HMS Audacious (1869)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Audacious.

Career (UK)

Name:	HMS Audacious
Builder:	Napier shipyards
Launched:	February 27, 1869
Renamed:	Fisgard in 1902 Imperieuse in 1914
Reclassified:	Depot ship in 1902 Repair ship in 1914
Fate:	Sold for breaking up March 12, 1927
General characteristics
Displacement:	6,106 tonnes
Length:	280 ft (85 m)
Beam:	54 ft (16 m)
Draught:	22 ft 7 in (6.9 m)
Propulsion:	Coal fired reciprocating steam engine 6 boilers 4,021 horsepower (3.6 MW) indicated
Speed:	13.5 knots maximum three masts, max. speed 10 knots
Complement:	450
Armament:	10×9 in guns 4×64 pdr guns
Armour:	8 feet (2.4 m) waterline belt 8 inches (203 mm) thick amidship reducing to 6 inches (152 mm) thick at ends of hull Central battery protected by 6-8 inches (152 mm) armour 10 inches (254 mm) teak backing.

The ironclad battleship HMS Audacious was the nameship of an experimental class of armoured battleships designed to expand on the success of HMS Warrior built ten years before. The ships were intended to act as the frontline of the modern battlefleet, but being such a recent innovation, they were fraught with difficulties.

Audacious was built at the Napier shipyards and cost £246,482 to complete. She was launched in February 1869, and by September 1870 was ready for active service. She did not actually fire her guns in anger during her lengthy service life, which continued after her removal from frontline duties in 1902, by which time she was very obsolete. Upon her conversion to a training ship in 1904 she was renamed Fisgard (after the French translation of the Welsh town Fishguard), and fulfilled this capacity until her further redesignation as a repair ship named Imperieuse in 1914, in which form she continued for another 13 years.

In 1927, 57 years after her completion, she was sold to Ward shipbreakers and broken up at Inverkeithing in Scotland.