:HMS Collingwood (1882)

File:HMS Collingwood Diagram Brasseys 1888.jpg, 1888]]

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 {{sclass|Amiral Baudin|ironclad|2}}s, which carried three heavy guns on the centreline and a number of smaller pieces on the broadside. He made several proposals to the Board of Admiralty, but they were all rejected.Brown, p. 91 Barnaby's final submission was inspired by the four French {{sclass|Terrible|ironclad}}s laid down in 1877–1878 and was a return to the configuration of {{HMS|Devastation|1871|2}} with the primary armament positioned fore and aft of the central superstructure, but with the breech-loading main armament mounted in barbettes, as per the French ships,Beeler, pp. 161–162Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 29 which allowed them to be sited {{convert|10|ft|m}} further above the waterline than Devastation{{'}}s guns.Parkes, p. 302 The Board modified Barnaby's design by adding {{convert|25|ft|m|1}} of length and {{convert|2000|ihp|lk=on}} to guarantee a speed of {{convert|15|kn|lk=in}} at deep load. It also substituted four smaller {{convert|42|LT|adj=on|lk=on}} guns for Barnaby's two {{convert|80|LT|adj=on}} guns. The additional length and the Board's acceptance of the hull lines from {{HMS|Colossus|1882|2}} increased the size of the ship by {{convert|2500|LT|t|0}}.Beeler, pp. 164–166

File:CollingwoodBuryingHerBow.jpg

Barnaby was severely criticised, particularly by Sir Edward Reed, himself a former Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy, because Collingwood{{'}}s waterline armour belt was concentrated amidships and did not extend to the ends of the ship. Reed believed that this weakness meant that the ship could be sunk from the consequent uninhibited flooding if her unarmoured ends were riddled by shellfire and open to the sea. Barnaby deliberately selected a hull shape with narrow, fine ends to limit the volume of the hull that could be flooded and situated the armoured deck below the waterline to prevent it from being pierced by enemy shells and flooding the lower part of the ironclad. Furthermore, he heavily subdivided the hull to limit the amount of water that could enter through any one hit and placed coal bunkers above the armoured deck to absorb the fragments from exploding shells. Unbeknownst to his critics, Collingwood was tested in 1884 with her ends and the large spaces in her hold ballasted with water and her draught only increased by {{convert|17.5|in|mm}} and she lost a minor amount of speed. The price was that the ship lacked buoyancy at her ends and tended to bury her bow in oncoming waves rather than be lifted over them. Her speed was greatly reduced in a head sea and the resulting spray made working the guns very difficult. Collingwood tended to roll heavily and was not regarded as a good seaboat. Despite these issues, her basic configuration was followed by most subsequent British ironclads and predreadnought battleships until the revolutionary {{HMS|Dreadnought|1906|2}} of 1905.Brown, pp. 92–93; Parkes, pp. 300, 303, 305–306

The ship had a length between perpendiculars of {{convert|325|ft|m|1}}, a beam of {{convert|68|ft|m|1}}, and a draught of {{convert|27|ft|10|in|m|1}} at deep load. She displaced {{convert|9500|LT|t|lk=on}} at normal load and had a complement of 498 officers and ratings.Parkes, p. 301

The ship was powered by a pair of 2-cylinder inverted compound-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller. The Humphreys engines produced a total of {{convert|7000|ihp}} at normal draught and {{convert|9600|ihp|abbr=on}} with forced draught, using steam provided by a dozen cylindrical boilers with a working pressure of {{convert|100|psi|kPa kg/cm2|0|abbr=on|lk=on}}. She was designed to reach a speed of {{convert|15.5|kn}} at normal draught and Collingwood reached {{convert|16.6|kn}} from {{convert|8369|ihp|abbr=on}} on her sea trials, using natural draught. She was the first British ironclad to be equipped with forced draught and the ship only reached a speed of {{convert|16.84|kn}} from {{convert|9573|ihp|abbr=on}} while using it during her sea trials because her engines were incapable of handling the additional steam.Brown, p. 94 Collingwood carried a maximum of {{convert|1200|LT|t|0}} of coal that gave her a range of {{convert|8500|nmi|lk=in}} at a speed of {{convert|10|kn}}.Winfield & Lyon, p. 258

