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John Baird (Royal Navy Officer)
Admiral Sir John Kennedy Erskine Baird, KCB was an officer in the Royal Navy, who is chiefly remembered for commanding the losing side in the 1888 annual naval manoeuvres. Early life Baird was born on 16 September 1832, the fourth son of Sir David Baird, 2nd Baronet (see Baird baronets) and Lady Anne Baird (née Kennedy). Naval career Baird entered the Navy in December 1845. He was promoted to lieutenant on 28 February 1854. On 3 July 1857 he was promoted to commander. In 1858, he commanded the paddle-sloop ''Devastation'' on the North America and West Indies station. From 23 December 1859 to August 1863 he commanded the screw gun-vessel ''Alacrity'' in the Mediterranean. Baird was promoted captain on 16 February 1864.''The Navy List, July 1885, corrected to 20 June 1885'', page 71. From 8 March 1870 he commanded the screw-corvette ''Juno'' on the China station until she paid off at Sheerness on 14 June 1873. He commanded the ironclad battleship ''Swiftsure'' from 1874 t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is , with an estimated 2020 population of more than 67 million people. The United Kingdom has evolved from a series of annexations, unions and separations of constituent countries over several hundred years. The Treaty of Union between the Kingdom of England (which included Wales, annexed in 1542) and the Kingdom of Scotland in 170 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Triumph (1870)
HMS ''Triumph'' was a broadside ironclad battleship of the Victorian era, the sister-ship of . These two ships comprise the ''Swiftsure'' class of 1870. The two sister-ships, which were built side by side by Palmers, were designed and built specifically to serve as flagships on distant stations, primarily with the Pacific squadron. They were powered by a Maudslay horizontal twin-cylinder return connecting-rod engine, and were the last British battleships to be fitted with a hoisting screw. Construction The ship was built by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow, Northumberland. She was launched on 27 September 1870. On 28 November, during fitting out, she was severely damaged by fire. As a result, she was not completed until 8 April 1873. Service history ''Triumph'' was initially commissioned in 1873 for the Channel Fleet, being transferred after a short time to the Mediterranean. On 1 March 1877, she collided with the steamship but was not damaged. She paid off in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Neptune (1878)
HMS ''Neptune'' was an ironclad turret ship originally designed and built in Britain for Brazil, but acquired for the Royal Navy in 1878. Modifications to suit the Royal Navy took three years to complete and the ship did not begin her first commission until 1883 with the Channel Fleet. She was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1885, but refitted in Portsmouth in 1886–87. ''Neptune'' then became the coastguard ship for the 1st Class Reserve at Holyhead until 1893 when she was placed in reserve in Portsmouth. While she was being towed to the breakers in 1903, ''Neptune'' unintentionally rammed , then serving as a training hulk for the Naval Signal School, collided with , and narrowly missed several other ships. She was scrapped in Germany in 1904. Design and description HMS ''Neptune'' was designed by Sir Edward Reed for the Imperial Brazilian Navy in 1872 as a masted version of , a larger, sea-going version of the breastwork monitors, and was given the provisional ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Inflexible (1876)
HMS ''Inflexible'' was a Victorian era, Victorian Ironclad warship, ironclad battleship carrying her main armament in centrally placed gun turret, turrets. The ship was constructed in the 1870s for the Royal Navy to oppose the perceived growing threat from the Italian ''Regia Marina'' in the Mediterranean. The Italian Navy had started constructing a pair of battleships, and , equipped with four Armstrong-Whitworth, Armstrong 17.7-inch (450 mm) guns weighing 100 tons each. These were superior to the armament of any ship in the British Mediterranean Squadron, and ''Inflexible'' was designed as a counter to them. ''Inflexible'' mounted larger guns than those of any previous British warship and had the thickest armour ever to be fitted to a Royal Navy ship. Controversially, she was designed so that if her un-armoured ends should be seriously damaged in action and become water-logged, the buoyancy of the armored citadel, armoured centre section of the ship would keep her afloat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Agincourt (1865)
HMS ''Agincourt'' was a armoured frigate built for the Royal Navy during the 1860s. She spent most of her career as the flagship of the Channel Squadron's second-in-command. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, she was one of the ironclads sent to Constantinople to forestall a Russian occupation of the Ottoman capital. ''Agincourt'' participated in Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee Fleet Review in 1887. The ship was placed in reserve two years later and served as a training ship from 1893 to 1909. That year she was converted into a coal hulk and renamed as ''C.109''. ''Agincourt'' served at Sheerness until sold for scrap in 1960. Design and description The three ''Minotaur''-class armoured frigatesIronclad is the all-encompassing term for armoured warships of this period. Armoured frigates were basically designed for the same role as traditional wooden frigates, but this later changed as the size and expense of these ships forced them to be used in the line of battle. wer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Northampton (1876)
HMS ''Northampton'' was a armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the 1870s. She was sold for scrap in 1905. Design and description The ''Nelson''-class ships were designed as enlarged and improved versions of HMS ''Shannon'' to counter the threat of enemy armoured ships encountered abroad. The ships had a length between perpendiculars of , a beam of and a deep draught of . ''Northampton'' displaced , about more than ''Shannon''. The steel-hulled ships were fitted with a ram and their crew numbered approximately 560 officers and other ranks.Parkes, p. 239 The ship had two 3-cylinder, inverted compound steam engines, each driving a single propeller, using steam provided by 10 oval boilers. The cylinders of the ''Northampton''s engines could be adjusted in volume to optimize steam production depending on the demand. They were troublesome throughout the ship's life and she was always about slower than her sister despite repeated efforts to improve her speed. The eng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Hotspur (1870)
