Audacious class battleship
Encyclopedia
The Audacious class battleships were designed by Sir Edward Reed
Edward James Reed
Sir Edward James Reed , KCB, FRS, was a British naval architect, author, politician, and railroad magnate. He was the Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy from 1863 until 1870...
at the request of the Board of Admiralty to serve as second-class battleships on distant foreign stations.
Background and design
The principal motivation driving the Admiralty was the French policy, already well advanced, of dispatching their own small ironclads to these same distant stations.Monarch was under construction, and Captain had been authorised. Both of these were turret-armed ships, and the press agitated for a turret-mounted armament in these newly ordered ships. The Admiralty, however, decided that as there had been built a long succession of successful broadside ironclads, and no turret-armed ships had been produced other than some coast-defence ships of low displacement and limited range, it would be better to await the assessment of Monarch and Captain before departing from the broadside principle.
As the ships were intended for service in waters far distant from Britain, and given the limited efficiency of the steam engines of the period, it was necessary to equip them with a full sailing rig. Reed never wavered from his belief that in a fully rigged ship armament carried in a central broadside battery was the superior method, being unobstructed by masts and rigging. Both the designer and the Admiralty were therefore in total agreement that these ships should not be armed with turret-mounted artillery. The rig was later converted to a barque
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
-rig, which required fewer hands to manage.
The ships were designed following the lines of , by then more than five years old. Reed found that, on the dimensions of the older ship, the armament, armour and machinery would all be insufficient for the stated requirements, and asked for an increase in tonnage, which was granted by the Board only with reluctance.
Although four ships were required, initially only two, and were laid down. The Admiralty, following a commitment made to Parliament by the First Lord of the Admiralty, put the other two ships out to tender. Submissions of various designs were received: a broadside and turret ship from Mare & Company, a broadside ship from Palmers
Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company
Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company Limited, often referred to simply as Palmers, was a British shipbuilding company. The Company was based in Jarrow, in Northeast England and also had operations in Hebburn and Willington Quay on the River Tyne....
, a different broadside ship from Thames Ironworks, and turret ships from Napiers, Samudas
Samuda Brothers
Samuda Brothers was an engineering and ship building firm at Cubitt Town on the Isle of Dogs in London, founded by Jacob and Joseph d'Aguilar Samuda. The site is now occupied by Samuda Estate....
and Lairds Co & Sons
Cammell Laird
Cammell Laird, one of the most famous names in British shipbuilding during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, came about following the merger of Laird, Son & Co. of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co. of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century.- Founding of the business :The Company...
. All were determined to be in some way inadequate, and ultimately the third and fourth ships were built, with some delay, to the Admiralty design.
This class was the first homogeneous class of battleships to be launched since the Prince Consort class
Prince Consort class battleship
The Prince Consort class of battleship were four Royal Navy wooden-hulled broadside ironclads: HMS Royal Oak, HMS Prince Consort, HMS Ocean, and HMS Caledonia. They were originally laid down as Bulwark-class battleships, but were converted to ironclads...
, and the last until the Admiral class battleship
Admiral class battleship
The British Royal Navy's pre-dreadnought Admiral class battleships of the 1880s followed the pattern of the Devastation class in having the main armament on centre-line mounts with the superstructure in between. This pattern was followed by most following British designs until in 1906...
s.