Victoria class battleship

The Royal Navy's "Victoria" class (or "Sans Pareil" class) battleships of the 1880s were the first class which used triple expansion steam engines, previous battleships using single expansion steam engines.

There were only two ships in this class. The lead ship HMS|Victoria|1887|6 was sunk in an accidental collision with another Royal Navy battleship in the Mediterranean with the loss of half of her crew. Her sister, HMS|Sans Pareil|1887|6 survived until scrapped in April 1907.

This class was intended to be an improved version of HMS|Conqueror|1881|6, and they were originally called the "new Conquerors". The original intention had been to fit 13.5 inch (343 mm), 67 ton guns in place of the "Conqueror"s 12 inch (305 mm) guns in the single forward turret but late during the design it was decided to enlarge them to take the 16.25 inch (413 mm), 110 ton gun. Similar guns had been supplied by the manufacturer, Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co., Ltd., to the Italian Regia Marina and fitted in the "Andrea Doria" and the 1800 pound (816 kg) projectile could penetrate any thickness of armour afloat at that time. At a period when naval supremacy of the Mediterranean was seen as a crucial part of British policy, the "Victoria" class were intended for service as part of the British Mediterranean Fleet. The same model of gun had been fitted in the last Admiral class battleship HMS|Benbow|1885|6, which had a single example in each of its two turrets instead of pairs of 13.5 inch (343 mm) guns and was the only other British warship to carry them.

The gun was not successful in service since it took four or five minutes to load and fire. The barrel only had a life 75 rounds and the muzzle tended to droop.

The rear turret contained a smaller 10 inch (254 mm) gun of similar design, and which weighed 26 tons. This class was one of the last of this period to have very low freeboard, of around 10 feet (3 m). This was done to reduce target area in a naval engagement but had a deleterious effect upon seaworthiness, and was an important factor in "Victoria" sinking within fifteen minutes following a collision since it allowed the water to quickly reach the gun turret ports.

The most successful innovation of the class was the introduction of triple expansion steam engines into Royal Navy battleships. These engines had been developed as a result of the introduction of steel in boiler manufacture, which in turn had led to higher steam pressures. The Royal Navy had originally tried them with great success in the torpedo gunboat HMS|Rattlesnake|1885|6. The principal benefit was the improved efficiency of the engine meant a reduced displacement because less coal was needed, experiments with HMS|Thunderer|1872|6 which had been re-engined with triple expansion engines in 1880-1881 had shown that the coal consumption at 80% power was roughly halved.

External references

David Brown, "Warrior to Dreadnought: Warship development 1860-1905", Chatham Publishing.