Damage and loss of the English armored cruiser Warrior. Fleet strike force Armored cruiser warrior

HMS Warrior

Historical data

general information

EU

real

dock

Booking

Armament

Guns on the gondek

• 38 × 206.2 mm / 4.1 t

Guns on the operdeck

• 2 × 206.2 mm / 4.1 t

Ships of the same type

HMS Warrior(rus. HMS Warrior ) - armored frigate, with an all-metal hull and a steam engine. In connection with the rapid development of naval armaments in the second half of the 19th century, HMS Warrior already 10 years after its commissioning, it became obsolete and in 1878 it was withdrawn from the active fleet. During the active service, the ship did not participate in any battle, and its guns did not fire a single live shot at the enemy. For a long time, the ship's hull was used as a blockship and fuel storage, until in 1979 it was towed to Hartmund for repairs and restoration of its original appearance. In 1987, the battleship was restored and turned into a museum ship in Portsmouth.

History of creation

Prerequisites for creation

The Crimean War showed the whole world the power of new destructive artillery, at the same time opening up a way of confrontation. And yet, despite the undoubted combat success of the armored batteries at Kinburn, these militarily new ships turned out to be so unseaworthy that they could not arouse much interest among the Lords of the Admiralty. Built already during the war, English floating batteries with an armored side, not participating in battles, quietly and peacefully rotted in ports in a few years, and British sailors did not show much concern about this. But for France, the idea of ​​armoring the sides of ships seemed worthy of attention as a means that could shake the power of Britain at sea. Immediately after the end of the war, in 1856, the main builder of the French fleet, Dupuis de Lom, proposed a project he had developed for the further development of the fleet and a military shipbuilding program, according to which 15 battleships were supposed to be laid in the near future.

In the spring of 1858, the French Naval Ministry approved a draft program, which was soon approved by the government, and already in May 1858, the construction of the first frigates began. La Gloire, L'Invincible and Le Normandie, and at the beginning of next year one more - La Couronne. Information about the proposed French construction that appeared in England caused a strong reaction from the public. One of the most ardent supporters of innovation, Captain Mursom, is trying to justify all the benefits of such a change in naval doctrine. The well-known English shipbuilders Scott Russell and Isaac Watts, who spoke in favor of iron and armored shipbuilding, adhered to the same point of view. Such fluctuations in maritime and public circles could not help but make the Lords of the Admiralty pay attention to the battleships, but nothing more - their attention did not spread beyond mere curiosity. At this time, the naval command was preoccupied with something completely different.

After the end of the Crimean War, the rate of replenishment of the British fleet with new ships decreased somewhat. Having built at the very end of the war a huge number of gunboats and boats for operations in the skerries of the shallow Baltic Sea, and having spent considerable funds on them, the Admiralty, in the end, received several hundred small armed vessels of little use in peacetime. At the same time, the number of large warships increased slightly. By the beginning of 1859, the ratio of the British and French fleets was almost equalized, and not all British ships were of new construction.

Concerned about the strengthening of the French fleet, the English Admiralty invited the breeders to develop a project for a seaworthy battleship. Having no specific experience in the construction of an armored fleet, the naval command developed tactical and technical conditions for the creation of a project modeled on the use of conventional wooden battleships, without taking into account the characteristics of battleships.

Design

After ordering projects for consideration by the Admiralty, 14 works were received, from which the project of the chief builder of the British fleet, Isaac Watts, was selected. The author tried not to deviate from the forms of multi-gun wooden battleships, his main goal was to achieve the highest possible technical and combat characteristics. This was achieved by increasing the length of the ship, which in turn was only possible through the use of an iron hull. A number of measures were taken to maintain the strength of the hull of the armored frigate. Compared with the French "armored battleships", the iron hulls of the English ships turned out to be a big step forward, and only thanks to them was it possible to rapidly develop this class of ships in the English fleet in the next decade. Part of the reason for the use of iron was the great growth of the steel industry, especially in private factories, and the decline in timber imports from America and northern Italy.

According to the project, the ship's artillery was to consist of 40 guns with a caliber of 206.2 mm. Of these, 19 guns on each side and one for the bow and stern as running guns.