File:EB1911 Ship Fig. 52 - HMS Collingwood.png

The ship had a main armament of 25-calibre rifled breech-loading (BL) BL 12 inch naval gun Mk I – VII. The four guns were mounted in two twin-gun barbettes, one forward and one aft of the superstructure. The barbettes were open, without hoods or gun shields, and the guns, mounted on a turntable, were fully exposed. They could only be loaded when pointed fore and aft with an elevation of 13°. The {{convert|714|lb|kg|adj=on}} shells fired by these guns were credited with the ability to penetrate {{convert|20.6|in|mm|0}} of wrought iron at {{convert|1000|yd|m}},Parkes, p. 316 using a charge of {{convert|295|lb|kg}} of prismatic brown powder. At maximum elevation, the guns had a range of around {{convert|9400|yd|m}}.Campbell 1981, p. 202

The secondary armament of Collingwood consisted of six 26-calibre BL 6 inch Mk VII naval gun on single mounts positioned on the upper deck amidships, three on each broadside. They fired {{convert|100|lb|kg|adj=on}} shells that were credited with the ability to penetrate {{convert|10.5|in|mm|0}} of wrought iron at 1000 yards. They had a range of {{convert|8830|yd|m}} at an elevation of +15° using prismatic black powder. Beginning around 1895 all of these guns were converted into quick-firing guns (QF) with a much faster rate of fire. Using cordite extended their range to {{convert|9275|yd|m}}.Campbell 1983, pp. 171–172 For defence against torpedo boats the ships carried a dozen QF 6-pounder Hotchkiss Hotchkiss guns and eight QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss Hotchkiss guns. They also mounted four {{convert|14|in|adj=on|0}} above-water torpedo tubes, one pair on each broadside.

Collingwood{{'}}s waterline belt of compound armour extended across the middle of the ship between the rear of each barbette for {{convert|140|ft|m|1}}. It had a total height of {{convert|7|ft|6|in|m|1}} deep of which {{convert|5|ft|m|1}} was below water and {{convert|2|ft|6|in|m|1}} above at normal load; at deep load, the ship's draught increased by another 6 inches. The upper {{convert|4|ft|m|1}} of the belt armour was {{convert|18|in|mm|0}} thick and the plates tapered to {{convert|8|in|mm|0}} at the bottom edge. Lateral bulkheads at the ends of the belt connected it to the barbettes; they were {{convert|16|in|mm|0}} thick at main deck level and {{convert|7|in|mm|0}} below.Parkes, p. 303

Each barbette was a roughly pear-shaped, 11-sided polygon, {{convert|60|×|45|ft|m|1}} in size with sloping walls {{convert|11.5|in|0}} thick and a {{convert|10|in|0|adj=on}} rear. The main ammunition hoists were protected by armoured tubes with walls 10–12 inches thick. The conning tower also had 12-inch thick walls as well as roofs {{convert|2|in|0}} thick. The deck of the central armoured citadel had a thickness of {{convert|3|in}} and the lower deck was {{convert|2|-|2.5|in|0}} thick from the ends of the belt to the bow and stern.

Collingwood, named after Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, Horatio Nelson's second-in-command in the British victory at the Battle of Trafalgar,Silverstone, p. 223 was the second ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy.Colledge, p. 74 The ship was laid down at Pembroke Dockyard on 12 July 1880 and launched by Mrs. Louise Chatfield, wife of the dockyard's Captain-Superintendent, Captain Alfred Chatfield,Phillips, pp. 225, 326 on 22 November 1882. File:The accident on board HMS 'Collingwood' - The Graphic 1886.jpg 1886]]While conducting gunnery trials on 4 May 1886, Collingwood{{'}}s rear left gun partially shattered and all of the Mk II guns were withdrawn from service. They were replaced by heavier Mk Vw models with approximately the same performance. Excluding her armament, she cost £636,996. File:HMS Collingwood, Steel Armour-Plated Barbette Ship - ILN 1885.jpgThe ship was commissioned at Portsmouth on 1 July 1887 for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee Fleet review and was paid off into reserve in August.Parkes, p. 304

