, although several were mobilised for service with the Flying Squadron in 1896 when tensions with the German Empire were high following the Jameson Raid in South Africa. Three ships were assigned to the International Squadron formed when Greek Christians rebelled against the Ottoman Empire's rule in Crete in 1897–1898.
HMS Hood was a modified Royal Sovereign-class pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Royal Navy in the early 1890s. She differed from the other ships of the class in that she had cylindrical gun turrets instead of barbettes and a lower freeboard. She served most of her active career in the Mediterranean Sea, where her low freeboard was less of a disadvantage. The ship was placed in reserve in 1907 and later became the receiving ship at Queenstown, Ireland. Hood was used in the development of anti-torpedo bulges in 1913 and was scuttled in late 1914 to act as a blockship across the southern entrance of Portland Harbour after the start of World War I.
HMS Dreadnought was an ironclad turret ship built for the Royal Navy during the 1870s. Construction was halted less than a year after it began and she was redesigned to improve her stability and buoyancy. Upon completion in 1879, the ship was placed in reserve until she was commissioned in 1884 for service with the Mediterranean Fleet. Upon her return 10 years later, she became a coast guard ship in Ireland for two years. The ship then became a depot ship in 1897 before she was reclassified as a second-class battleship in 1900. Dreadnought participated in the annual fleet manoeuvres for the next two years before she became a training ship in 1902. The ship was taken out of service three years later and sold for scrap in 1908.
The eighth HMS Shannon was the first British armoured cruiser. She was the last Royal Navy ironclad to be built which had a propeller that could be hoisted out of the water to reduce drag when she was under sail, and the first to have an armoured deck.
HMSZealous was one of the three ships forming the second group of wooden steam battleships selected in 1860 for conversion to ironclads. This was done in response to the perceived threat to Britain offered by the large French ironclad building programme. The ship was ordered to the West Coast of Canada after she was completed to represent British interests in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Zealous became the flagship for the Pacific Station for six years until she was relieved in 1872. She was refitted upon her arrival and subsequently became the guard ship at Southampton until she was paid off in 1875. The ship was in reserve until she was sold for scrap in 1886.
HMS Bellerophon was a central battery ironclad built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1860s.
HMS Howe was an Admiral-class ironclad battleship built for the Royal Navy during the 1880s. The ship was assigned to the Channel Fleet in mid-1890 and was badly damaged when she ran aground in late 1892. After repairs were completed, Howe was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in late 1893. She returned home in late 1896 and became a guardship in Ireland. Howe remained there until late 1901 when she was assigned to the Reserve Fleet. The ship was paid off in three years later and then sold for scrap in 1910.
HMS Anson was the last of six Admiral-class ironclad battleships built for the Royal Navy during the 1880s. The ship was completed, except for her armament, in 1887, but had to wait two years for her guns to be installed. She was assigned to the Channel Fleet in mid-1889 as a flagship for the fleet's second-in-command. Two years later, the passenger ship SS Utopia sank with the loss of 562 lives after colliding with Anson in the Bay of Gibraltar. In mid-1893, Anson was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet, subsequently returning home in 1900 when she was assigned to the Reserve Fleet. She recommissioned for the Home Fleet in early 1901. Anson was paid off three years later and then sold for scrap in 1909.
HMS Nile was one of two Trafalgar-class ironclad battleships built for the Royal Navy during the 1880s. Late deliveries of her main guns delayed her commissioning until 1891 and she spent most of the decade with the Mediterranean Fleet. Nile returned home in 1898 and became the coast guard ship at Devonport for five years before she was placed in reserve in 1903. The ship was sold for scrap in 1912 and broken up at Swansea, Wales.
HMS Repulse was one of seven Royal Sovereign-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the 1890s. Assigned to the Channel Fleet, where she often served as a flagship, after commissioning in 1894, the ship participated in a series of annual manoeuvres, and the Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Fleet Review during the rest of the decade. Repulse was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1902 and remained there until December 1903, when she returned home for an extensive refit. After its completion in 1905, Repulse was assigned to the Reserve Fleet until she was sold for scrap in 1911.