Construction and testing

Warrior was laid down on May 25, 1859, when the first French battleships were already being prepared for launch. ship name, Warrior meaning "Warrior" in translation, has traditionally been passed from ship to ship in the English navy since 1781. The official contract for the construction of the ship was signed later - September 13, 1859. The assembly of the hull was carried out in Blackwall on the slipway of the private shipyard "Ditchburn and Mare & Co", owned by the shipbuilding company "Thames Iron Works". In accordance with the contract, the hull was supposed to be launched on April 11, 1860, and three months later, on July 11, the ship was to be prepared for testing (without spars and interior decoration). But the construction of the frigate was delayed, and since the contractual deadlines were not met, the construction company received a notice of a fine of 50 thousand pounds sterling.

The construction of a ship of a new type at that time could not but cause various disputes and assumptions. Even before the launch, the Admiralty Council began to doubt the correctness of the chosen project, the strength and seaworthiness of the future ship. As a result of lengthy discussions, a resolution of the Council was developed, speaking frankly about the situation in which the frigate was built. An excerpt from it read: "... From the frigate Warrior it turns out not at all what we wanted, but having spent so much money on it, we'll see what comes of it ... "

Since the construction was delayed, measures were taken to speed up the descent of the frigate, including the redistribution of part of the orders, the duration of the delivery of which could slow down the work. In particular, some of the iron plates were reordered to the Vulich plant. Finally, in December 1860, the ship was prepared for launch. On December 29, with the onset of the tide, he moved along the slipway, but after passing a few meters he froze. Due to the severe frost, the nasalka on the runners froze. Only a few hours later, with the help of three towing steamers, the frigate was pulled into the water. By this time the tide had already started. After the descent, the hull was taken to the Victoria Dock, where the completion and installation of the steam engine was carried out. After that, he was supposed to be transferred to Portsmouth to install the spars. On August 8, 1861, after a second docking at the same dock, the ship went to Greengate to load weapons and supplies. A crew of 660 was assigned to it. Captain Arthur Cochran became the commander of the frigate.

After loading the guns and a new docking to clean the bottom, the frigate, having left the dock on October 10, went to official trials in Stoke Bay. October 24 frigate Warrior was officially accepted by the Navy.

In April 1868, on new trials in Stoke Bay Warrior according to the results of six runs, it showed 14,079 knots with an indicated power of 5270 hp, and after going to sea on 6-hour tests it reached 13,936 knots at 5092 hp. At the same time, the displacement of the battleship was 9200 tons.

After the capital in May 1874 Warrior re-tested. Having a new fixed propeller with an increased pitch, the frigate developed 14,158 knots with an indicated power of 4811 hp. and 56 rpm. As a result, it turned out that with less power than in the acceptance tests, the ship developed almost the same speed. Already at that time, many experts explained this by the use of the Richardson indicator, which was much more accurate in power measurements, in the last tests, allowing for inaccuracy in the measurements in the 1861 tests. Another likely cause is the use of a new screw.

Design Description

Frame

Constructive midship frame.

Board device diagram.

Scheme of a partial section of the hull.

The battleship had a solid iron hull, made according to the transverse framing system previously tested on commercial ships, but with some improvements in terms of longitudinal strength. The hull was divided into 14 compartments watertight to the waterline, while part of the bulkheads reached the battery deck. The ends of the hull outside the protected battery were divided into 27 watertight compartments.

The battleship did not have an outer keel. It was replaced by a metal longitudinal beam with a thickness of 32 mm and a height of 1 m. In addition to it, the number of longitudinal ties included six stringers from each side, between which split (from individual sheets of iron 1.5 m long) T-shaped frames were laid, having a sectional height of 0.61 m. At the same time, the angles of the frames were not cut, that is, they were continuous and passed through the stringers through specially cut holes. In the surface part, the frames had an inward inclination of about 15 degrees. The spacing was 1.12 m.

On top of the set on the bottom, within the first stringers, an inner iron lining was laid in order to increase strength. At the same time, the skin served as a double bottom, but unfortunately purely nominally, since the set height was small and the double bottom space turned out to be insignificant. The sheets of the inner bottom were not laid along the entire length of the hull, but only in a number of places, in particular under mechanisms and boilers. In such places, the hold was divided into many watertight compartments. Outside, in the underwater part, additional keels were arranged - two on each side, 0.38 m high.

Along the sides, along the entire length of the hull, side corridors were arranged, bounded inside by two bulkheads at a distance of just over a meter from the side and reaching the battery deck in height.

The living deck is made of wood, the upper and battery decks are covered with iron sheets and covered with wooden flooring. Deck beams are also iron.

