HMS ''Repulse'' was the last wooden
battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...
constructed for the Royal Navy.
She was laid down as a 90-gun second-rate line-of-battle ship with two decks; having been approved for conversion to a
broadside ironclad
An ironclad is a steam-propelled warship protected by iron or steel armor plates, constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. Th ...
in 1861, work on her was intentionally delayed until the performance of earlier conversions from wooden hull to ironclad could be assessed. She was therefore eleven years from being laid down to completion, no work at all being undertaken on her between 1861 and 1866.
In 1864
Sir Edward Reed
Sir Edward James Reed, KCB, FRS (20 September 1830 – 30 November 1906) was a British naval architect, author, politician, and railroad magnate. He was the Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy from 1863 until 1870. He was a Liberal politicia ...
had been
Chief Constructor
The Director of Naval Construction (DNC) also known as the Department of the Director of Naval Construction and Directorate of Naval Construction and originally known as the Chief Constructor of the Navy was a senior principal civil officer resp ...
for some eighteen months, and was in a position to stipulate the nature of the armament and the disposition of armour which ''Repulse'' should carry when construction should be resumed, which it was in 1866. Guns of 9-inch and 10-inch calibre were already afloat in the Royal Navy, and clearly similar weapons could be carried by potential adversaries. It followed that armour of 4.5 inches thickness, which since had been regarded as adequate, could no longer be so considered. Thicker armour had therefore to be provided, which in turn meant that less of the side of the ship could be armoured, lest the displacement exceed the allowed tonnage. While the water-line belt was continuous from stem to stern, the armour over the battery stretched for only , the hull fore and aft of this being exposed wood. The risk of battle damage to these large unprotected areas was minimised by posting her the Pacific station, where combat with any unit of significant force was thought to be unlikely.
''Repulse'' was always intended as an overseas flagship. She had the reputation of providing the best accommodation in the fleet, with the Captain's quarters under the poop, the Admiral's quarters on the main deck, and officers' cabins arranged either side of the poop, with most officers being able to bunk under an open port-hole, which in the tropics markedly enhanced comfort and habitability.
She covered more distance under sail alone than any ironclad except .
Service history
Her conversion finally started on 25 October 1866. She was commissioned in March 1870 and posted to Queensferry, where she served for two years as guardship. On 29 August 1871, she ran aground off the
Isle of Sheppey
The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England, neighbouring the Thames Estuary, centred from central London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the local government district of Swale. ''Sheppey'' is derived ...
,
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
. She was refloated, and was taken in to
Sheerness
Sheerness () is a town and civil parish beside the mouth of the River Medway on the north-west corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 11,938, it is the second largest town on the island after the nearby town ...
the next day. ''Repulse'' was subsequently taken to
Chatham Dockyard
Chatham Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the River Medway in Kent. Established in Chatham in the mid-16th century, the dockyard subsequently expanded into neighbouring Gillingham (at its most extensive, in the early 20th century, ...
for inspection.
She relieved ''Zealous'' as flagship, Pacific Fleet, and patrolled the seas from Patagonia to British Columbia for the next five years. She was relieved by in 1877; in coming home her Captain decided not to pass through the Straits of Magellan under steam - which was the accepted route - but to round Cape Horn under sail. The trip from the Pacific to Rio de Janeiro took her seven weeks; she was the only British armoured ship ever to round the Horn under canvas. She was under refit from 1877 to 1880, and was then guardship at Hull until 1885, in the days when a warship was stationed at every major British port. She was mobilized as part of the
Royal Navy Evolutionary Squadron 1885 commanded by of
Admiral Sir Geoffrey Phipps Hornby.
[''Log of HMS ''Leander'' 29 May 1885 – 22 May 1886'', UK National Archives file ADM 53/14282] The ''Repulse'' was then held in reserve until sold.
References
* Oscar Parkes ''British Battleships''
* Conway ''All the World's Fighting Ships''
Footnotes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Repulse (1868)
Bulwark-class battleships (1859)
Ships built on the River Thames
1868 ships
Victorian-era battleships of the United Kingdom
Maritime incidents in August 1871