HMS Bellerophon (1865)

Central Battery Ironclad Frigate in service 1866-1914 (Indus II 1904).

HMS Bellerophon was designed by Sir Edward Reed as a central battery frigate with large guns and a better power-to-weight ratio, a thicker but reduced area armour and sharp beak ram combined with a classical style plough bow and double bottom. This was an iron built, brackets-equipped purpose-built ironclad in the wake of the Warrior class but smaller and more economical, designed to test new naval architecture concepts for capital ships. The result was satisfactory enough future ironclads will follow most of her design innovations. She had a long career spanning until 1904 when converted as the school ship Indus II until stricken in 1914, seeing world war one.

Design of the class

Development

The 1860-1868 “Ironclad Race” saw Britain and France was a contest of how many ironclads could mustered while trying to push quality and innovation. The lead architect of the Royal Navy and director of Naval construction Sir Edward James Reed when succeeding to Isaac Watts, really engraved his name in gold letters in the Royal Navy book for the time he was in office between 1863 and 1870. Reed was born in Sheerness (Kent) in 1830 and became naval apprentice, then entering the School of Mathematics and Naval Construction at Portsmouth. In 1851 he married Rosetta, sister of Nathaniel Barnaby, a fellow student which would succeed Reed as Chief Constructor and also make quite an impact.

In 1852 he started work at Sheerness Dockyard, but resigned after a disagreement with the management, worked in journalism, was appointed first secretary of the Institute of Naval Architects, and in 1863, at just 33, he succeeded Isaac Watts as Chief Constructor of the RN, orchestrating the final transition from wooden to ironclad warships and notably for HMS Bellerophon created the innovative “bracket frame” system. He later designed the turret-ship HMS Monarch and mastless turret ship HMS Devastation. However he eventually resigned after intense controversy and disputes with naval officer, MP and inventor Captain Cowper Phipps Coles. His departure was deeply regretted by the Controller Vice-Admiral Robert Spencer Robinson and the fate of HMS Captain with his creator proved Reed right.

Charles H Lewis nice painting of HMS Bellerophon.

Reed back in 1863 when he arrived in office, saw the predicament the RN war. After the superb but costly Warrior class, Reed proposed solutions for extra ships at a lower cost. His predecessor already went that direction and designed cheaper ironclads, like the Defence class, albeit still iron-hulled. Conversion of former wooden ships of the line such as the Bulwark class 90 guns led relatively unsuccessful examples apart perhaps HMS Repulse. Reed proposed to convert smaller vessels as ironclads testing sloops and gunboats and looked at building wooden-hulled ironclads from scratch such as the French did with the corvette Pallas with the already present wood stock at Woolwich Dockyard, close to the arsenal, a solution apreciated by the Board of Admiralty as an economy measure.

However no new iron-hulled ironclad had been started since the Defence class back in 1859 and naval technology went a great leap in between. Reed was aware that many innovations could be poured into a new, modern, purpose built ironclad that would be a trailblazer, setting up Britain’s technological superiority over the French once more. This ship was HMS Bellerophon after the Hero of Greek mythology, a name very much in the neo-classical trend of the Victorian era. Bellerophon would really be a concentrate of design innovations in all aspects, from hull construction to armament, armour, and propulsion. She was Reed’s first newly designed ship rather than a conversion, and will be approved by the admiralty and parliament, then ordered on 23 July 1863 to Chatham Dockyard, well equipped to built modern iron-built ships. HMS Bellerophon was laid down in April 1863, launched in 1965 and completed in 1866. “Old Billy” was considered a successful ship, and had a long career until 1904, taking a new name and auciliary roles before being scrapped eventually in 1922.

Hull and general design

For the first time since HMS Warrior, her basic method of construction no longer relied on longitudinal girders for strength and resistance but instead Reed’s friend Nathaniel Barnaby’s “bracket frame” system, allowing for the inclusion of a double bottom, meaning the ship had much more chance of surviving a grounding, a frequent event at the time. At the same time this system saved weight. To compared a section of 100 feet (30 m) of hull weighed 1,123 long tons (1,141 t), versus 1,303 long tons (1,324 t) on HMS Black Prince. Steel was also used for the first time in many structural elements to save weight compared to iron as well and wood was strill present in some part when acting as buffer, like on the Warrior and Defence class. Her cost was £356,493, which is high compared to the Defence class (£252,422 in 1861) but less so compared to the much larger Warrior class (£377,292) not adjusted for inflation. The HMS Valiant of the Hector class in 1868 cost £325,000 for not much improvements compared to the Defence class. So all in all, for all its innovations, HMS bellerophon remained reasonable.

