Collingwood (1887) Collingwood (1887)Breech-loading guns mounted in barbettes fore and aft, secondary guns grouped in lateral batteries, a steaming speed of 16 knots, and big guns mounted higher than ever before in a British ship, were the prime features of HMS Collingwood.
In the late 1870s the French Navy introduced the Formidable class of battleship, which carried three large-calibre breech-loaders on the centre-line and six 140mm (5.5in) guns on each side of the main deck (it was not actually completed until 1889), and the British Admiralty, already aware of Italy’s large Italia, was reviewing its options for new designs. A low-slung turret ship was not the answer: what was needed was a ship with high freeboard capable of long-range cruising.
By this time, the convention of having all accommodation below the weather deck was being dropped. The weight of an iron hull and large engines made it feasible to build a superstructure above the deck as well as to place heavy guns at a high level.
The eventual answer was supplied in HMS Collingwood, laid down at the navy yard in Pembroke on 12 July 1880, launched on 22 November 1882, and completed in July 1887. The cost was £636,996 and it was Great Britain’s first ‘barbette battleship’, with its main guns set in armoured barbettes raised above the open deck fore and aft of the superstructure. A barbette could mount the gun higher, and Collingwood’s main guns were 8.5m (28ft) above the waterline, keeping drier in a sea, and with a better position for plunging fire. It gave less protection than a turret, but many gun crews disliked the restricted space and foul air of a turret, and the open position of the gun improved sighting and laying. The increasing number of torpedo boats in all navies also made it necessary to install a substantial secondary armament, and to give a good lookout for low-lying craft and torpedo trails, lofty platforms were built on the mainmast – now sometimes the only mast, as in Collingwood.
Gun emplacement was passing through a phase of development. Collingwood’s heavy guns were mounted in open barbettes, which were fixed, armoured positions, with a trunk opening through the armoured floor to the magazines. The gun revolved within it, on its own turntable. Protection for the gun crew was limited to the height of the barbette’s rim. Battleship design would move towards the turret, which provided a complete armoured covering for the gun and crew, and revolved with the gun. The barbette became the foundation of the turret, still with the trunk and hydraulic or electric hoisting systems from the magazines. The turret had some initial disadvantages, in that it added weight, could fill with fumes which were difficult to disperse, and made sighting more difficult. Fans and periscopic sights, and centralised gun direction, reduced these problems, while armoured turrets gave the ship greater staying power in a battle. Light guns had little or no protection until the twentieth century.
Side armour was concentrated in short amidships lines extending 1.5m (5ft) below the waterline and half that distance above, linked by transverse bulkheads. The bulkheads and the sides were lined with coal bunkers. In the unarmoured sections of the hull, the space between the armoured deck and the main deck was divided into compartments holding further fuel supplies and stores. Ammunition was stored beneath the armoured deck, with a heavily protected ammunition trunk, 3m (10ft) wide, passing through that deck and through the armoured floor of the barbette. The gun breeches were positioned above this trunk. The 152mm (6in) guns were set in a group, firing through gunports. Four of the 6-pounders were placed at the corners of this battery section, with eight on the boat deck above. Small sponsons extended from the after deck for light quick-firing guns, and others were placed in the fighting-top and on the superstructure.
With great emphasis being set on speed, the engines had forced draught applied. The 12 boilers worked at 90psi pressure. On trials, and so not under full load, it made 16.6 knots at an indicated horsepower of 6241kW (8369hp); the application of forced draught raised the output to 7139kW (9573hp) but added only 0.24 knots to the speed. Despite the comparatively high placing of the main guns, Collingwood had a low freeboard, and in a choppy sea the bow frequently submerged itself, making life uncomfortable for the crew, who inhabited the forecastle in the time-honoured way. But criticism was less focused on its qualities as a sea-boat than on its perceived lack of armour. The narrow waterline belt was criticised as inadequate.
The side-to-side superstructure gives a quite different plan to the clear decks of earlier ships with centrally-mounted guns. Torpedo ports were at the corners of the superstructure.
The designers had quite deliberately set their sights (like Brin in Italy) on making Collingwood a fighting ship, and had taken great care in the plans for the unarmoured end, so that these could be riddled with shot and yet only take on water to a limited extent, and without impairing the crew’s ability to fight. In addition, Collingwood’s guns could fire nine rounds a minute by comparison with the Inflexible’s two, making it a much more effective ship in battle and greatly increasing its chances of disabling an enemy vessel before incurring serious damage itself.
This illustration of Collingwood reveals the ship’s lack of freeboard. Even in a modest sea, or at speed, the deck forward of the barbette would be awash. Note the capstan and anchor hoist.
In fact the ship’s career did not give it any chances to prove its qualities in battle. Briefly commissioned for the Queen’s Jubilee Review in July 1887, it was immediately put in reserve. Its longest stint of duty was nine years with the Mediterranean Fleet from November 1889 to March 1897, including a refit at the Malta dockyard in 1896. It was coastguard ship at Bantry from March 1897 to June 1903, then returned to reserve until 11 March
Specification
Dimensions |
Length 99m (325ft), Beam 20.7m (68ft), Draught 8.03m (26ft 4in), Displacement 8618 tonnes (9500 tons) |
Propulsion |
12 boilers, 2 sets of Humphreys inverted compound 3-cylinder triple expansion engines |
Armament |
4 305mm (12in) 41-tonne (45 tons) BL guns, 6 152mm (6in) BL, 12 6-pounder, 14 small quick-firing guns, 4 356mm (14in) torpedo tubes (deck-mounted) |
Armour |
Belt 457–203mm (18–8in), Barbettes 292–250mm (11.5–10in), Conning tower 305–50mm (12–2in); Deck 76–50mm (3–2in) |
Range |
12,964km (7000nm) at 10 knots |
Speed |
16.8 knots |
Complement |
498 |