HMS Howe (1885)

{{stack|File:The Battleship Howe of 1885- Predecessor To the 35,000 Ton Howe of Today. A12099.jpg}}

The Admiral class was built in response to French ironclad battleships of the {{ship|French ironclad|Hoche||2}} and {{sclass|Marceau|ironclad|4}}es.Parkes, p. 316 Howe and her sister ship, {{HMS|Rodney|1884|2}}, were enlarged and improved versions of {{HMS|Collingwood|1882|2}} with a more powerful armament. The sisters 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. They displaced {{convert|10300|LT|t|lk=on}} at normal load, some {{convert|800|LT|t|0}} heavier than Collingwood, mainly due to the heavier armament, which also increased the draught by {{convert|18|in|mm|0}}.Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 29 The ships had a complement of 525–536 officers and ratings.Parkes, p. 317

Howe was powered by two 3-cylinder inverted compound-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller. The Humphreys engines produced a total of {{convert|7500|ihp|lk=in}} at normal draught and {{convert|11500|ihp|abbr=on}} with forced draught, using steam provided by a dozen cylindrical boilers. The sisters were designed to reach a speed of {{convert|16|kn|lk=in}} at normal draught and Howe reached {{convert|16.9|kn}} on her sea trials, using forced draught. The ships carried a maximum of {{convert|1200|LT|t|0}} of coal that gave her a range of {{convert|7200|nmi|lk=in|}} at a speed of {{convert|10|kn}}.Winfield & Lyon, p. 259

Unlike Collingwood, the later four Admiral-class ships had a main armament of 30-calibre rifled breech-loading (BL) BL 13.5 inch naval gun Mk I – IV, rather than the {{convert|12|in|mm|adj=on|0}} guns in the earlier ship. The four guns were mounted in two twin-gun, pear-shaped barbettes, one forward and one aft of the superstructure. The barbettes were open, without hoods or gun shields, and the guns were fully exposed. The {{convert|1250|lb|kg|adj=on}} shells fired by these guns were credited with the ability to penetrate {{convert|28|in|mm|0}} of wrought iron at {{convert|1000|yd|m}}, using a charge of {{convert|630|lb|kg}} of smokeless brown cocoa (SBC).Parkes, pp. 316–17 At maximum elevation, the guns had a range of around {{convert|11950|yd|m}} with SBC; later a charge of {{convert|187|lb|kg}} of cordite was substituted for the SBC which extended the range to about {{convert|12620|yd|m}}.Campbell 1981, p. 96 There were significant delays in the production of the heavy guns for this ship and her sisters, due to cracking in the innermost layer of the guns, that significantly delayed the delivery of these ships. Even as late as early 1890, Howe only had two of her guns installed.Parkes, p. 319

The secondary armament of the Admirals 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. 171–72 For defence against torpedo boats the ships carried a dozen QF 6-pounder Hotchkisss and 10 QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss. They also mounted five {{convert|14|in|adj=on|0}} above-water torpedo tubes, one in the bow and four on the broadside.

The armour scheme of Howe and Rodney was virtually identical to that of Collingwood. The waterline armour belt of compound armour extended across the middle of the ships between the rear of each barbette for a

the length of {{convert|140|ft|m|1}}. It had a total height of {{convert|7|ft|6|in|m|1}} deep of which {{convert|6|ft|6|in|m|1}} was below water and {{convert|1|ft|m|1}} above at normal load; at deep load, their 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, pp. 303, 317–18

The barbettes ranged in thickness from {{convert|11.5|to|10|in|0}} with the main ammunition hoists protected by armoured tubes with walls 12 inches thick. The conning towers also had walls of that thickness 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|2.5|in|0}} thick from the ends of the belt to the bow and stern.

File:HMS Howe being salvaged, prior to the arrival of HMS Seahorse for towing into Emsenanda de la Malata.jpg, by Alfonso Sanz]]

Howe, named after Admiral Richard Howe,Silverstone, p. 239 was the fourth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy.Colledge, p. 167 The ship was laid down at Pembroke Dockyard on 7 June 1882, launched on 28 April 1885 and was delivered at Portsmouth on 15 November 1885, complete except for her main armament, at a cost of £639,434. She was commissioned on 18 July 1889 to take part in fleet manoeuvres. Finally fully armed, she was assigned to the Channel Fleet in May 1890.Parkes, pp. 317, 320 On 2 November 1892, she ran aground on a shoal off Ferrol, Spain, due primarily to faulty charts,{{cite news|title=The Howe Court-Martial|work=The Times|issue=33809|date=30 November 1892|location=London|page=10}}{{cite news|title=The Howe Court-Martial|work=The Times|issue=33810|date=1 December 1892|location=London|page=10}} and was salvaged with great difficulty, being finally freed by {{HMS|Seahorse|1880|6}} on 30 March 1893.{{cite news|title=The Howe|work=The Times|issue=33913|date=31 March 1893|location=London|page=7}} The ship paid off at Chatham Dockyard for repairs and an overhaul that cost £45,000.Parkes, p. 320

File:Harbour, Queenstown, Co. Cork (32504829973).jpg

In October of that year, Howe was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet where she remained until December 1896, when she became port guardship at Queenstown. Captain Henry Louis Fleet was in command from January 1900 until she was paid off at Devonport on 12 October 1901, when her entire crew was transferred to {{HMS|Empress of India|1891|6}}, which took over as the Queenstown guardship.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Naval & Military intelligence|date=10 October 1901 |page=8 |issue=36582}} The ship was then assigned to the Reserve Fleet and then fully decommissioned after her last manoeuvres in September 1904. Howe was sold to Thos. W. Ward for £25,100 on 11 October 1910 and towed to Briton Ferry, Wales, to be broken up in January 1912.Colledge, p. 167; Parkes, p. 320

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{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. 2|pages=96–97}}
• {{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|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}}

{{Commons category|HMS Howe (ship, 1889)|HMS Howe}}

• [http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/hms_howe.htm Photos of Howe on battleships-cruisers.co.uk]

{{Admiral class battleship}}

{{1892 shipwrecks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Howe (1885)}}

Category:Admiral-class battleships

Category:Victorian-era battleships of the United Kingdom

Category:Ships built in Pembroke Dock

Category:1885 ships

Category:Maritime incidents in 1892

Category:Shipwrecks of Spain