HMS Thunderer

1872 THUNDERER Together with her sister-ship, the class leader Devastation, a
revolutionary new design: the first sea-going, mastless capital ship to mount her guns in turrets, and thus the pattern for all future battleships.

TRANSITIONAL SHIPS

Built during a time of transition for a service which was ultra-conservative, the two ships of the Devastation class were sure to be controversial so strong was the publics distrust of the new design, in fact, that construction of Thunderer was held up until Devastations trials were complete. In the event, she proved to be a good steamer and a steady gun platform, even though her low freeboard (8.5ft (2.6m) forward and just 4.5ft (1 .4m) aft) meant that she was very wet indeed (at speed in a seaway her forecastle was invariably awash to a considerable depth). HMS Thunderer was built at Pembroke Naval Dockyard at a total cost of 368,428; laid down on 26 June 1869, she was launched on 25 March 1872 and completed on 26 May 1877. She was sold for breaking up in 1909 for 9,500.

ARMAMENT

The new ships embodied a simple concept: that the most powerful ships were those mounting the biggest, most powerful guns, no matter how few of them, so long as they could train through a wide arc. To that end, they had paired 12in (305mm) rifles muzzle-loading, for after a brief flirtation the Royal Navy had decided that breech-loading technology was not yet far enough advanced to be safe mounted in pairs in turrets fore and aft, each capable of training through an arc of almost 300 hundred degrees. They were re-armed with 1Oin (254mm) breech-loaders in 1890-92, and also received a secondary battery of 3pdr and 6pdr QF guns and machine guns.

TECHNICAL DATA

Type: Turret battleship
Machinery: 1 -shaft Humphreys & Ten nant horizontal direct acting, producing 6270ihp Dimensions (overall): Length, 93.6m (307ft); beam 1 9m (62.25ft)
Displacement: 9330t
Draught: 8m (26.7ft)
Complement. 358