HMS Caledonia (1862)

History
Name:	HMS Caledonia
Builder:	Woolwich Dockyard
Laid down:	10 October 1860
Launched:	24 October 1862
Completed:	July 1865
Fate:	Broken up, 1886
General characteristics
Class & type:	Prince Consort-class ironclad
Displacement:	6,832 long tons (6,942 t)
Length:	As built : 252 ft (77 m) After 1866 : 273 ft (83 m)
Beam:	As built : 57 ft (17 m) After 1866 : 58 ft 6 in (17.83 m)
Draught:	As built : 25 ft (7.6 m) light 26 ft 6 in (8.08 m) deep load After 1866 : 24 ft (7.3 m) light 26 ft 9 in (8.15 m) deep load
Propulsion:	One-shaft Maudsley horizontal reciprocating 3,750 ihp (2,796 kW)
Sail plan:	Single-topsail barque, sail area 25,000 sq ft (2,300 m2)
Speed:	12.5 knots (14.4 mph; 23.2 km/h) under power 11.5 knots (13.2 mph; 21.3 km/h) under sail
Complement:	605
Armament:	1865 : 10 × 7 in (180 mm) breech loading Armstrong rifles 8 × 100-pounder smoothbore 12 × 68-pounder smoothbore guns 1867 : 4 × 8 in (200 mm) muzzle-loading rifles 20 × 7 in (180 mm) muzzle-loading rifles
Armour:	Battery and belt: 4.5 in (110 mm) amidships and 3 in (76 mm) fore and aft

HMS Caledonia was a broadside ironclad of the Prince Consort class. Originally laid down as a two-decker steam ship of the line of the Bulwark class, Caledonia was converted on the building stocks into an armoured frigate.

Service history

HMS Caledonia was not completed until July 1865 due to a delay in the delivery of her main armament. Once this was installed, she was commissioned as Second-in-Command of the Mediterranean Fleet, becoming the first ever armoured flagship of the Royal Navy.

She was temporarily withdrawn from service in 1866 for reconstruction which involved the addition of a poop deck. Following this, she was flagship of the Channel Fleet until 1867, when she was paid off for re-armament.

HMS Caledonia was flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet until 1869 (relieving HMS Victoria, the last three-deck Royal Navy flagship) until 1872. She was a guardship in the Firth of Forth from 1872 until 1875. She was paid off at Plymouth, and was laid up there until she was sold on 30 September 1886.

References

• Oscar Parkes (July 1990). British battleships : "Warrior" 1860 to "Vanguard" 1950. ISBN 978-0-85052-604-2. 
• Roger Chesneau; Eugène M. Koleśnik; N. J. M. Campbell (1979). Conway's All the world's fighting ships, 1860-1905. Conway. ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5. 
• Battleships-Cruisers.co.uk
• George Alexander Ballard (1980-01-01). The black battlefleet. ISBN 978-0-245-53030-2. 
• Baxter, James Phinney The Introduction of the Ironclad Warship, published Harvard University, 1933.
• David K. Brown (1997-04-30). Warrior to dreadnought. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-86176-022-7. 
• Clowes, William Laird Four Modern Naval Campaigns, Historical Strategical, and Tactical, first published Unit Library, 1902, reprinted Cornmarket Press, 1970.
• Roger Chesneau; N. J. M. Campbell (December 1979). Conway's all the world's fighting ships, 1860-1905. Wh Smith Pub. ISBN 978-0-8317-0302-8. 
• Andrew Lambert (1984-09-24). Battleships in transition. ISBN 978-0-85177-315-5. 
• Oscar Parkes (August 1990). British battleships, "Warrior" 1860 to "Vanguard" 1950. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-075-5. 
• Reed, Edward J Our Ironclad Ships, their Qualities, Performance and Cost, published John Murray, 1869.