Broadside Ironclad (1859-1867), service until 1885.HMS Royal Alfred was a central-battery ironclad frigate laid down in 1859 as a 90-gun 2 decker, like the Prince Consort class (Prince Consort, Caledonia, Ocean) but also converted like Royal Oak, Repulse, Zealous… She was converted as an ironclad while on the stocks and completed in 1864 for the Royal Navy. Most authors consider her as an half-sister to HMS Zealous and HMS Repulse. Compared to the Prince Consort class she was indeed quite different but also diverged from the others and remained for most authors her own class. Unlike the Prince Consort she was delayed to see how the conversion went on and modified, making her a better ironclad overall, seeing a longer service (largely uneventful, NA Station, West Indies, Portland reserve from 1874) until sold for BU in 1885.
Design of the class
Development
Albeit diplomatic relations with Napoleon III were a bit better than in the Past, France was still the systematic rival of Britain in 1959. The France unveiled its first ironclad, Gloire. A race started, but new-built ships like the Warrior class proved extremely costly. The Admiralty wanted to maintain and abolute superiority in numbers and engaged in a seemingly faster way, converting existing ships while on the stock, in construction. In 1861, the British Board of Admiralty selected seven wooden two-decked second-rate warships precisely for that task. The first four were converted in a speedy manner, were completed as HMS Royal Oak, HMS Prince Consort, HMS Caledonia and HMS Oceanas seen above.
The last three however, were intentionally delayed, until the first four could be assessed at sea and then completed based on improvements to the issues detected. As a result, Royal Alfred, Zealous and Repulse were completed on a different design, but also started to diverge from one another… In the end, Royal Oak was already a bit different, Royal Alfred also would diverged from Zealous and Repulse.
In the 1860s indeed, rapid changes in armament technology as well as new calibres each year seemingly an inch larger. Any ship designed to carry specific armament would be already outclassed on completion by ships built on the stocks at home or abroad, as they would be created for the next generation artillery. In this context, with three years from keel laying to launch, warship gun designs was already three generations ahead. The solution could be for example to reinforce the decks considerably to account for that prospective 3rd gen. cannons while under construction.
Completion of Royal Alfred was however delayed unti the latest, heaviest heavy gun became available. It was planned to have it placed amidships in a “box battery”. The latter was an enclosure armoured on all sides. The guns were placed very close together and with a superior arc of fire thanks to half-moon rails. Thus, it was now less necesary to steer the entire ship to angle the battery, and with larger guns, less were necessary as they already out-ranged and out-classed earlier broadside ironclads. Lighter guns were placed outside the box both near the bow and stern, now for a chase fire, fore and aft. A very rare case, since she was planned for more advanced guns, she kept her ordnance for all her active career and became the last wooden-hulled battleship built at Portsmouth.
Hull and general design
HMS Royal Alfred was among the largest as well of the serie above, with a displacement of 6,707 long tons (6,815 t) (4,068 tons builder’s measures without engine or any equipments). She measured overall 273 ft (83 m) (straight stem, bowsprit to he clipper stern) for a beam of 58 ft 6 in (17.83 m) and draught ranging from 23 ft 9 in (7.24 m) on light load and 27 ft (8.2 m) on deep load while in service, with all the ammunition and coal on board.
Her crew amounted to 605, plus Admiral’s staff, comparable to Prince Consort.
Powerplant
Like her contemporaries, HMS Royal Alfred had a single propeller shaft, driven by a Maudsley horizontal reciprocating steam engine (HRCR) fed by 6 rectangular boilers for a total output of 3,230 ihp (2,409 kW). Her sail plan was of a classic ship-rigging with three masts, 3 stages and a sail area of 29,200 sq ft (2,700 m2). Top speed measured was 12.36 knots (14.22 mph; 22.89 km/h) under steam power and, remarkably enough, 12.3 knots (14.2 mph; 22.8 km/h) under sail. She carried 550 tonnes of coal for a range of around 2000 nautical miles.
Protection
It was improved compared to earlier conversions:
The armoured belt was 6 inches (150 mm) thick amidships and 4 in (100 mm) fore and aft.
Her battery was protected above by the same, 6 inches (150 mm), also wrought iron.
What was new were bulkheads to protect the central battery with 4.5 in (110 mm) walls.
Armament
She carried ten 9-inch (229 mm) muzzle-loading rifles in the central armoured battery, and a complement of eight 7-in (180 mm) muzzle-loading rifles, notably four fore and aft, and six 20-pounder saluting smoothbore, on the upper deck.
