Imperieuse class cruiser

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HMS Warspite
Class overview
Name: Imperieuse
Preceded by: Nelson class cruiser
Succeeded by: Orlando class cruiser
Completed: Two
General characteristics
Type: armoured cruiser
Displacement: 8,400 tons
Length: 315 ft (96 m)
Beam: 62 ft (19 m)
Armament: 4 x 9.2 in (230 mm) guns
6 x 6 in (150 mm) guns
4 x torpedo tubes

The Imperieuse class cruiser was a class of two armoured cruisers launched between 1883 and 1884 for the Royal Navy. In an 1886 magazine article[1], Sir Edward Reed complained that these ships did not deserve to be called "armoured", as they were not armoured at bow or stern, only along the middle 140 feet (43 m) of each side.

Contents

[edit] Ships

[edit] Building Programme

The following table gives the build details and purchase cost of the members of the Imperieuse class. Standard British practice at that time was for these costs to exclude armament and stores.[2] In the table:

  • Machinery meant "propelling machinery".
  • Hull included "hydraulic machinery, gun mountings, etc."[3]
Ship Builder Maker
of
Engines
Date of Cost according to
Laid Down Launch Completion ( BNA 1895)[4] ( BNA 1903)[5] Parkes[6]
Hull Machinery Total
excluding
armament
Imperieuse Portsmouth Dockyard Maudslay 10 Aug 1881 18 Dec 1883 Jun 1886 £417,437 £113,377 £530,814 Details of cost
incomplete
£543,758
Warspite Chatham Dockyard Penn 25 Oct 1881 29 Jan 1884 Jun 1888 £415,546 £113,786 £529,332 £653,072 £538,797

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Sir Edward Reed, "The British Navy", Harper's Monthly Magazine (European edition), February 1886
  2. ^ Note that the costs quoted in the 1895 edition and the 1903 edition are not the same. There seems to have been a revision of the costs quoted for British warships in The Naval Annual between the 1902 and 1903 editions, and a further revision between the 1905 and 1906 editions. (The 1906 edition costs cannot be quoted for the Imperieuse class because the class is not listed in the 1906 edition.)
  3. ^ The Naval Annual 1895 , p192-200
  4. ^ The Naval Annual 1895, p192-200
  5. ^ The Naval Annual 1903, p236-243
  6. ^ Parkes, Oscar, British Battleships, p307-313.
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