The bow part had a long shack with a latrine and a figurehead of a warrior, preserving the former beauty of sailboats. Most of the bow frames in the underwater part were V-shaped, which is why even the nose, which was not weighted with armor, did not receive sufficient buoyancy and, according to Admiral Dacress (at that time, the commander of the English Channel squadron), was afraid of pitching. On later battleships, the bow frames were made in a U-shape. The stem was made from a single massive part, without a spigot, but the possibility of ramming was provided.

The stern, also not armored, had a round shape, with shells.

Both chimneys were located between the two bow masts, closer to the bow from the midships.

On the upper deck of the ship, a captain's cabin was installed, protected by armor.

Booking

Ship armor scheme.

Scheme of the conning tower.

During the design of the ship and during its construction, a lot of preparatory work was carried out to study the most suitable frigate armor system. On the initiative of a specially established commission in Shiburiness, many experimental shootings were carried out on armored shields, based on the results of which recommendations were made on the technology of armor manufacturing, the most favorable thickness, method of attachment, and other important details. As an experiment, experimental firing at an armored battery was carried out. trusty. This decommissioned vessel was adapted for experiments and fired upon with guns of various calibers, which were in service with the British fleet and were still being manufactured, including a 90-pounder gun, manufactured by the Whitworth factory in Manchester. Based on the results of these firings, the Admiralty concluded that penetration of 4 "armor is always possible under favorable conditions, but 5" armor with a 20" lining may not be afraid of destruction. It was in connection with this decision that the designers considered it sufficient to install 4,5" armor on the battleship .

Along with this, experiments were carried out to determine the need for lining under the armor and its optimal thickness. For this, an old ship was chosen Sirius, on which armor plates were hung in 4 "and 6", but directly on a wooden board without lining and metal reinforcements. Shooting was carried out at close range with 68-pound cannonballs. The armor withstood cannonballs well, but the inspection inside the ship made a disappointing impression. In the case of penetration of the projectile through the armor, the destruction of the internal set was insignificant. But the shaking of the slab that withstood the impact of the cannonball was detrimental to the wooden structures of the set. They split and broke, bolts were knocked out, wooden knots were broken, unable to withstand the powerful shaking of the plates. The ship received damage, which could only be fixed in the dock. It was noted that in combat conditions the ship would undoubtedly have died. The lining, which restrains the shaking of the plate when a projectile hit, became a necessity. In the absence of it, measures should have been taken to further strengthen the side, including metal knees and readers. At the same time, the commission noted that for the manufacture of armor instead of wrought iron, it is preferable to use annealed scrap iron, the technology for making armor from which was very complex and time-consuming, as well as rolled iron.

During the subsequent time, many experiments were carried out to determine the most advantageous slope of the side, the method of attaching the armor to the side (the fastening of the armor plates on the screws, which was proposed at the beginning, did not justify itself. The cores, without penetrating the armor, destroyed the shields, tearing off the plates by shaking when they hit them). Experiments were also carried out with multilayer armor.

Based on the results of these experiments, it was decided on the first battleships to limit the protection of the middle part of the ship at the level of the waterline and battery. Armor plates fell below the waterline by 1.5 m, reaching the height of the beams of the upper deck. Along the edges of the armored side, bow and stern armored traverses of the same thickness were installed, which also rose in height to the upper deck.

The stern and bow of the ship were not armored, among other things, leaving the rudder and propeller unprotected. This was partly offset by the installation of watertight platforms below the waterline. They limited the flow of water, maintaining the buoyancy of the extremities when the side was breached above the platform. The armor plates of the belt were laid horizontally on a two-layer teak lining. The beams of the inner of these layers, 12" thick, were horizontally attached to the iron case, 6" beams of the upper layer were attached to them, but now laid vertically. Armor plates were fixed on the lining, fastened to the body with conical bolts, 810 mm long, passing through both layers of the lining. The bolt heads were hidden flush in the armor, and nuts were screwed onto the bolts inside the hull.

The slabs of the armored traverses were fastened in the same way, but English oak was used as a lining, which is more susceptible to decay from dampness than teak.

The joints of the armored plates in the horizontal plane were connected into a "lock" with a spike along the lower edge of the plate. Somewhat later, it was found that such fastening does not provide sufficient strength, since the cores that fell into the joint pricked the slab at a distance of up to 150-200 mm from the joint. On subsequent battleships, such a connection was abandoned.

