Imperieuse class cruiser

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 BL 9.2-inch (233.7 mm) Mk III guns 6 x 6-inch (152.4 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.

Contents 1 History 2 Ships 3 Building Programme 4 See also 5 References 6 Notes 7 External links

History

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.

The layout of the main armament was unusual for the time, having one gun each forward and aft, and another gun mounted on either beam - in a lozenge arrangement similar to that employed by the French.

Ships

• Imperieuse - launched in 1883, converted to a depot ship in 1905 and renamed Sapphire II, later reverted to Imperieuse in 1909, and sold in 1913.
• Warspite - launched in 1884, scrapped 1906. One of the Warspite's 9.2" breech-blocks is/was held at the Royal Military College of Science (RMCS) at Shrivenham.

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	Sep 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

See also

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475. 
• Brassey, T.A. (ed) The Naval Annual 1895
• Brassey, T.A. (ed) The Naval Annual 1903
• Chesnau, Roger and Kolesnik, Eugene (Ed.) Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905. Conway Maritime Press, 1979. ISBN 0-83170-302-4
• Parkes, Oscar British Battleships, first published Seeley Service & Co, 1957, published United States Naval Institute Press, 1990. ISBN 1-55750-075-4
• Archibald, E.H.H.; Ray Woodward (ill.) (1971). The Metal Fighting Ship in the Royal Navy 1860-1970. New York: Arco Publishing Co.. ISBN 0-6680-2509-3.

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.

External links

Imperieuse-class cruiser Imperieuse · Warspite Preceded by:Nelson class · Followed by:Orlando class List of cruisers of the Royal Navy