Warships and their story

by R. A. Fletcher

The Royal Sovereign, launched in 1891 and completed the following year, introduced what is known as the high freeboard barbette type, and in 1893 there was completed the Hood, the last of the British turret ships. The Royal Sovereign was noteworthy for several reasons. A record for rapid building was established in her, for she was laid down in September, 1889, and was launched as early as February, 1891, a quicker piece of work for a vessel of her dimensions and the weight of material handled than had ever been accomplished. One novelty about her armament was that she carried as many as eight Maxims. In her also the “big four” were 13½-inch breech-loaders, as against the 12-inch guns placed in her predecessors; these were mounted in pairs in barbettes. She also had ten 6-inch quick-firers, six of which were behind shields and four in casemates; and sixteen 6-pounders, twelve 3-pounders, and three torpedo tubes completed her weapons of offence. For the protection of the ship a belt of compound armour, 18 inches thick, extended along the water-line a sufficient distance to protect the bases of the barbettes. Across the ship at the top of the belt was a protective steel deck 8 inches thick, and this deck was continued at the level of the bottom of the belt to the extreme ends of the ship. Above the thick belt on the sides and protecting the ship as high as the main deck and from the fore to the after barbette was a belt of steel armour 4 inches thick, and above this, on the main deck, were the casemates enclosing the 6-inch quick-firers. Altogether eight of these vessels were built, the Hood being the only one of them to be given turrets instead of barbettes.

Artillerists, however, were not to be beaten, and so far as steel armour and compound armour were concerned, the gun appeared once more to be obtaining the advantage. The Harvey process of strengthening the resisting powers of steel came to the rescue of the armour-plate. The Renown, which has been called a “half-way house” between the Royal Sovereign and the Centurion, was the first warship in the British Navy to be given Harveyised steel armour, of which both her armoured belt and her armoured bulkheads were constructed. Whereas in the Royal Sovereign the thickest armour was 18 inches, that of the Renown was 10 inches, and yet the latter was declared to be the better protected.

The extraordinary reduction in weight thus secured made possible the advent of the Majestic and Magnificent. These two vessels and the others of their class were as far in advance of the Royal Sovereign as the heavy ironclads were in front of the iron-plated ships. The side armour of the Majestic and Magnificent of Harveyised steel was carried to twice the height that was possible with the Royal Sovereign, and though it was only 9 inches thick it offered a resistance to penetration by hostile projectiles at least equal to that of the massive sides of the Royal Sovereign, and was far stronger than the ponderous iron masses piled upon the sides of the great turret ships of a few years earlier.

H.M.S. “MAJESTIC.”

Photograph by West & Sons, Southsea.

With the Magnificent, launched in 1894 and completed the following year, came the barbette ships with a high displacement. She, and the others of her class, carried four 12-inch guns and twelve 6-inch quick-firers, and thirty-eight anti-torpedo-boat guns, a number which had not been equalled by any other vessel except the Royal Sovereign, and five torpedo tubes, as against seven which had been installed in that vessel and her sisters. The Magnificent had a displacement of 14,900 tons and engines of 12,000 indicated h.p., a designed speed of seventeen and a half knots which she exceeded, a coal capacity of 2,200 tons, a belt of 9 inches of steel armour, and from 10 to 14 inches of steel for the protection of the main guns. The Majestic was another of the sisterhood, though there were certain differences of detail, no two vessels being precisely alike. She was 390 feet between perpendiculars and, including the overhang of the stern and the ram of 15 feet, about 430 feet in length. Her beam was 75 feet. Thus she was longer than the Royal Sovereign but of the same beam, which made her a faster ship, her speed on her trial having reached 17.8 knots, although her engines indicated about 1,000 less h.p. than the battleships of the programme of 1889.

All the ships of this class were remarkable for their appearance, which certainly justified such names as Magnificent and Majestic. The great height of the superstructure fore and aft gave the idea of a good deal of top hamper, which however was quite as great in the Royal Sovereign. The upper deck 6-inch quick-firers of that vessel were only protected by ordinary shields, but the new ships had closed-in casemates at each corner of the battery and double plating above. The bridges and deck-houses of the Majestic were set back to avoid the “blast” of the great guns, and the forward conning-tower stood clear of the bridge and had an uninterrupted view all round. In regard to the bridges she differed considerably from many of her predecessors carrying heavy armament, as the “blast” from the big guns would have rendered a position on the bridge far from safe, especially when they were fired abeam. In these vessels the four 12-inch 46-ton wire guns were placed two in each barbette; the breech and body of each gun was protected by a steel hood with a maximum thickness of 10 inches. Their 6-inch guns were in casemates. The 12-inch guns were very powerful for their weight, and comparing them with some of their most notable predecessors, it was found that their energy nearly equalled that of the 67-ton gun and their perforating power exceeded that of the 110½-ton gun.

The Majestic and her sister ships were at the time they were added to the Navy the most powerful warships afloat. The smaller guns were unprotected, this being one of the objections urged against their design. They were provided rather for repelling attacks by torpedo boats, for which purpose they would no doubt have been very effective if they were not disabled by an enemy’s gun-fire first.

The Canopus class, of slightly larger displacement but less draught and more lightly armoured, was a lighter version of the Magnificent, and but very little faster. The next year, 1898, saw the launching of the Formidable, which carried the same powerful armament as the last two, but was considered to have it better protected, as her belt consisted of 9 inches of steel and her main guns were protected by steel armour 12 inches thick. The displacement and horse-power of the engines were greater, but there was little improvement in the matter of speed. This was remedied in the Duncan and her class. She was 405 feet in length and 75 feet 6 inches beam, being 5 feet longer and 6 inches wider than the Formidable, and of about the same draught, but her engines were of 18,000 h.p. indicated, giving her an estimated speed of nineteen knots and an actual speed of over twenty knots on occasion. These two classes of vessels attracted more than usual public attention because of their cost, as although the cost of warships had been steadily increasing, the Formidables and the Duncans were the first in which the cost per ship exceeded a million sterling. A somewhat smaller vessel followed in the Triumph, launched in 1903, which attained a speed of nearly twenty-one knots, and in which also the complete belt was revived. Her principal guns were four 10-inch and fourteen 7.5-inch quick-firers, and she had also twenty-four anti-torpedo-boat guns and two torpedo tubes.