An ironclad was a steam-propelled warship protected by steel or iron armor constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. The first ironclad battleship, Gloire, was launched by the French Navy in November 1859, narrowly preempting the British Royal Navy. However, Britain built the first completely iron-hulled warships.
HMS Antelope was a Royal Navy Alarm-class torpedo gunboat. She was launched in 1893, reduced to harbour service from 1910 and was sold for scrapping in 1919.
The fourth HMS Colossus was a Colossus class second-class British battleship, launched in 1882 and commissioned in 1886. She had a displacement of 9,520 tons, and an armament of 4 × 12-inch breechloaders, 5 × 6-inch guns and had a respectable speed of 15.5 knots.
HMS Thunderer was one of two Devastation-class ironclad turret ships built for the Royal Navy in the 1870s. She suffered two serious accidents before the decade was out and gained a reputation as an unlucky ship for several years afterward. The ship was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1878 and was reduced to reserve in 1881 before being recommissioned in 1885. Thunderer returned home in 1887 and was again placed in reserve. She rejoined the Mediterranean Fleet in 1891, but was forced to return to the UK by boiler problems the following year. The ship became a coast guard ship in Wales in 1895 and was again placed in reserve in 1900. Thunderer was taken out of service in 1907 and sold for scrap in 1909.
HMS Sultan was a broadside ironclad of the Royal Navy of the Victorian era, who carried her main armament in a central box battery. She was named for Sultan Abdulaziz of the Ottoman Empire, who was visiting England when she was laid down. Abdulaziz cultivated good relations with the Second French Empire and the British. In 1867 he was the first Ottoman sultan to peacefully visit Western Europe; his trip included a visit to England, where he was made a Knight of the Garter by Queen Victoria and shown a Royal Navy Fleet Review, with Isma'il Pasha of Egypt.
HMS Ajax was the name ship of her class of ironclad battleships built for the Royal Navy during the 1870s. Completed in 1883, she was immediately placed in reserve until 1885 when the ship was commissioned for the first time. Later that year, Ajax was assigned as a coast guard ship in Scotland and remained there for the next six years. She was reduced to reserve again in 1891 and was taken out of service a decade later. The ship was sold for scrap in 1904 and subsequently broken up.
HMS Edinburgh was an ironclad battleship of the Colossus class which served in the Royal Navy of the Victorian era. She was the sister ship of HMS Colossus, being started before her but being completed after.
Enrico Dandolo was the second of two Duilio-class ironclad turret ships built for the Italian Regia Marina in the 1870s. They were fitted with the largest guns available, 450 mm (18 in) rifled, muzzle-loading guns, and were the largest, fastest and most powerful ships of their day. Enrico Dandolo was built in La Spezia, with her keel laid in January 1873 and her hull launched in July 1878. Construction was finally completed in April 1882 when the ship, named for the 41st Doge of Venice, was commissioned into the Italian fleet.
The Leander class was a four-ship cruiser programme ordered by the Admiralty in 1880. The class comprised HMS Leander, HMS Phaeton, HMS Amphion, and HMS Arethusa.
Hoche was an ironclad battleship built as a hybrid barbette–turret ship for the French Navy in the 1880s. Originally designed in response to very large Italian ironclads along the lines of the French Amiral Baudin class, by the time work on Hoche began, changes in French design philosophy led to a radical re-design that provided the basis for a generation of French capital ships. Her armament was reduced in size compared to the Amiral Baudins, and was placed in the lozenge arrangement that would be used for most French capital ships into the 1890s. Hoche suffered from serious stability problems that resulted from her large superstructure and low freeboard, which required extensive work later in her career to correct. The ship incorporated new technologies for the French Navy, including gun turrets for some of her main battery guns and compound armor plate.
HMS Neptune was an ironclad turret ship originally designed and built in Britain for Brazil, but acquired for the Royal Navy in 1878. Modifications to suit the Royal Navy took three years to complete and the ship did not begin her first commission until 1883 with the Channel Fleet. She was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1885, but refitted in Portsmouth in 1886–87. Neptune then became the coastguard ship for the 1st Class Reserve at Holyhead until 1893 when she was placed in reserve in Portsmouth. While she was being towed to the breakers in 1903, Neptune unintentionally rammed HMS Victory, then serving as a training hulk for the Naval Signal School, collided with HMS Hero, and narrowly missed several other ships. She was scrapped in Germany in 1904.
The Charles Martel class was a planned class of ironclad barbette ships of the French Navy. The class comprised two ships, Charles Martel and Brennus, and represented an incremental improvement over the preceding Marceau class, being larger, but carrying the same main battery of four 340 mm (13.4 in) guns in single mounts. Details of the ships' construction are unclear and contradictory, with various sources reporting that both ships were laid down, or that only Brennus was begun; neither ship was launched before they were cancelled in 1884 or 1886. Some sources indicate that Brennus was redesigned and completed as France's first pre-dreadnought battleship, Brennus, but most other historians dispute the idea.
The BL 12 inch naval gun Mk I was a British rifled breech-loading naval gun of the early 1880s intended for the largest warships such as battleships and also coastal defence. It was Britain's first attempt to match the large guns being installed in rival European navies, particularly France, after Britain transitioned from rifled muzzle-loading guns to the modern rifled breech-loaders somewhat later than the European powers.
HMS Rattlesnake was a unique design of torpedo gunboat of the Royal Navy. A result of the Russian war scare of 1885, she was designed by Nathaniel Barnaby that year and built by Laird Brothers, of Birkenhead. Quickly made obsolete by the new torpedo boat destroyers, she became an experimental submarine target ship in 1906, and was sold in 1910.
Milan was a late-19th-century unprotected cruiser in the French Navy. At the time of her completion, Milan was considered by several publications to be the fastest warship in the world. The warship was the last unprotected cruiser in French naval service, and Milan's design influenced the construction of later protected cruisers.
HMS TB 81, originally named Swift, was a torpedo boat that served with the British Royal Navy. She was built in 1884–1885 by the shipbuilder J Samuel White as a private venture, and was purchased for the Royal Navy in 1885, and was one of the largest torpedo boats of her time. She remained in service into the First World War, when she was employed as a patrol boat, finally being sold for scrap in 1921.
Tage was a protected cruiser built for the French Navy in the 1880s, the second vessel of that type built for the French fleet. The design was based on the previous cruiser, Sfax, and like that vessel, Tage was intended to be used as a commerce raider to attack merchant shipping. As such, she carried a barque sailing rig to supplement her steam engines for long voyages overseas. Tage was armed with a main battery of eight 164 mm (6.5 in) guns and had a curved armor deck that was 51 to 56 mm thick.
Sfax was a protected cruiser built for the French Navy in the 1880s. She was the first vessel of the type to be built for the French Navy, which was a development from earlier unprotected cruisers like Milan. Unlike the earlier vessels, Sfax carried an armor deck that covered her propulsion machinery and ammunition magazines. Intended to be used as a commerce raider in the event of war with Great Britain, Sfax was rigged as a barque to supplement her engines on long voyages abroad. She was armed with a main battery of six 164 mm (6.5 in) guns and a variety of lighter weapons.
The BL 12 inch naval gun Mk III–VII were a series of all-steel British rifled breech-loading naval gun models of the mid-1880s intended for the largest warships such as battleships and also for coastal defence.
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