To increase the strength of the side in the area of ​​the gun ports, above and below them, the hull was reinforced with longitudinal braces, under which the iron hull was thickened with a double row of iron sheets 1/2 "thick. These braces were attached to the hull with two strips of corner iron. The total thickness of the armor in the port area reached 7". Later such a device was developed by Edward Reed on his ironclads.

The battery and upper decks were laid with iron sheets 5/8 "(15.7 mm) thick on the beams and covered with wooden flooring from above. The captain's cabin on the upper deck had an oval shape with dimensions of 4.5 by 2.7 m. 4.5" backed with 12" thick teak lumber. The bottom row of this lumber was attached to the deck beams.

Power plant and driving performance

Section through the boiler room and engine room.

Despite the presence of a steam engine, Warrior carried full sailing equipment, with a sail area of ​​4,500 m². The lower part of the masts was made of wood, the rest of the metal. When sailing, to reduce air and water resistance, it was technically possible to remove both chimneys and the propeller into the ship's hull. The 35-ton screw was removed from the propeller shaft and climbed into the well at the stern of the ship. In order to lift the propeller up, the help of 600 people was required.

On the deck, in the area of ​​the boiler rooms, between the foremast and mainmast, two chimneys with a diameter of 2.4 m were installed at a height of 7.6 m.

Steam engines were of a simple type, with 10 box boilers and a working steam pressure of 1.30 atmospheres. 10 boilers of the span type were located in two boiler rooms, 5 boilers in each. An engine with a single expansion of steam in two cylinders with trunk pistons drove one shaft with a propeller with a diameter of 7.5 m. The rated power was 1250 hp, the indicator power was 5270 hp. The cylinders of this machine at the time of construction were considered the largest in the world of all built for ships and the second largest in general ever made. The installation provided a direct transmission of rotation to the shaft.

Such steam engines were originally designed for the needs of the Navy and were considered the most protected from shells, since they were located in the ship's hull below the waterline.

The heated machine from the "STOP" state gained full speed (of course, the same thing happened with the propeller) after 11 seconds, the reverse action occurred in 31 seconds. Full reverse from full forward to reverse required 49 seconds.

The measurements taken showed the speed under sail and pairs at the same time about 16 knots on average, the highest 17.25 knots.

Later Warrior, while in the Kanal squadron, participated in many comparative tests and repeatedly confirmed this speed.

The maximum amount of coal loaded on board the ship was 850 tons. This amount was enough for 2100 miles under steam, at a speed of 11 knots.

In general, according to the operating experience, the mechanisms of the armadillo deserve good reviews. They have proven to be meticulously crafted and reliable in service. Captain Cochran, in his report on the first voyage of the frigate to Gibraltar, reported that after leaving Lisbon, he "did 13-14 knots for almost a day without any breakdowns in the car."

Auxiliary equipment

Propeller lifting device.

On the Warrior a stern well and a device for lifting the propeller were provided.

In addition to the main steam engine, there was a small 40 hp steam engine. for driving pumps, fans and lifting anchors.

The ship was equipped with 9 boats for service needs and rescue purposes in case of distress:

• Two 42-foot barges;
• One 36-foot semi-barge;
• Two 30-foot boats;
• One 25-foot boat;
• One 32-foot four;
• One 22-foot four;
• One 14-foot two.

Crew and Habitability

According to the classification of the English fleet Warrior was listed as a frigate and, accordingly, a crew of 660 people was assigned to it. But unofficially, based on displacement, armament and protection at that time, it was equated with wooden battleships of the 1st rank, on which the crew was 850-900 people, and often more. Given that Warrior was almost twice as large, it lacked an assigned team. This was especially evident in fresh weather, when for the performance of any small work (for example, with sails) it was necessary to call up all the personnel, while on an ordinary ship the same work was carried out by one watch. This situation caused discontent of the team. Sailors and officers were reluctant to serve on the frigate.

The crew's primary tasks were to perform physically demanding work, such as manually lifting anchors or a propeller. The daily life of the crew on this frigate was not much different from the service on the traditional wooden ships of the Navy.

The rank and file on such ships rested and ate on the lower decks, right next to the ship's guns. Due to the lack of space on the decks, folding canvas bunks were suspended above the guns. Benches and tables for receiving food were located between the cannons and attached to the sides of the ship. There was enough space for 18 people at one table for eating.