HMS Royal Sovereign was the lead ship of the seven ships in her class of pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the 1890s. The ship was commissioned in 1892 and served as the flagship of the Channel Fleet for the next five years. She was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1897 and returned home in 1902, and was briefly assigned as a coast guard ship before she began a lengthy refit in 1903–1904. Royal Sovereign was reduced to reserve in 1905 and was taken out of service in 1909. The ship was sold for scrap four years later and subsequently broken up in Italy.
HMS Empress of India was one of seven Royal Sovereign-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy during the 1890s. The ship was commissioned in 1893 and served as the flagship of the second-in-command of the Channel Fleet for two years. She was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1897, during which time Empress of India was assigned to the International Squadron blockading Crete during the uprising there. She returned home in 1901 and was briefly assigned as a coast guard ship in Ireland before she became the second flagship of the Home Fleet. The ship was reduced to reserve in 1905 and accidentally collided with the submarine HMS A10 the following year. Empress of India was taken out of service in early 1912 and accidentally struck a German sailing ship while under tow. She was sunk as a target ship in 1913.
HMS Royal Oak was one of seven Royal Sovereign-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy during the 1890s. Upon her completion in 1894, she was initially placed in reserve until mobilised in 1896 for service with the Flying Squadron. After returning briefly to reserve, the ship was assigned the following year to the Mediterranean Fleet. Royal Oak remained there until 1902 when she returned home; after a refit, the ship was assigned to the Home Fleet, where she served as the flagship of the fleet's second-in-command in 1904–05. Royal Oak was then reduced to reserve until she was taken out of service in 1911. The ship was sold for scrap in early 1914.
The Centurion-class battleships were a pair of pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the 1890s. They were rated as second-class battleships because they were less heavily armed and armoured than the first-class battleships. They were designed for service abroad and were given higher speed and longer range to counter the armoured cruisers then being built as commerce raiders.
HMS Centurion was the lead ship of her class of two pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the 1890s. Intended for service abroad, they exchanged heavy armour and a powerful armament for high speed and long range to counter the foreign armoured cruisers then being built as commerce raiders and were rated as second-class battleships.
HMS Renown was a second-class predreadnought battleship built for the Royal Navy in the early 1890s. Intended to command cruiser squadrons operating on foreign stations, the ship served as the flagship of the North America and West Indies Station and the Mediterranean Fleet early in her career. Becoming obsolete as cruiser speeds increased, Renown became a royal yacht and had all of her secondary armament removed to make her more suitable for such duties. She became a stoker's training ship in 1909 and was listed for disposal in 1913. The ship was sold for scrap in early 1914.
The Fuji class was a two-ship class of pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the mid-1890s. They were the first battleships in the IJN, and were constructed in the UK as Japan lacked the industrial facilities needed to build them. Their design was based on the battleships being built for the Royal Navy at that time.
The Shikishima class was a two-ship class of pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in the late 1890s. As Japan lacked the industrial capacity to build such warships herself, they were designed and built in the UK. The ships participated in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, including the Battle of Port Arthur on the second day of the war. Hatsuse sank after striking two mines off Port Arthur in May 1904. Shikishima fought in the Battles of the Yellow Sea and Tsushima and was lightly damaged in the latter action, although shells prematurely exploded in the barrels of her main guns in each battle. The ship was reclassified as a coast defence ship in 1921 and served as a training ship for the rest of her career. She was disarmed and hulked in 1923 and finally broken up for scrap in 1948.
The Katori class was a two-ship class of pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the early 1900s. As Japan lacked the industrial capacity to build such warships itself, they were designed and built in the UK. They were the last pre-dreadnought battleships to be built for Japan at overseas shipyards, and the last to be equipped with a ram. The ships were delivered after the end of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. They saw no action during World War I, although both were present when Japan joined the Siberian Intervention in 1918. They were disarmed and scrapped in 1923–1925 in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922.
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