HMS Conqueror (1881)
HMS Conqueror as she appeared upon completion in 1886.
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History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Name | HMS Conqueror |
Builder | Chatham Dockyard |
Laid down | 28 April 1879 |
Launched | 8 September 1881 |
Completed | March 1886 |
Fate | Broken up 1907 |
General characteristics | |
Displacement | 6,200 tons |
Length |
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Beam | 58 ft (18 m) |
Draught |
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Propulsion |
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Speed | 14 knots |
Complement | 330 men |
Armament |
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Armour |
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HMS Conqueror was an ironclad battleship of the Victorian Royal Navy, whose main armament was an armoured ram.
She was the first ship of the
Armament
Conqueror's breech-loading guns were of 12-inch (305-mm) calibre, and were twenty-five calibres (25 feet) long. They fired a shell weighing 714 pounds (324 kg) with a muzzle velocity of 1,910 ft/second (582 m/second), and could penetrate 10 inches (254 mm) of armour if the shell struck at or near a ninety-degree angle; much less, however, in the much more likely event of an oblique impact. They were placed very near to the deck, and it was found that a discharge over the bow caused marked blast damage to the deck and associated fittings. Firing abaft the beam caused blast damage to the bridge and superstructure, so in practice the guns could only fire on the beam, through an arc of some 45 degrees. The heavy artillery was only intended to be used against a target which had evaded a ramming attack, and was therefore on Conqueror's beam.
The smaller guns were intended for use against small targets which could evade the ram and were not worth using the heavy artillery for. The torpedo tubes - six was the greatest number carried to date by a battleship - were placed aft and were intended for use against a target placed by accident or design astern of Conqueror, when the main armament would be valueless.
Service history
She was commissioned on 5 July 1887 for the
Citations
- ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36095. London. 21 March 1900. p. 11.
References
- Oscar Parkes, British Battleships ISBN 0-85052-604-3
- Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
- D K Brown, Warrior to Dreadnought ISBN 1-86176-022-1
External links
- Media related to HMS Conqueror (ship, 1881) at Wikimedia Commons