HMS ''Royal Sovereign'' was originally laid down as a 121-gun

first-rate In the rating system of the British Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a first rate was the designation for the largest ships of the line. Originating in the Jacobean era with the designation of Ships Royal capable of carrying at ...

ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...

of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

. She would have mounted sixteen cannon, 114 guns, and a pivot gun. With the rise of steam and screw propulsion, she was ordered to be converted on the stocks to a 131-gun screw ship, with conversion beginning on 25 January 1855. She was finally launched directly into the ordinary on 25 April 1857. She measured burthen, with a gundeck of and breadth of , and a crew of 1,100, with engines of 780 nhp.

Turret ship

After several years of inactivity, she was selected for conversion into an experimental

turret ship Turret ships were a 19th-century type of warship, the earliest to have their guns mounted in a revolving gun turret, instead of a broadside arrangement. Background Before the development of large-calibre, long-range guns in the mid-19th century, ...

instigated by Captain Cowper Coles, who believed that a mastless ship armed with turret-mounted guns was the best possible design for a coast-defence ship. The order to proceed with the conversion was issued on 4 April 1862. She was razed down to the lower deck, leaving her with between of freeboard. The decks and hull sides were strengthened to carry the planned armament, and to absorb the force when the guns were fired. There was some delay when it was found that she had been cut down too far, necessitating some re-building of the sides. On the completion of her conversion on 20 August 1864, she was the first British turret-armed ship, and the only one with a wooden hull. Her length-to-beam ratio was slightly under 4:1, which was the smallest ever ratio used in British armoured ships.

Armament

The original design included five turrets, each containing either two 68-pounder smoothbore or one smoothbore cannon. This was modified to a four-turret configuration, with one twin turret, and three single turrets. The initial guns carried were

smoothbore A smoothbore weapon is one that has a barrel without rifling. Smoothbores range from handheld firearms to powerful tank guns and large artillery mortars. History Early firearms had smoothly bored barrels that fired projectiles without signi ...

s that fired a 150-pound spherical steel shot. In 1867 they were all replaced by

muzzle-loading rifle A muzzle-loading rifle is a muzzle-loaded small arm or artillery piece that has a rifled barrel rather than a smoothbore. The term "rifled muzzle loader" typically is used to describe a type of artillery piece, although it is technically accurate f ...

s. On 15 January 1866 three shots were fired at close range against the after turret of ''Royal Sovereign'' by one of the guns carried by HMS ''Bellerophon'' to evaluate how well Coles' turrets held up to gunfire. While the armour plates of the turret were displaced, and one shot pierced the back of the turret, the ability of the turret to turn and the guns to fire was not impaired.

Service history

She was commissioned at Portsmouth for service in the English Channel, where she undertook limited operational service and was used for gun and turret testing and evaluation. She paid off in October 1866, being then re-commissioned in July 1867 for the

Naval Review A fleet review or naval review is an event where a gathering of ships from a particular navy is paraded and reviewed by an incumbent head of state and/or other official civilian and military dignitaries. A number of national navies continue to ...

. She was thereafter attached to the naval gunnery school as gunnery ship until 1873, when she was replaced by and demoted to fourth class reserve. She saw no further service until her sale in May 1885.

References

Bibliography

*Oscar Parkes ''British Battleships'' *Conway ''All the World's Fighting Ships'' * *David Lyon & Rif Winfield ''The Sail & Steam Navy List 1815–1889'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Sovereign (1857) Ships of the line of the Royal Navy Battleships of the Royal Navy Ships built in Portsmouth 1857 ships Victorian-era battleships of the United Kingdom