The ''Swiftsure'' class battleships of the late Victorian era were
broadside 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 designed and built specifically for service as Flagships on the Pacific station.
Design
In appearance the two ships of the class, and , were very similar to ; under water their hulls were very similar to that of . The intention was to make the ships good performers under sail, while at the same time being stable ships and good gun platforms.
At the design stage it had been suggested by the Committee on Designs that the ships should be built with their artillery mounted in two turrets, with some smaller guns positioned fore and aft. As there was at that time not sufficient experience with turret-mounted armament, and none at all with turrets in first-class battleships, the idea did not find favour and this class was completed with a broadside
box battery
The box battery is a disposition of the main armament in a battleship, commonly used in ships built in the latter half of the 19th century. A box battery consists of a thick armour surrounding a central battery to protect the guns. It was an int ...
deployed on two levels, on the main and on the upper deck.
Fouling of ships' hulls by marine life had been a problem since the dawn of shipbuilding. Until the middle of the nineteenth century ships' bottoms had been sheathed with copper sheeting, which prevented fouling but was expensive. Sheathing with zinc plate or with
Muntz metal
Muntz metal (also known as yellow metal) is an alpha-beta brass alloy composed of approximately 60% copper, 40% zinc and a trace of iron. It is named after George Fredrick Muntz, a metal-roller of Birmingham, England, who commercialised the al ...
was used thereafter, as it was cheaper. For the ''Swiftsure'' class, however, a reversion was made to
copper sheathing
Copper sheathing is a method for protecting the hull of a wooden vessel from attack by shipworm, barnacles and other marine growth through the use of copper plates affixed to the surface of the hull, below the waterline. It was pioneered and d ...
, as in the Pacific there were no docking facilities whatsoever - until the completion of the dockyard 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 1886 - and the sheathing applied on commissioning had to serve for the whole commission.
All ranks were berthed on the main deck; berthing for seamen in previous classes had been on the lower deck. As the officers' accommodation was well ventilated and well lit, the ships were universally popular.
History
The two ships spent some time in reserve, but in their active careers they took turns as flagship of the Pacific station.
References
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External links
{{British ironclads
Ironclad classes
Ship classes of the Royal Navy