9-inch MLR 12-ton 14 calibre Mark IV
Forged at the Royal Arsenal these were likely Mark I. They cost each £1000 in 1875.
The Mark I was introduced in 1865, incorporating the strong but expensive Armstrong method of a steel A tube surrounded by multiple thin wrought-iron coils maintaining the central A tube under compression, plus a forged steel breech-piece. 190 were manufactured. When the Mark IV were eventually installed, they fired a 360 pounds (163.3 kg) AP shell.
Specs:
Mass: 12t, 156 inches (4 m) overall, barrel 125 inches (3.2 m).
Shell: 250-256 pounds (113.4 to 116.1 kg) Palliser, Common, Shrapnel.
Calibre 9-inch (228.6 mm). Muzzle velocity 1,420 fps (430 m/s), range 9,919 yards (9,070 m).
7-inch MLR 12-ton Mark III, 16 Calibre
They were designed by the Royal Gun Factory 1865 for the 7 & 6½ ton and 1874 for the 90 cwt and forged at the Royal Arsenal at a unit cost of £425. The Variants were 7 ton Mks I – IV and 6½ ton Mks I – III for the 90 cwt. Not sure what type they were exactly.
Specs:
Shell: 112 to 115 pounds (51 to 52 kg) Palliser, Common, Shrapnel and 160 pounds (73 kg) double common shell.
Calibre 7-inch (177.8 mm), MV 1,561 feet per second (476 m/s) 7 tonnes
Maximum firing range: 5,500 yards (5,000 m)
Saluting 20-pdr howitzer
Mostly used either for saluting or to fire HE bombs at close range, incendiary projectiles. No more data on these.
⚙ specifications |
|
| Displacement | Displacement 6,720t “standard” |
| Dimensions | 273 ft x 58 ft 6 in x 23 ft 9 in/27 ft (83.2 pp x 17.9 x 7.19) |
| Propulsion | 1 shaft 2-cyl. HSE, return connection rod, double piston pods, 6 rectangular boilers, 3,434 shp |
| Speed | 12.36 knots steam, 12.3 kn sail. |
| Range | 550t coal, 2200 nm/5 kts |
| Armament | 10 × 9-in MLR, 8 × 7 in MLR, 6× 20-pdr saluting smoothbore. |
| Protection | Belt 6 in/4 in ends, battery 6 in, bulkheads 4.5 in |
Career of HMS Royal Alfred
She was commissioned in January 1867 as flagship, North America station. She was based at Halifax in Nova Scotia, after steaming through the North Atlantic and a gale, which took such a strain on her steal engines (under sail she was doomed) that she onl had one day of coal remaining in her bunkers. She remained on station for six years. In between she laternated between Nova Scotia and the West Indies, and relived for a tile by HMS Defence for drydock maintenance. On 21 March 1872 she ran aground in the Bahama Channel.
She was repaired at a cost of £952. Two officers were reprimanded on a later Court Martial. Back home she was paid off in January 1874, and placed at the Portland reserve until the 1875. Then, ab engineering survey discovered her boilers were so corroded that her steam pressure fell to just only 10 pound/sq. inch. More would have been plain dangerous. This was providing only speed of 7.5 knots (13.9 km/h). Thus it was deemed uneconomical to replace the boilers at this stage, and she was laid up in second ranke reserve (routine inspections) until sold in 1885, to Henry Castle & Sons to be broken up.
Her detailed career could be seen on this page.
Royal Alfred as completed
Royal Alfred in Halifax, 1874.
Read More/Src
Books
Ballard, G. A., Admiral (1980). The Black Battlefleet. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.
Baxter, James Phinney The Introduction of the Ironclad Warship, published Harvard University, 1933.
David K. Brown (30 April 1997). Warrior to dreadnought. Naval Institute Press..
Clowes, William Laird Four Modern Naval Campaigns, Historical Strategical, and Tactical, first published Unit Library, 1902, reprinted Cornmarket Press, 1970.
Andrew Lambert (24 September 1984). Battleships in transition.
Parkes, Oscar (1990) [1957]. British Battleships. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press..
Roberts, John (1979). “Great Britain (including Empire Forces)”. In Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M. (eds.). Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships 1860–1905.
Reed, Edward J Our Ironclad Ships, their Qualities, Performance and Cost, published John Murray, 1869.
Links
https://www.pdavis.nl/ShowShip.php?id=2009
https://www.navypedia.org/ships/uk/brit_bb_royal_alfred.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Royal_Alfred
Videos
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