The

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

's ''Victoria'' class (or ''Sans Pareil'' class) of the 1880s was the first class of

ironclad warship An ironclad is a steam engine, steam-propelled warship protected by Wrought iron, iron or steel iron armor, armor plates, constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships ...

(sometimes described as a battleship) which used

triple expansion steam engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure ''(HP)'' cylinder, then having given up he ...

s, previous classes having used compound engines. There were only two ships in this class. The

lead ship The lead ship, name ship, or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to naval ships and large civilian vessels. Large ships are very complex and may ...

, , was sunk in an accidental collision with another Royal Navy battleship, HMS ''Camperdown'' in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

with the loss of half of her crew. Her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

, , survived until she was scrapped in April 1907.

Design

Victoria Class Battleship Starboard elevation and Deck plan

This class was intended to be an improved version of , and it was originally called the ''new Conquerors''.

Armament

The original intention had been to fit 13.5 inch (343 mm), 67-ton guns in place of the ''Conqueror''s 12 inch (305 mm) guns in the single forward turret but late during the design it was decided to enlarge them to take the 16.25 inch (413 mm), 110-ton gun. Similar guns had been supplied by the manufacturer, Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co., Ltd., to the Italian ''

Regia Marina The ''Regia Marina'' (; ) was the navy of the Kingdom of Italy (''Regno d'Italia'') from 1861 to 1946. In 1946, with the birth of the Italian Republic (''Repubblica Italiana''), the ''Regia Marina'' changed its name to ''Marina Militare'' (" ...

'' and fitted in the and the 1,800 pound (816 kg) projectile could penetrate any thickness of armour afloat at that time. At a period when naval supremacy of 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 north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on th ...

was seen as a crucial part of British policy, the ''Victoria'' class was intended for service as part of the British Mediterranean Fleet. The same model of gun had been fitted in the last , which had a single example in each of its two barbettes instead of pairs of 13.5 inch (343 mm) guns and was the only other British warship to carry them. The gun was not successful in service since it took four or five minutes to load and fire. The barrel only had a 75-round life and the muzzle tended to droop. The rear turret contained a smaller 10 inch (254 mm) gun of similar design, and which weighed 26 tons.

Seakeeping

This class was one of the last of this period to have very low freeboard, of around 10 feet (3 m). This was done to reduce target area in a naval engagement but had a deleterious effect upon seaworthiness, and was an important factor in ''Victoria'' sinking within fifteen minutes following a collision since it allowed the water to quickly reach the gun turret ports.

Propulsion

The most successful innovation of the class was the introduction of triple expansion steam engines into Royal Navy battleships. These engines had been developed as a result of the introduction of steel in boiler manufacture, which in turn had led to higher steam pressures. The Royal Navy had originally tried them with great success in the

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...

gunboat A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-ste ...

. The principal benefit was the improved efficiency of the engine meant a reduced displacement because less coal was needed. In trials, , which had been re-engined with triple-expansion engines in 1889–1891, showed that the coal consumption at 80% power was roughly halved.Brown, pp. 99–100.

Ships

References

Bibliography

* * David Brown, ''Warrior to Dreadnought: Warship development 1860–1905'', Chatham Publishing.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Victoria Class ironclad Battleship classes Ship classes of the Royal Navy