She was a large ship though, not as large of the Northumberland or Warrior class but still, she was 280 feet (85.3 m) long between perpendiculars for 300 ft (91.4 m) overall not counting the bowsprit, a beam of 56 feet 1 inch (17.1 m) and maximum draught of 26 feet 7 inches (8.1 m), all for a displacement of 7,551 long tons (7,672 t) making her one of the largest ironclads of her time. Her trademark double bottom, in addition to protection, had the advantage to carry the engine higher, raising the centre of gravity to make her a steadier gun platform. Her hull was innovative also as her bow and stern had a U-shaped profile for increased buoyancy at both ends, absent in some earlier ironclads and ensuring less rocking and more stability in heavy weather. She was designed to be more seaworthy overall. It was not limited to the hull, which had a central battery very well protected and cleverly designed. It was in her machinery and steering as well.

Powerplant

Bellerophon had indeed a 2-cylinder trunk steam engine. It was manufactured for her specifically by John Penn and Sons, to drive a single 23-foot-6-inch (7.2 m) propeller. It was fixed, not able to be lifted up to avoid drag when under sail, it could be disconnected and since it was two-bladed, left in a vertical positition, in line with the keel. This powerplant was innovative in itself by its characteristic, albeit trunk engines wree not new. This engine was fed by eight rectangular boilers (nothing new here), and that steam arrived at a working pressure of 27 psi (186 kPa; 2 kgf/cm2). Total output was a generous 6,521 indicated horsepower (4,863 kW) obtained in sea trials in August 1864, for a very honorable speed 14.17 knots (26.24 km/h; 16.31 mph). The graal of 15 knots was not reached yet, but this was still above her speed under sails. For these, she carried 640 long tons (650 t) of coal, procuding a range of 1,500 nmi (2,800 km; 1,700 mi) at 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph). She was also agile as Reed also introduced the first balanced rudder in Royal Navy service. Thie enabed eight men to apply full helm in 27 seconds. On HMS Warrior it took forty men 90 seconds for the same.

Being a 1860s ironclad she also had of course a full rigging, with a sail area of 23,800 square feet (2,211 m2). Noted as “dull under canvas” she made just 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) in a moderate gale and best conditions, but that was awaited. The interest here was to extend her range dramatically and keep coal for engagements or port manoeuvers.

Protection

As a central battery ship, allowin to concentrate armour ona reduced surface instead of spreading it out all along the hull, Bellerophon was probably the best protected ironclad in the world at the time with a total weight of 1,093 long tons (1,111 t):
Complete waterline belt (wrought iron) 6 inches (152 mm) amidships, 5 inches (127 mm) bow and stern and 6 feet (1.8 m) below the waterline.

Central battery: 6-inch armour side over 98 feet (29.9 m)
Transverse bulkheads clsing the battery: 5-inch (127 mm).
Forward chase gun: Strake of 4.5-inch (114 mm) armour.
Upper deck 1 inch (25 mm) thick over the battery. Main deck 0.5 inches (13 mm) thick.
Belt backing: 8–10 inches (200–250 mm) teak.
Metal skin: 1.5 inches (38 mm) thick.

Armament

Bellerophon inaugurated massive guns, the 9-inch rifled muzzle-loading model from Woolwich Royal Arsenal. She had ten of these 229 mm guns mounted on the main deck of the battery, five per side. There were in complement five 7-inch rifled muzzle-loaders outside the battery as chase guns. Four in pairs fore and aft, main deck, last one on the upper deck, stern. This was completed by four breech-loading 12-pounder Armstrong guns used for saluting.

