Lord Clyde class battleship

The "Lord Clyde" class battleships, which consisted of HMS|Lord Clyde|1864|6 and HMS|Lord Warden|1865|6, were wooden-hulled ironclad frigates, designed by Sir Edward Reed, and promoted by the Board of Admiralty for economic reasons, in order to make use of the large stocks of seasoned timber available in the shipyards.

Overview

The design of these ships was based upon the design of HMS|Bellerophon|1865|6, but in making the adaptation from this ship's design to the requirements of a wooden hull, Reed had only the behaviour of HMS|Royal Oak|1862|6 to learn from, and the tendency of her class to sag amidships had not at that time been recognised. Both ships were built with a beam equal to "Royal Oak", and some twenty feet shorter.

The two ships differed in weight by some 360 tons, "Lord Clyde" being the lighter.

Their hulls were a complex sandwich structure, consisting of an inner layer of oak ribs convert|24|in|mm thick, a convert|1.5|in|mm|adj=on iron skin, convert|6|in|mm of oak support and backing for the armour, an armour layer of 4.5 to 5.5 inches (110–140 mm) in thickness, and a thin sheathing of anti-fouling Muntz metal. It was believed at the time that the 15-inch Dahlgren guns carried by the American Federal monitors would fail to penetrate this sandwich.

Living conditions on these ships were bad; with the exception of the most senior officers the whole crew were accommodated on the lower deck, with the only natural light being that which found its way through skylights on two decks into the wardroom. The scuttles along the entire deck opened only a few feet above the water line, and hence could not be opened if the ship was under way, for fear of being swamped. The sick-list was always higher than in ships with main deck berthing.

References

*British Battleships "Oscar Parkes" ISBN 0-85052-604-3
*Conway "All the World's Fighting Ships" ISBN 0-85177-133-5