At the beginning of the service, 122 people from the rank and file of the ship were assigned from the Royal Marine Corps. As an experiment, during the ship's first inspection, all Marines were called up from the Royal Naval Artillery Brigade. Subsequently, the assignment of Marines to Navy ships became common practice. The Marines were located near the stern guns, between the officers' quarters and the sailors' rest area.

The officers were located at the rear of the ship in separate cabins. There was a round table and several armchairs in the officer's room.

The captain had two spacious and well-furnished cabins, in which tables and separate chairs could move like in an ordinary house. The dinner table could be set for 10 people.

Armament

Artillery

Difference between design and installed battery.

The gun ports of the frigate were made in the form of embrasures. In the clear, they had a height of 1.09 m, a width on the outer side of 0.61 m. The height of the lower jambs of the port from the waterline was 2.7 m, which made it possible to use artillery when rolling up to 12 degrees. Depending on the composition of weapons and other loads, this height varied within small limits.

A serious drawback was the lack of armor protection for linear and retrograde guns, especially since the angle of fire of the guns in the battery was only 25-30 degrees from the port beam, that is, 50-60 degrees aboard each gun.

At the time of commissioning, the ship's armament consisted of twenty-six 206.2 mm smoothbore guns, ten 178 mm Armstrong rifled breech-loading guns and four 121 mm linear guns. High hopes were placed on these latest powerful guns, which they were unable to justify. Armstrong's early breech-loading guns were completely unsuccessful. Their primitive screw bolts were unable to withstand the standard powder charge, so they were fired only with reduced charges, which made these guns useless in combat with armored ships. At the same time, even with a reduced charge, Armstrong's 178-mm guns were dangerous in battle and often exploded from the breech. Their accuracy also turned out to be below any criticism. As a result, at the time of entry into service, the armament of the battleship Warrior turned out to be weak and did not meet the requirements of the time.

Smooth-bore muzzle-loading gun caliber 206.2 mm.

• A 206.2 mm caliber gun with a barrel length of 3.048 m and a weight of 4.75 tons. This is a smooth-bore muzzle-loading cast-iron cannon used by the British Armed Forces in the middle of the 19th century. Colonel William Dundas, government inspector of artillery, designed this gun in 1846 to modernize the artillery of the ships of the line of the day. In 1847, the cannon was cast at the Bradford ironworks and soon put into service. Because of its outstanding reliability, range and accuracy, the gun has earned a reputation as the finest smoothbore gun ever made. In total, more than 2,000 cannons were made after 1861. The guns were not considered obsolete for a long time, they were converted for new types of ammunition and remained in service until 1921.

Rifle breech-loading gun caliber 178 mm.

• A 178 mm caliber gun, weighing 4.1 tons. One of several models of Armstrong rifled breech-loading guns with an original loading mechanism. It was originally considered a modern solution to replace 206.2 mm smoothbore guns. Created by order of the British government, after successful tests of an early version of the Armstrong 76.2 mm breech-loading gun. The first manufactured gun weighed 3.6 tons, the next gun weighing 4.1 tons entered service in 1861. A lighter gun weighing 3.6 tons was used only for ground artillery. The gun channel had several dozen small angular rifling. The 2.5-caliber projectile had a thin lead sheath. The lock was a complex combination of screw and wedge lock. According to the conclusion of a special commission of the British government held in 1862, any breech-loading guns were deemed unsuitable for use. Production of breech-loading 178 mm guns was discontinued in 1864.

Rifle breech-loading gun caliber 121 mm.

• A 121 mm caliber gun, weighing 1,626 tons. This is an Armstrong rifled breech-loading cannon, which was manufactured in 1861-1863. The gun channel had several dozen small angular rifling. The lock was a complex combination of screw and wedge lock. A total of 1013 guns were made. Withdrawn from service in 1877 due to low reliability. In 1880, a small number of guns weighing 1.75 tons were manufactured, with a modified loading system.

Modernizations and conversions

In 1867, a new rudder with an increased area was installed and tested, but the results obtained were only slightly better than the previous ones.

In 1867-1868 in the artillery of an armored ship Warrior old guns were replaced. Twenty-eight 178 mm were installed. rifled muzzle-loading guns and four 203 mm. rifled muzzle-loading guns.

