HMS ''Zealous'' was one of the three ships (the others being and ) forming the second group of wooden steam battleships selected in 1860 for conversion to

ironclad An ironclad was a steam engine, steam-propelled warship protected by iron armour, 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 ince ...

s. 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 Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

after she was completed to represent British interests in the Eastern

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. ''Zealous'' became the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...

for the

Pacific Station The Pacific Station was created in 1837 as one of the geographical military formations into which the Royal Navy divided its worldwide responsibilities. The South America Station was split into the Pacific Station and the South East Coast o ...

for six years until she was relieved in 1872. She was refitted upon her arrival and subsequently became the

guard ship A guard ship is a warship assigned as a stationary guard in a port or harbour, as opposed to a coastal patrol boat, which serves its protective role at sea. Royal Navy In the Royal Navy of the eighteenth century, peacetime guard ships were usual ...

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

until she was

paid off Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to placing a warship i ...

in 1875. The ship was in reserve until she was sold for

scrap Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap can have monetary value, especially recover ...

in 1886.

Design and description

HMS ''Zealous'' was given a straight

stem Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word respon ...

and a rounded stern, but her hull was otherwise unmodified from her original form; it had been found that lengthening the hull, as was done in the earlier , led to longitudinal weakness. Her conversion to a central battery ironclad therefore cost less than that of any of her contemporaries, though this was offset with a shorter battery and therefore a less effective broadside. She also carried less armour than the earlier class, and was nearly a knot slower; however, as she was built to serve in distant waters, and not expected to face opposing ships of significant force, these shortcomings were thought acceptable. ''Zealous'' was long between perpendiculars and had a beam of . The ship had a draught of forward and aft. She displaced .Ballard, p. 241

Propulsion

''Zealous'' had a simple horizontal 2-cylinder horizontal return connecting-rod steam engine driving a single four-bladed, propeller. Steam was provided by eight rectangular

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centra ...

s at a working pressure of . The engine produced during the ship's

sea trial A sea trial or trial trip is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a "shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on op ...

s in November 1866 which gave the ship a maximum speed of . ''Zealous'' carried a maximum of of coal. She was

ship rig A full-rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing ship, sailing vessel with a sail plan of three or more mast (sailing), masts, all of them square rig, square-rigged. Such a vessel is said to have a ship rig or be ship-rigged, with each mas ...

ged with three masts and had a sail area of . Her best speed with the propeller disconnected and under sail alone was .

Armament

All of the available and guns had already been earmarked for other, more powerful ships. ''Zealous'' therefore received an armament of guns, which were deemed adequate for her expected service activity, and which, indeed, she retained for the whole of her active career. She was the only battleship ever to have a uniform armament of this calibre, and she, and her half sister , were the only Victorian ironclads to retain their original armament unchanged through their entire active careers. ''Zealous'' was armed with twenty 7-inch rifled muzzle-loading guns. Four of these guns were mounted on the upper deck as

chase gun A chase gun (or chaser), usually distinguished as bow chaser and stern chaser, was a cannon mounted in the bow (aiming forward) or stern (aiming backward) of a sailing ship. They were used to attempt to slow down an enemy ship either chasing (p ...

s, two each fore and aft.Parkes, p. 109 The 16-calibre 7-inch gun weighed and fired a shell. It was credited with the nominal ability to penetrate armour.Gardiner, p. 6

Armour

''Zealous'' had a complete

waterline The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. A waterline can also refer to any line on a ship's hull that is parallel to the water's surface when the ship is afloat in a level trimmed position. Hence, wate ...

belt of

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

that was thick amidships and tapered to thick at the bow and stern. From the level of the main deck, it reached below the

. The guns on the main deck amidships were protected by a section of 4.5-inch armour, long, with 4.5-inch transverse bulkheads at each end which left the chase guns unprotected. The armour was backed by the sides of the ship which consisted of of

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panic ...

. The total weight of her armour was .

Service history

HMS ''Zealous'' was laid down on 26 October 1859 as a wooden two-deck, 90-gun ship of the line by Pembroke Royal Dockyard, but her construction was suspended pending experience with the conversion of her half-sisters of the ''Prince Consort'' class to broadside ironclads. The Admiralty ordered on 2 July 1862Ballard, p. 240 that she be cut down one deck and converted to an armoured frigate for the price of £239,258.Adjusted for inflation to 20 pounds, £. The ship was launched on 7 March 1864 and commissioned in September 1866, but was not completed until 4 October 1866. In order to match the French deployment of armored

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...

s of the and es in the Pacific Ocean the Admiralty ordered ''Zealous'' to sail for the west coast of Canada shortly after she was completed. Upon her arrival the ship became the flagship, and reached her operational base at

Esquimalt The Township of Esquimalt () is a municipality at the southern tip of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. It is bordered to the east by the provincial capital, Victoria, British Columbia, Victoria, to the south by the Strait of Jua ...

in July 1867 (Esquimalt was the headquarters of the Pacific Station); she remained moored there, at the end of a telegraph link with Britain, until April 1869. During this time her only sea service was for gunnery practice on two days every quarter. In January 1870 she picked up a fresh crew at

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

brought out by the two-decker . After six years on station she was relieved by ''Revenge'' as flagship and started for home. Her bottom had not been cleaned since she had left Great Britain and she could only make a maximum of under sail or steam so her return voyage took five months. ''Zealous'' struck a rock while sailing through the English Narrows in the southwestern coast of Chile, but was only slightly damaged. She was refitted in

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

in April 1873 and then became guard ship at Southampton until 1875, when she was paid off. The ship was placed in reserve in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

until sold for scrap in September 1886. As coal was extremely expensive on the West Coast of the Americas, HMS ''Zealous'' generally used her sails and covered more miles under sail than any of the other Victorian sailing ironclads, and in her whole career never once travelled in company with another ironclad. She was also the first British ironclad to sail further from Britain than the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

.Ballard, pp. 146–47

Notes

Footnotes

References

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zealous Bulwark-class battleships (1859) Ships built in Pembroke Dock 1864 ships Victorian-era battleships of the United Kingdom