Inflexible (1881) Inflexible (1881)HMS Inflexible was, like HMS Warrior in 1859, intended to emulate and surpass a new foreign battleship design; in this case the Italian ships Duilio and Dandolo, the most heavily-armoured and fastest warships of their time, with massive 90-tonne (100 tons) guns in a central citadel.
For Great Britain to lose its naval supremacy was unthinkable, and the Italian ships, designed by Benedetto Brin, sent British warship designers back to their drawing boards to produce a ship of outstanding power, speed and size. It took some time. Laid down at Portsmouth on 24 February 1874, Inflexible was launched on 27 April 1876 but not completed until 18 October 1881. Its cost was £812,485.
Inflexible was the only turret ship of its time to carry full rigging. The sail area was 1719m2 (18,500sq ft). By comparison the tea clipper Cutty Sark carried a sail area of 2976m2 (32,000sq ft).
The gun arrangement, modelled on Duilio’s, was of two large twin central turrets mounted in echelon formation, the port one set ahead of the starboard one, at opposite corners of a ‘citadel’ of unprecedented armoured strength, 609mm (24in) at the maximum.
A 76.2mm (3in) armoured deck ran the length of the ship, beneath the main deck and below waterline level, in place of vertical armour along the waterline. Above this deck the hull was divided into many compartments to localise flooding. The citadel was an armoured box rising to 2.9m (9ft 6in) above the waterline and extending 1.8m (6ft) below, enclosing the magazines and hydraulic gear to work the turrets. Below it were two boiler rooms, with the engines set between. The ship was the broadest in relation to length yet built, in order to ensure stability and give the gun turrets the maximum possible arc of fire. The forward and stern sections were not armoured but subdivided into many watertight compartments with coal bunkers on each side and inner walls thickly lined with cork. These parts could sustain damage without affecting the ship’s fighting capacity, while the citadel was regarded as invulnerable, designed to stop even 408mm (16in) shells. The superstructure was kept well in to the centre of the ship, in order to maximise the arc of fire for the guns.
Specification
Dimensions |
Length 97.5m (320ft), Beam 22.9m (75ft), Draught 8.08m (26ft 6in), Displacement 10,777 tonnes (11,880 tons) |
Propulsion |
12 boilers, 2 Elder & Co. 3-cylinder compound engines, 6269kW (8407hp), 2 screws. Sail area 1719m2 (18,500 sq ft) |
Armament |
4 406mm (16in) MLR 72.5-tonne (80 tons) guns; 6 20-pounders; 2 submerged torpedo tubes, 2 torpedo carriages, 356mm (14in) |
Armour |
Citadel 610–406mm (24–16in), Bulkheads 559–356mm (22–14in), Turrets 432–406mm (17–16in), Deck 76.2mm (3in) |
Speed |
14.75 knots |
Complement |
440 |
HMS Inflexible in 1881, before replacement of the original masts and rigging, showing lifeboat davits extended.
At the stern, two single-tube torpedo boats were carried, launched by a derrick from the aftermast, and this was also the first armoured ship to mount underwater torpedo tubes, with two placed experimentally in the bows, though they cannot have been compatible with the ram. Two 356mm (14in) torpedo carriages were mounted on deck. Among the many other technical advances incorporated were compound expansion engines, and dynamos to light the ship by electricity (the first warship so fitted). In important ways, notably the full-length armoured lower deck, Inflexible established standards which later battleships would follow, though the debt to Brin and the Italian ships should not be forgotten. But the citadel formation, though it became popular for a time, was ultimately dropped.
Inflexible’s weakest aspect was the guns. The original design had specified guns weighing 54 tonnes (60 tons), but in 1875, with the ship already building, this was changed to 72.5 tonnes (80 tons). Muzzle loaders, of 406mm (16in) calibre, they fired a 764kg (1684lb) shell capable of piercing armour 584mm (23in) thick at a distance of 914m (1000yd). They had to be depressed with the barrel-mouths below a protective armoured cover for the shells to be inserted from a hydraulic ram, then re-aimed. Firing was limited to one round every two minutes. And within a few years the massive muzzle loaders were outclassed by lighter, faster-firing breech-loading heavy guns.
A refit was done in 1885. The two masts had been rigged as for a brig, though this was essentially cosmetic so that men could man the yards for display purposes. In the refit, the rig was abandoned for two pole masts.
The appearance of Inflexible has been condemned as graceless, tubby and low in the water, but it was much improved after 1885 when its symmetrical design was more apparent. No doubt as a gesture to the Italians (who had responded to news of Inflexible’s building by increasing the weight of Duilio’s guns to 90 tonnes (100 tons), it was despatched to join the Mediterranean Fleet in October 1881. Its guns were put to use at Alexandria in July 1882, in suppressing an Egyptian uprising against the British-backed Khedive, when it also took a few hits from shore forts. It remained in the Mediterranean until 1885, and after refitting and a few years spent largely in reserve, returned there in 1890–93. From 1893 to 1897 it served as guardship at Portsmouth, then went to Fleet Reserve in 1897, Dockyard Reserve in 1901, and was sold for scrapping in September 1903.
The original plan was to place the funnels almost side by side between the turrets, but this was dropped in case they should be damaged by gunnery blast.
Modernisation
In the early 1880s, control positions and conning towers were still rudimentary structures. On Inflexible a control station was placed between the funnels, built over an air trunk coming up from below, though its position just above and between the guns was highly uncomfortable during firing. A small armoured box-like structure was also provided just forward of the leading funnel. Communication between the different stations on board a ship would soon be improved by the use of the telephone rather than the up-and-down voice-pipe, or the running boy-messenger. But at this time, much reliance was still placed on individual gun-laying. The accuracy and regularity of fire were poor, and increasingly worse at any range beyond 914m (1000yd), especially when the gun platform and the target were both moving, on different courses. New aids to gunnery were needed – an issue that would be addressed in the next decade.