During the overhaul of the frigate in 1871, the propulsion boilers were replaced with more efficient ones, while the heating area was increased to 2209.14 m 2 (23779 sq. ft), and the working steam pressure was raised to 1.75 kg / cm 2 ( 25 pounds). The softening teak lining under the armor below the waterline was replaced (the lining above turned out to be in acceptable condition and it was decided to confine itself to repairing it). At the same time, the rotten lining under the armor of the traverses was completely replaced.

In 1875-1878, a poop was built on the armored frigate Warrior.

In 1893, another replacement of the boilers was made on the ship.

Service History

After a collision with an armadillo Royal Oak in 1868, Warrior received minor damage, was taken to the dock and repaired.

Already in 1871, Warrior was considered an obsolete ship.

In 1874, the combat value of the frigate dropped sharply. Experiments with armor plates carried out in Shiburiness showed that 4.5 "armor is no longer a reliable defense. It made its way through a 9" (12-ton) gun from a distance of more than 2 km., 10 "(18-ton) - from 5 .5 km., and a 25-ton 12 "gun pierced plates of this thickness already from 5 miles. The frigate became clearly unsuitable for linear combat, but could still be used as a high-speed reconnaissance squadron.

April 1, 1875 Warrior the frigate was excluded from the lists of the active fleet, transferred to the reserve and assigned for overhaul.

In 1878, the frigate was expelled from the active fleet, transferred to a special experimental squadron.

In 1881-1884 the battleship Warrior was listed in the fleet reserve based at the naval base of Clyde, was reclassified as an armored cruiser.

On May 31, 1883, the battleship ceased its service as a warship, artillery weapons and masts were removed from it, and 150 mm was flooded on the upper deck. a layer of concrete, and the holds began to be used for warehouses.

In 1902-1904, she was assigned to one of the cruiser flotillas as a depot for storing ammunition and fuel, and in 1904 she was transferred to the naval base in Portsmouth for the Vernon torpedo school and renamed Vernon III, at that time it was not used as a ship, only its steam engine was in operation to generate electricity and steam.

In 1923, the name "Warrior" was returned to him.

In 1925, the ship was planned to be sold for scrap, but a decrease in demand and, accordingly, scrap prices saved the former battleship from destruction.

Since March 1929, it has been used again as a fuel storage (oil bunker). In 1929, she was transferred to one of the shipyards in Wales, once again renamed Oil Fuel Hulk C77 and for the next 50 years was used as a floating tanker.

After the end of the Second World War, in 1945, it was renamed again, giving the former letter number "C.77".

In the 70s, the ship was remembered again. At this time, she was the only major surviving ship of the Victorian era, and yet only a few naval enthusiasts knew of her existence. In her miserable condition, the ship caught the eye of the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip. He was able to get attention to the legendary ship from the Department of Naval Property Affairs and in September 1979 this Department received the ship from the Navy. It turned out that for more than a hundred years no water had gotten inside the iron hull at all, not to mention the fact that the iron hull itself had been afloat all this time.

After the ship was handed over, it was towed to Hartpool for restoration. There was a lot of hard work to be done. To raise funds, the Warrior Preservation Fund was established, a team of restorers was created from among the workers of the local shipyard. On September 3, 1979, the restoration of the ship began, the planned work was estimated at 8 million pounds. Eight years and almost 6 million pounds sterling was required to restore The restoration began with the cleaning of the ship from debris and dirt, of which about 80 tons were taken out.The external and internal appearance was completely restored, new masts and rigging were made.

The restoration work was completed in 1984. The battleship again received its original name and on June 12, 1987, the Warrior left Hartpool and headed for the eternal parking lot in Portsmouth. Arrived at the parking lot on June 16, 1987 and on July 27 as a museum ship was opened for general viewing.

2001 T. 1.

INFO DEPARTMENT

BATTLESHIP "WARRIOR"

"Warrior" ("Warrior") - one of the most outstanding ships in world history. The British call it the world's first battleship, which opened a new era in the history of war at sea. This is not entirely true: the Warrior was not the first battleship, but it was this ship that made a real revolution in shipbuilding and maritime policy. Therefore, the “mistress of the seas” did not reckon with the costs of restoring the famous ship, the hull of which miraculously survived to this day. Now the Warrior is one of the main attractions of the Portsmouth Historical Monuments Complex, where it has been put on eternal parking.

