Lord Clyde-class ironclad

HMS Lord Warden
Class overview
Builders	Chatham Dockyard Pembroke Dock
Operators	Royal Navy
Built	1863–1867
In commission	1866–1889
Completed	2
Scrapped	2
General characteristics
Displacement	Lord Warden : 7,842 long tons (7,968 t) Lord Clyde : 7,750 long tons (7,870 t)
Length	280 ft (85 m)
Beam	59 ft (18 m)
Propulsion	Lord Warden : Maudslay return connecting-rod, I.H.P. =*6,700 Lord Clyde : Ravenhill two-cylinder trunk, I.H.P. = 6,700
Speed	13 knots (15 mph; 24 km/h) under power 10 knots (12 mph; 19 km/h) under sail
Complement	605
Armament	18-24 × 5–9 in (130–230 mm) muzzle-loading rifles 2 × RBL 20-pounder guns
Armour	Battery and belt: 5.5 in (140 mm) amidships, 4.5 in (110 mm) fore and aft Backing: 31.5 in (800 mm) of oak Conning tower: 4.5 in (110 mm)

The Lord Clyde-class ironclads were a pair of wooden-hulled armoured frigates built for the Royal Navy in the 1860s. They were designed by Sir Edward Reed and built to make use of the large stocks of seasoned timber available in the royal shipyards.

Overview

The design of these ships was based upon the design of HMS Bellerophon, but in making the adaptation from this ship's design to the requirements of a wooden hull, Reed had only the behaviour of HMS Royal Oak to learn from, and the tendency of her class to sag amidships had not at that time been recognised. Both ships were built with a beam equal to Royal Oak, and some twenty feet shorter.

Their hulls were a complex sandwich structure, consisting of an inner layer of oak ribs 24 inches (610 mm) thick, a 1.5-inch (38 mm) iron skin, 6 inches (152 mm) of oak support and backing for the armour, an armour layer of 4.5 to 5.5 inches (114–140 mm) in thickness, and a thin sheathing of anti-fouling Muntz metal. It was believed at the time that the 15-inch Dahlgren guns carried by the American monitors would fail to penetrate this sandwich.

References

• Ballard, G. A., Admiral (1980). The Black Battlefleet. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-924-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Chesneau, Roger; Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
• Parkes, Oscar (1990). British Battleships (reprint of the 1957 ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-075-4.
• Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-88254-979-0.
• Reed, E. J. (1869). Our Iron-Clad Ships: Their Qualities, Performance and Cost. London: John Murray. OCLC 7944535.