Woolwich RML 9-inch/14 gun Mark IV

This massive gun for the time (1865 for the Mark I) had the following specs:
Gun: 156 inches (4 m) overall, barrel 125 in (3.2 m) for 12 long tons (12 t)
Shell 254 pounds (115.2 kg) Palliser, Common, Shrapnel, muzzle velocity 1,420 ft/s (430 m/s).
Penetration 11.3 inches (287 mm) wrought armour.

Woolwich RML 7-inch/16 guns Mark III

This 16-calibre 178 mm was more frequently found on Ironclads of the mid to late 1860s. It weighed 6.5 long tons (6.6 t), fired a 112-pound (50.8 kg) shell. It was tested able to penetrate 7.7-inch (196 mm) armour. See previous ironclads for more. Note that armament was obsolete in the late 1870s and Bellerophon was modernized and entirely rearmed in 1883-1855 (see later).

Career of HMS Bellerophon

Officers and Cadets posing in the 1860s.

Bellerophon was commissioned at Chatham in March 1866, before she was completed in 11 April after sea trials. She was naturally assigned to the Channel Fleet, Facing France, until 1871. She was almost rammed by HMS Minotaur in 1868 while leaving Belfast Lough, however the latter manoeuverd so that they rubbed flanks and nothing much more so damage was moderate. Bellerophon was then assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet from 1871 to 1872, until paid off for refit as no longer in accordance to the latest trends. She received for a start, a proper poop deck. She was later relieved HMS Royal Alfred as flagship, North America and West Indies Station in 1873. At the time she was stationed close to the Royal Naval Dockyard, Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda. On 24 November 1873, she collided with the steamship Flamsteed base din Liverpool (Brazil/River Plate Steam Navigation Co.) and the latter sank. Her entire crew was rescued by the Portuguese ship Blimani nearby. Bellerophon remained on the North America and West Indies Station until 1881.

She then sailed for home, now obsolete, for an extensive and costly refit over five years. Her entire steam powerplant was modernized; Se received brand new cyclindrical including new boilers, likely a new VTE engine, and overall a new armament. She was indeeed the only British ironclad seeing all her muzzle-loading armament replaced by breech-loaders. This was ten BL Mk III guns 8 inches (203 mm) in the central battery replacing her 9-in/14 RMLs, and four 6-inch (152 mm) chase guns fore and aft. The forward guns emerged from casemates and embrasures in the forecastle with recesses on the upper deck. Indeed the original ones were deemed too low and often washed out in a head sea.

In addition she received eight 4-inch breech-loading guns, four quick-firing 6-pounder Hotchkiss, 12 machine guns to deal with torpedo boats. But she also received two 16-inch (406 mm) Whitehead torpedo launchers (not tubes) were carried on the main deck outside the armoured battery with some traverse. The new eight-inch guns were also 7 feet (2.1 m) longer compared to the 9-inch guns and if they procured double the range, the central battery proved to be too small for them, and they were left protruding at all times, their barrel exposed to seawater spray. Fire recoil was also longer and dangerous.

After this comprehensive refit she returned to the North America and West Indies Station until 1892 so about 11 years. She then sailed back home to be paid off at Plymouth. She was re-commissioned as port guardship at Pembroke, and served as such until 1903. An inspection revealed her hull in good conditions but her machinery not so much. She was then converted into a stokers’ training ship in 1904, renamed HMS Indus III to free her name to a new dreadnought. She served in that capacity during world war one, until sold for BU on 12 December 1922, to P. and W. McLellan, but not arrived in Bo’ness until March 1923.

As HMS Indus III in 1915

Gallery

Our Ironclad Fleet, the Bellerophon 1866

The Channel Squadron at Anchor, Plymouth August 23rd, 1869

The Illustrated London Almanack 1869-003 February

HMS Bellerophon “The British Navy Volume I”, 1882.

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.
Friedman, Norman (2018). British Battleships of the Victorian Era. Naval Institute Press
Parkes, Oscar (1990) [1957]. British Battleships. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.
Roberts, John (1979). “Great Britain (including Empire Forces)”. 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

navypedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
9-in RML
7-in RML
Battleships in transition : the creation of the steam battlefleet, 1815-1860
British battleships, “Warrior” 1860 to “Vanguard” 1950