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Sunday 5 August 2012

Victorian and Edwardian Miscellany: Royal Navy: Part 2

The workhorse of the Royal Navy has always been the cruiser, and amongst my collection of old photographs I have two that stand out as typical.

HMS Ariadne was a protected cruiser of the Diadem-class. They were termed 'protected, because they were fitted with an armoured deck but no belt or side armour like the armoured cruisers.


Her particulars were:
  • Displacement: 11,000 tons
  • Length: 435 feet
  • Beam: 69 feet
  • Draught: 27 feet 6 inches
  • Propulsion: 2 × triple expansion engines (18,000 hp) each driving a propeller
  • Maximum Speed: 20 knots
  • Complement: 677
  • Armament: 16 × 6-inch QF guns; 14 x 12-pounder (3-inch) QF guns, 3 × 3-pounder QF guns; 2 × 18-inch torpedo tubes
  • Armour: Deck: 2.5-4 inches; Conning Tower: 12 inches; Casemates & Gun Shields: 4.5 inches
HMS Brilliant was a member of the the Apollo-class of 20 second-class protected cruisers. As such she was much smaller and more economic than HMS Ariadne and her like, but also somewhat less capable.


Her particulars were:
  • Displacement: 3,600 tons
  • Length: 314 feet
  • Beam: 43 feet 6 inches
  • Draught: 17 feet 6 inches
  • Propulsion: 2 × triple expansion engines (9,000 hp) each driving a propeller
  • Maximum Speed: 19.75 knots
  • Complement: 273 to 300
  • Armament: 2 × 6-inch QF guns; 6 x 4.7-inch QF guns, 8 × 6-pounder QF guns; 4 × 14-inch torpedo tubes
  • Armour: Deck: 2 inches
Five ships of this class (including HMS Brilliant) were sunk as blockships as part of the Zeebrugge and Ostend raids in April 1918.

4 comments:

  1. Another blog that has some great photos of Pre-Dreadnought period ships is SteelonSand. I think that the following link will take you to the section of Pre-Dread photos; but if not, he has a label for Pre-Dreadnought Photos with 19 posts:

    http://steelonsand.blogspot.ca/search/label/Pre-Dreadnought%20Photos


    -- Jeff

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bluebear Jeff,

    Thanks for the link. It is a blog that is well worth visiting ... and not just for the photographs!

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  3. Peter Douglas,

    It is my pleasure!

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete

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