HMS Minotaur (1863)
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Minotaur |
| Builder: | Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company |
| Laid down: | September 12, 1861 |
| Launched: | December 12, 1863 |
| Commissioned: | December 19, 1868 |
| Fate: | Broken up 1922 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Minotaur class ironclad |
| Displacement: | 10,690 tons |
| Length: | 400 ft 3 in (122.0 m) between perpendiculars 407 ft 0 in (124.1 m) overall |
| Beam: | 59 ft 6 in (18.1 m) |
| Draught: | 27 ft 9 in (8.5 m) |
| Propulsion: | One-shaft Penn horizontal trunk I.H.P.= 6,700 Five masts, sail area 32,377 sq ft (3,008 m²) |
| Speed: | 14.32 knots under sail - 9.5 knots (17.6 km/h) |
| Complement: | 705 nominal, 800 actual |
| Armament: | 1868:Four 9-inch muzzle-loading rifles Twenty-four 7-inch muzzle-loading rifles Eight 24-pounder smoothbore 1875:Seventeen 9-inch muzzle-loading rifles Two 20-pounder smoothbore |
| Armour: | Belt and battery 5.5 inches amidships,4.5 inches fore and aft 10-inch teak backing Bulkheads 5.5 inches. |
HMS Minotaur was the lead ship of the Minotaur class of broadside ironclad warships, being followed by her sister-ships HMS Agincourt and HMS Northumberland.
She was originally ordered as HMS Elephant,. after the ship once commanded by Nelson seventy years before, but her name was changed to Minotaur during construction. She was launched at Thames Ironworks, London in 1863, after which she was some four years in completing because of changes in design, and experiments with her armament and with her sailing rig. She finally commissioned in Portsmouth in April 1867 as the flagship of the Channel Fleet, which position she retained until 1873. She paid off for re-armament in 1873, and in 1875 resumed her position as flagship, Channel Fleet. In 1887 she was demoted to the Reserve in Portsmouth.
In 1893 HMS Minotaur was re-named HMS Boscawen II and used as a training ship at Portland; from 1905 to 1922 she fulfilled the role of training ship at Harwich under the name of HMS Ganges.
She was sold in 1922, sixty-one years after she was laid down. She retained her masts and her black, white and buff livery to the end of her days.
[edit] References
- Oscar Parkes British Battleships ISBN 0-85052-604-3
- Conway All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905 ISBN 0-85177-133-5