HMS ''Hotspur'' was a Victorian Royal Navy ironclad ram – a warship armed with guns but whose primary weapon was a ram. Background It had been recognised since the time of the Roman Empire or before that a ship, while it might carry weaponry, was itself a potent weapon if used as a missile against other ships. In the era of sail-powered warships with their intrinsic limitations of speed and manoeuverability the practice of ramming opponents fell by default into disuse, although the concept remained alive. With the advent of steam-powered vessels, with their enhanced speed and lack of dependence for direction on the wind, the ram as a potent weapon of attack gained credibility in Naval circles and in Ship Constructors' departments. This first became apparent in the American Civil War, when many attempts were made by ships on both sides to ram their opponents, with almost uniform lack of success. (The Confederate '' Virginia (ex-Merrimack)'' rammed and sank the Federal ''C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Conqueror (1881)
HMS ''Conqueror'' was an ironclad battleship of the Victorian Royal Navy, whose main armament was an armoured ram. She was the first ship of the ''Conqueror'' class to be laid down, her only sister-ship being , which was completed some two years later. At the time of her design it was thought that ramming attacks were the most effective offensive manoeuvre against armoured warships, as the armour of the period was, for a short time, able to defend against the majority of contemporary guns extant. This belief was reinforced by the action at the battle of Lissa, when the Austrian battleship ''Ferdinand Max'' rammed and sank the Italian ''Re DItalia''. The Italian ship was at the time a stationary target, a detail which it appears did not receive, in naval architects' minds, the attention it deserved. ''Conqueror's'' breech-loading guns were of 12-inch (305-mm) calibre, and were twenty-five calibres (25 feet) long. They fired a shell weighing 714 pounds (324 kg) with a muzz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Monarch (1868)
HMS ''Monarch'' was the first seagoing British warship to carry her guns in turrets, and the first British warship to carry guns of calibre. Design She was designed by Sir Edward Reed, at a time when the basic configuration of battleship design was undergoing major change simultaneously in many aspects. Sail was gradually giving way to steam, wooden hulls had just been superseded by iron, smoothbore artillery firing round-shot had been overtaken by rifled shell-firing cannon, increasingly heavier armour was being mounted, and there was mounting agitation in naval design circles to abandon broadside armament in favour of that mounted in turrets. In this melting-pot, any battleship design was fated to be a compromise, and the design of ''Monarch'' proved to be so. Having determined that ''Monarch'' would carry her main artillery in turrets, the Board of Admiralty then stipulated that, as she was destined for overseas service, and steam engines were not at that time wholly re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Collingwood (1882)
HMS ''Collingwood'' was the lead ship of her class of ironclad battleships built for the Royal Navy during the 1880s. The ship's essential design became the standard for most of the following British battleships. Completed in 1887, she spent the next two years in reserve before she was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet for the next eight years. After returning home in 1897, the ship spent the next six years as a guardship in Ireland. ''Collingwood'' was not significantly damaged during an accidental collision in 1899 and was paid off four years later. The ship was sold for scrap in 1909 and subsequently broken up. Background and design At the time of her design, she was not considered as being the forerunner of any class; she was designed by the Director of Naval Construction, Sir Nathaniel Barnaby, as a one-off as an answer to the French s, which carried three heavy guns on the centreline and a number of smaller pieces on the broadside. He made several proposals to the Bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Benbow (1885)
HMS ''Benbow'' was a Victorian era battleship of the British Royal Navy, named for Admiral John Benbow. Completed in 1888, ''Benbow'' spent the majority of her career in reserve with only brief spurts as part of the active fleet. The battleship was scrapped in 1909. Design With the exception of her armament she was a repeat of and . The contract for her construction was awarded to Thames Ironworks, and stipulated delivery within three years. At the time of her construction and indeed for many years afterwards, the limiting factor in battleship construction was the great length of time taken to manufacture heavy artillery, and it was recognised that the gun of 13.5 inch calibre, scheduled to be installed in the other ships of the class, was and would remain in short supply. The shipyard was therefore faced with the choice of either reverting to armament of 12 inches calibre, which was available but which was seen as inferior to guns mounted in contemporary fore ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Northumberland (1866)
HMS ''Northumberland'' was the last of the three armoured frigates built for the Royal Navy during the 1860s. She had a different armour scheme and heavier armament than her sister ships, and was generally regarded as a half-sister to the other ships of the class. The ship spent her career with the Channel Squadron and occasionally served as a flagship. ''Northumberland'' was placed in reserve in 1890 and became a training ship in 1898. She was converted into a coal hulk in 1909 and sold in 1927, although the ship was not scrapped until 1935. Design and description The ''Minotaur''-class armoured frigatesIronclad is the all-encompassing term for armoured warships of this period. Armoured frigates were basically designed for the same role as traditional wooden frigates, but this later changed as the size and expense of these ships forced them to be used in the line of battle. were essentially enlarged versions of the ironclad with heavier armament, armour, and more powerful en ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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