HMS Alexandra in 1886
History
United Kingdom
NamesakeAlexandra, Princess of Wales
BuilderChatham Dockyard
Laid down5 March 1873
Launched7 April 1875
Commissioned31 January 1877
FateSold 1908 and broken up
General characteristics
Displacement9,490 tons
Length325 ft (99 m) pp, 344 ft (105 m) oa
Beam63 ft 8 in (19.41 m)
Draught26 ft 6 in (8.08 m)
Propulsion2-shaft Humphreys vertical inverted compound, 8,498 ihp (6.337 MW)
Speed15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement674
Armament
Armour
  • Main deck battery 12 inches (300 mm)
  • Upper deck battery 8 inches (200 mm)
  • Belt 12 inches tapering to 6 inches (150 mm)
  • Bulkheads 8 inches (200 mm) to 5 inches (130 mm)
  • Deck 1.5 inches (38 mm) to 1-inch (25 mm)

HMS Alexandra was a central battery ironclad of the Victorian Royal Navy, whose seagoing career was from 1877 to 1900. She spent much of her career as a flagship, and took part in operations to deter the Russian Empire's aggression against the Ottoman Empire in 1878 and the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882. She was affectionately known by her crew as Old Alex.

She was named after the Princess of Wales, later Queen Alexandra.[1]

Background

At the time of her design the Board of Admiralty were at loggerheads amongst themselves as regards the provision of sails in their contemporary warships; steam engine design had advanced to the point where ships could cross the Atlantic under steam power alone, but centuries of tradition had left an ingrained emotional attachment to sails in a small but influential number of the senior members of the naval hierarchy. This minority succeeded in convincing the Board to design Alexandra as a rigged central battery vessel.

Design

Right elevation and deck plan as depicted in Harpers Monthly, February 1886

Built at Chatham Dockyard with engines by Messrs Humphreys and Tennant, Alexandra was the last of a long series of progressive steps in the development of vessels of her type. As the militarily most effective of all of the broadside ironclads, she was, ironically, designed by Nathaniel Barnaby, one of the earliest and most effective proponents of the virtues of turret-mounted artillery.

Her armament was disposed in a central box battery, with heavy guns deployed both on the main and on the upper deck. Recognising the increasing importance of axial fire, Barnaby arranged the artillery so that, by firing through embrasures, there was the capability of deploying four heavy guns to fire dead ahead, and two astern; all guns could if required fire on the broadside.

Alexandra was the last British battleship to carry her main armament wholly below decks; she was one of only two British ships to mount guns of 11-inch (280 mm) calibre, the other being HMS Temeraire.

She was the first British warship to be powered by vertical compound engines, carrying cylindrical high-pressure boilers with a working pressure of 60 pounds-force per square inch (410 kPa), as compared to rectangular boilers working at 30 lbf/in2 (210 kPa) pressure mounted in earlier ships. Twelve boilers were set back to back on either side of a longitudinal bulkhead; each engine drove an outward rotating screw of some 21 feet (6 m) in diameter. A pair of auxiliary engines, each of 600 indicated horsepower (450 kW), were fitted to turn the screws while the ship was proceeding under sail. These engines could, if required, propel the ship at a speed of 14.5 knots (26.9 km/h). At the time of her completion Alexandra was the fastest battleship afloat.

It had been intended to call the ship HMS Superb, but the name was changed at her launching, which was undertaken by Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales (later Queen Alexandra). She was the first British ironclad to be launched by a member of the royal family; the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, the Duke and Duchess of Teck and the Duke of Cambridge were also present. The religious element of the service (the first at a ship launch since the Reformation) was conducted by Archibald Campbell Tait the then Archbishop of Canterbury assisted by Thomas Legh Claughton, the Bishop of Rochester.[2]

Service history

Bombardment of Alexandria, 1882. A section of the Alexandra showing working of her guns

She was commissioned at Chatham on 2 January 1877 as flagship, Mediterranean Fleet, and held this position continuously until 1889. She was the flagship of Admiral Hornby in his passage through the Dardanelles during the Russian war scare of 1878.[3] On 9 February,[4] she ran aground in bad weather at the narrowest part of the strait and was towed off by HMS Sultan in time to lead the squadron to Constantinople.[3] On 4 October 1879, HMS Alexandra collided with HMS Achilles off Cyprus, holing the latter vessel with her propeller.[5] She was present at the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882; in this action the Admiral's flag was shifted to HMS Invincible, as she was of shallower draught and could sail closer to shore.[3] During this action on 11 July 1882, under command of Captain C. F. Hotham,[6] Gunner Israel Harding flung a live 10-inch enemy shell into a tub of water, an action which led to the award of the Victoria Cross.[7] In 1886, the Duke of Edinburgh hoisted his flag on board, and Prince George of Wales, later King George V, joined as a lieutenant. She paid off in 1889 for modernisation.

Map of the Naval Manoeuvres of 1899

In 1891, she was flagship of the Admiral Superintendent of Naval Reserves at Portsmouth, and remained so until 1901. Alexandra was featured in the first volume of the Navy and Army Illustrated in early c. April 1896 and was then described as a "coastguard ship at Portsmouth" with her principal armament being eight 18-tons guns, four 22-ton, six 4-inch and four six-pounder and six three-pounder quick firers.[8] At this time, she had a complement of 408 officers and men and was commanded by Captain W.H. Pigott. Her last sea-time was as flagship of the 'B' fleet in the manoeuvres of 1899, which included tests of the use of wireless. On 31 July she received a wireless message from HMS Europa relayed by HMS Juno over a distance of 95 miles, the longest distance to date for a naval transmission.[9] In 1903 she became a mechanical training ship, and she was sold in 1908.

References

  1. ↑ Famous Fighters of the Fleet, Edward Fraser, 1904, p.307
  2. ↑ Famous Fighters of the Fleet, Edward Fraser, 1904, p.308
  3. 1 2 3 Goodrich, Caspar F (Lt Cdr), Report of the British Naval and Military Operations In Egypt 1882, Navy Department, Washington, 1885, p.26
  4. ↑ "The Passage of the Dardanelles". Morning Post. No. 32967. London. 23 February 1878. p. 5.
  5. ↑ "(untitled)". Morning Post. No. 33471. London. 6 October 1879.
  6. ↑ Famous Fighters of the Fleet, Edward Fraser, 1904, p306
  7. ↑ "No. 25147". The London Gazette. 15 September 1882. p. 4260.
  8. ↑ HMS Alexandra - Coastguard Ship at Portsmouth in The Navy and Army Illustrated, Volume 1, Special Issue on the Foreign and Reserve Squadrons, p.164
  9. ↑ Pocock, R. F.; Garratt, Gerald Reginald Mansel (1972). The Origins of Maritime Radio: The Story of the Introduction of wireless telegraphy in the Royal Navy Between 1896 and 1900. H.M. Stationery Office. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-11-290113-6.

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