Retro Brit : Did You Know H.M.S. Devastation 1871 - 1908 (First steam powered battleship with no sails)

H.M.S. Devastation in all her glory launched 1871 Portsmouth

The first recorded battleship to put to sea without the array of sail and rope was the Royal Navy’s H.M.S. Devastation. She was launched in Portsmouth on 12th July 1871 and was designed by Sir Edward J. Reed. She was the first of two Devastation class battleships – the other being H.M.S. Thunderer, her sister ship. She sat low in the water but her freeboard was raised above the stern and bow. The bow must have been awash with water when she ploughed through the high seas. In the above model, the waterline is roughly where the black paint meets the light brown. You can then imagine how much of the vessel sat below the water. At the bow, you can see the pointed ram, which is of course below the waterline. The reason for building this ram was said to have come about after the successful ramming during the battle of Lissa in 1866. This was a battle that took place between the Austrian Empire and the Italian forces close to a small island in the Adriatic sea, close to Croatia. It was the first major battle between ironclads and one of the last to involve deliberate ramming.

There were, of course, coal-driven ships, made of iron, about and they had been for some time, but for a ship to rely exclusively on steam engine gear as a means of propulsion; this was a first. She had two horizontal trunk engines – a design of John Penn of Greenwich and each of these engines drove screw propellers that moved the vessel at 13.5 knots (25.6km/h)

She could hold around 18,000 tonnes of fuel and this gave her a range of 5,500 miles, which was very good in 1871.

Note the small muzzle-loading cannons barely protruding from the turret ports. They would be replaced with longer barrelled breech loaders in 1890. Also, note the gantry ladders leading down from the bridge onto the top of the turret. There was a ladder fixed to the back of the turret so crewmen could climb down onto the deck. The same could be done on the rear turret.

What gave her the look of the future battleships to come were her revolving turret guns, which we are familiar with when visualising battleships of the two world wars. However, her first guns placed inside the revolving turrets were muzzle-loaded and barely protruded from the gun ports. The two guns to each turret would be rolled back on a small rail and the front would be tilted down so the muzzle was to the deck, where an opening leads to the deck below. Here, the armourers could load the guns by thrusting charge and shell up ducting and into the waiting gun muzzle. When this was done the guns were levelled and wheeled forward towards the gun ports.

It is said that this particular turret and gun design were the same as those used in an earlier invention by a man called Captain Cowper Phipps Coles. He had the same turrets on the ill-fated H.M.S. Captain – a ship that had masts as well as the steam engines and iron turrets. She sank off of Cape Finisterre with many of the crew including Cowper Phipps Coles. Only 18 men of a compliment of 500 survived the terrible event.

H.M.S. Devastation’s revolving forward and aft turret guns gave the ability to fire at 260 degrees. She never saw action, though there is an American blog that states she did during the Crimean war. This, of course, is untrue because she was not built until 1871 and the Crimean War was in the early 1850s. There was, however, an earlier H.M.S. Devastation sailing ship and maybe she is recorded as having seen action at this time.

The turret battleship, H.M.S. Devastation was sent out to represent the UK in the Mediterranean and she was a very common sight in the island of Malta with her twelve-inch guns inside the strange turrets when other ships still displayed their broadside guns. She had a crew complement of 410 men.

Her sister ship, H.M.S. Thunderer suffered a terrible accident during a firing practice drill. It was in the aft turret – as both guns were rolled forward with charge and shell rammed down into each muzzle – the gunner ordered to fire. The gun crew covered their ears as both guns fired. However, just one gun went off and the other remained dormant. The gun crew, who cover their ears to mask the roar of the guns were unaware that one of the guns had not gone off. Each cannon was then wheeled back and dipped down to the loading opening in the turret floor which leads down to the deck below. Another shell and charge were rammed home – shell and charge sitting on top of another unexploded shell and charge. They have wheeled forward once again and when the gun master ordered the crew to fire, it was to be their last act as the explosion within the confines of the turret would have been dreadful. All men of the turret were killed. The consequence of this horrific accident hastened a change in all ship’s turret guns. The old muzzle-loading cannons were changed to the longer barrelled breech-loading guns. In 1890 H.M.S. Devastation was refitted with these new guns and other modification and then re-assigned to the First Reserve Fleet which was based in Scotland. By now she was old and there were many more modern and more powerful turret ships.

Retro Brit

Saturday 1 May 2010

Did You Know H.M.S. Devastation 1871 - 1908 (First steam powered battleship with no sails)

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