Collingwood was recommissioned for the annual summer manoeuvres for the next two years, before she was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet, where she served from November 1889 until March 1897, with a refit in Malta in 1896. Captain Charles Penrose-Fitzgerald commanded the ironclad when she joined the Mediterranean Fleet in 1889.Phillips, p. 225 The ship became the coastguard ship at Bantry, Ireland, upon her return. Collingwood accidentally collided with the cruiser {{HMS|Curacoa|1878|6}} in Plymouth harbour on 23 January 1899, badly damaging the latter ship, but was not significantly damaged herself.{{cite book|title=The Annual Register: A Review of Public Events at Home and Abroad for the Year 1899|date=1900|publisher=Longmans, Green & Co.|location=London|page=5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sZA9AQAAMAAJ&dq=curacoa+collingwood+collision&pg=RA1-PA5|access-date=11 April 2016}} She took part in the fleet review held at Spithead on 16 August 1902 for the coronation of King Edward VII,{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The Coronation - Naval Review |date=13 August 1902 |page=4 |issue=36845}} and was back in Ireland later that month when she received the Japanese cruisers {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Asama||2}} and {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Takasago||2}} to Cork.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Naval & Military intelligence|date=21 August 1902 |page=8 |issue=36852}} The ship was paid off into the reserve in June 1903 and was transferred to East Kyle in January 1905. Collingwood remained there until she was sold for scrap to Hughes Bolckow at Dunston, Tyne and Wear for £19,000 on 11 May 1909.

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Commons category|HMS Collingwood (ship, 1882)|HMS Collingwood}}

• {{cite book|last=Beeler|first=John|title=Birth of the Battleship: British Capital Ship Design 1870-1881|year=2001|publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|isbn=1-55750-213-7}}
• {{cite book|last=Brown|first=David K.|title=Warrior to Dreadnought: Warship Development 1860–1905|year=1997|publisher=Chatham Publishing|location=Barnsley, UK|isbn=1-86176-022-1}}
• {{cite book|editor=Roberts, John|title=Warship V|year=1981|publisher=Conway Maritime Press|location=London|isbn=0-85177-244-7|last=Campbell|first=N.J.M.|chapter=British Naval Guns 1880–1945 No. 3|pages=200–02}}
• {{cite book|year=1983|title=Warship VII|publisher=Conway Maritime Press|editor=Roberts, John|location=London|isbn=0-85177-630-2|last=Campbell|first=N.J.M.|chapter=British Naval Guns 1880–1945 No. 10|pages=170–72}}
• {{Cite Colledge2006}}
• {{cite book|title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905|editor1-last=Chesneau|editor1-first=Roger|editor2-last=Kolesnik|editor2-first=Eugene M.|publisher=Conway Maritime Press|location=Greenwich|year=1979|isbn=0-8317-0302-4|name-list-style=amp|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/conwaysallworlds0000unse_l2e2}}
• {{cite book |last1=Friedman |first1=Norman |title=British Battleships of the Victorian Era |date=2018 |publisher=Naval Institute Press |location=Annapolis, Maryland |isbn=978-1-68247-329-0|author-link=Norman Friedman}}
• {{cite book |last1=Lyon |first1=David |last2=Winfield |first2=Rif |title=The Sail & Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889 |date=2004 |publisher=Chatham Publishing |location=London |isbn=1-86176-032-9|name-list-style=amp}}
• {{cite book |last=Parkes |first=Oscar |title=British Battleships |publisher=Naval Institute Press |location=Annapolis, Maryland |year=1990 |orig-year=1957 |isbn=1-55750-075-4|author-link=Oscar Parkes}}
• {{cite book|last1=Phillips|first1=Lawrie; Lieutenant Commander|title=Pembroke Dockyard and the Old Navy: A Bicentennial History|date=2014|publisher=The History Press|location=Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK|isbn=978-0-7509-5214-9}}
• {{cite book|last=Silverstone|first=Paul H.|title=Directory of the World's Capital Ships|year=1984|publisher=Hippocrene Books|location=New York|isbn=0-88254-979-0}}

{{Admiral class battleship}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collingwood (1882)}}

Category:Admiral-class battleships

Category:Victorian-era battleships of the United Kingdom

Category:Ships built in Pembroke Dock

Category:1882 ships