The British battle fleet, Vol. 2 (of 2) — Background and Themes

ned by Sir E. J. Reed, which went into the British service as the _Neptune_. Save that she carried 38-ton guns instead of 25-ton, she reproduced the _Monarch_ idea almost exactly. After certain vicissitudes she entered the British service, and eventually was fitted with a couple of military masts. The points of special interest about her were that (1) owing to some error her funnels were put in sideways instead of as designed; and (2) in service in any bad weather the sea regularly washed out her wardroom; (3) she was the first ship of the British Navy to carry a bath-room. As an effective warship she never figured to any large extent.

The other three purchased ships had been destined for the Turkish Navy; and all three turned out worse than the _Neptune_. The _Hamidieh_, re-christened _Superb_, more or less duplicated the _Hercules_. She took part in the bombardment of Alexandria a little later, and it was there discovered that her guns could not train at all well in comparison with contemporary British naval ships.

Of the fighting value of the other two ships, _Pakyi-Shereef_ and _Boordyi-Zaffir_, which became the _Belleisle_ and _Orion_, the least said the better. They turned out to be nothing but improvements on a type of “coast defender,” already obsolete, diminutives of the original Reed broadside idea applied to a _Hotspur_ type hull. In place of the single 25-ton gun of the _Hotspur_, they carried four similar guns--the old 12-inch 25-ton M.L. These guns were carried in a central raised battery, from which, as in the _Hotspur_, one gun could always bear, and from which two bearing on an exact and unlikely broadside might be looked for.

No useful service was ever performed by these ships. The _Belleisle_ ended her service as a target, the _Orion_ as a hulk. They proved conclusively that the central battery idea was obsolete and so far probably did good service. In the past Sir E. J. Reed had argued, and for that matter proved, that for a given weight of armour and armament eight guns, four on either broadside, could be mounted with equal protection and economy of weight as against two pairs of guns in turrets.[3] The _Belleisle_ gave the lie to this idea, however, when it came to be applied to half the number of guns. The step from that to the same thing with more guns was made easy, and the turret idea assured, out of the _Belleisle_ type. To the _Belleisle_ and _Orion_ more than any other ships may be traced the first real appreciation of “angles in between”--the demonstration that “right ahead” or “right on the broadside” were ideal positions which no enemy would willingly assume.

The _Devastation_ and her sisters had, of course, anticipated this idea; but to the _Belleisle_, at most fighting angles only able to bring a quarter of her battery into action, may be traced most modern developments in gun disposition.

Contemporaneous with the special Barnaby ships, reference may be made to the entirely nondescript _Téméraire_. She may be described as an absolute hybrid--partly Reed, partly Barnaby, partly gun inventors of the era, and partly nothing in particular.

Details of this ship are:--

Displacement--8,540 tons.

Length (between perpendiculars)--285ft.

Armament--Four 25-ton 11-inch M.L. (two in barbettes), four 18-ton M.L.--two above water torpedo tubes.

Armour (iron)--Complete 11--8in. belt. Bulkheads 8--5in. Barbettes 10--8in. Battery 10--8in. Horse-power--7,520 = 14.5 knots.

Coal--620 tons = 2,680 miles at economical speed (nominal).

The _Téméraire_ was unique in the world’s navies in that two of her 25-ton guns were carried--one forward, one aft--on special Moncrieff mountings, an adaption for naval purposes of the “disappearing gun,” invented for forts of that era. The gun, loaded under cover, was raised to fire by hydraulic mechanism, and then recoiled to the loading position. The ship was otherwise essentially of the Reed box-battery type; the other two 25-ton guns being in a central main-deck battery, and capable of a good deal of ahead fire. The other big guns (18 tons) were cut off from the 25-ton by an armoured bulkhead, and merely had the ordinary broadside training.

Like the _Inflexible_, the _Téméraire_ had a heavy brig rig. Towards the end of her active service career this was replaced by a military rig; but all her active work was done as a brig. She was built at Chatham Dockyard, engined by Humphrys, and completed for sea in 1877.