The end of the golden age of sailing ships of the line became apparent after the invention by the French General Peksan of the so-called bombing guns, and especially after their practical use by the squadron of Admiral P. S. Nakhimov in the battle of Sinop. The defenselessness of wooden ships against the powerful explosive shells of the new generation of guns was no longer in doubt. A logical and in fact the only way out was to sheathe the wooden sides of warships with iron armor. However, skeptics opposed the gigantic additional weight of such protection, which could have an extremely negative impact on the seaworthiness of the vessel, while reducing the allowable load allocated to weapons and supplies. In part, these fears were confirmed during the operation of the first armored sail-steam batteries built in England and France during the Crimean War (1853-1856). Armored wooden ships did not suit the sailors either in speed, or in seaworthiness, or in cruising range, and could not replace the linear forces of the fleet.

But in 1858, the construction of the first truly seaworthy battleship La Gloire began in France. This ship was designed under the guidance of the eminent shipbuilder Dupuy de Loma and was essentially a typical steam-sail ship of the line of the time, but her entire freeboard was covered by 110-mm wrought iron armor plates.

The news of the laying of "La Gluara" made a strong impression on

The British Admiralty, since the primacy of the Royal Navy, which seemed eternal and unshakable, was now in doubt. The response to the challenge of France followed immediately. The Warrior, a ship of a fundamentally new type, was supposed to surpass in combat characteristics any existing battleship in the world, both in service and just planned for construction.

requirements will lead to a significant increase in the displacement of the ship. The development of the project was carried out by the chief builder of the fleet, Baldwin Walker, his assistant Joseph Large and Walker's future successor, designer Isaac Watts.

The design of the Warrior was carried out "from a blank sheet of paper." The use of iron (as mild steel was called in those years) as the main structural material provided two main advantages. Firstly, it reduced the total weight of the hull (the wooden hull was noticeably heavier due to the solid thickness of all its elements); secondly, it made it possible to manufacture a body with a large elongation without reducing its longitudinal strength. As a result, the length-to-width ratio on the Warrior reached an unprecedented for those

The Warrior is permanently parked in Portsmouth

The main principles that guided the Admiralty when issuing an order for the design of the Warrior were a metal hull, powerful armament from the heaviest guns and high speed. It goes without saying that the implementation of these

years of magnitude 6.5: 1 (at La Gloire, for comparison, - 4.7: 1). The hull was recruited according to the transverse pattern, which became classic for the next decades. On each side of the vertical bar that replaced the keel, there were six stringers. T-frames

8 Shipbuilding No. 5, 2008

INFORMATION DEPARTMENT

SHIPBUILDING 5"2008

A retrograde 110-pound breech-loading gun mounted on the poop of the ship and a battery of 68-pound guns in the Warrior's citadel

were split, but their squares were continuous, passing through the stringers through specially made holes. For 57 frames in the middle part of the hull there was a double bottom. Three continuous decks were laid on the metal beams. The thickness of the outer skin was solid - 22 mm, and in the bottom area - 28.5 mm. The Warrior's design had numerous watertight bulkheads that divided the hull into 14 large compartments. In total, there were 92 waterproof rooms inside the hull, of which 57 were in a double bottom. For the first time in the history of shipbuilding, all vital elements (machines, boilers, ammunition cellars, as well as coal bunkers, storerooms, etc.) were in isolated rooms, which increased the ship's survivability by an order of magnitude compared to all its predecessors. Also, for the first time, the ship's hull was equipped with bilge keels, which had a positive effect on reducing the rolling of the long and narrow hull.

In contrast to La Gloire, on which the freeboard was sheathed with armor from stem to stem, a different, citadel protection scheme was used on the Warrior. The battery of 26 main battery guns (13 per side) was an armored "box" protected by 114 mm wrought iron plates on a 460 mm wooden lining and transverse traverses (also 114 mm thick). In height, the armor extended to the upper deck (4.9 m above the waterline) and went under water by 1.8 m. The length of the citadel was 65 m - just over half the length of the hull. The ends of the ship were left unprotected -

mi. This was a forced measure: to ensure high speed, the contours in the bow and stern ends had to be made very narrow. An attempt to install armor on them would inevitably lead to an imbalance in the weight load, a sharp decrease in longitudinal strength. Iron shipbuilding was taking its first steps at that time, and the Warrior's hull turned out to be excessively heavy: without armor, it weighed 4970 tons. The English historian Oscar Parkes rightly noted that shipbuilding technology developed very quickly, and after a few years the mass of a similar hull did not exceed would be 3300 tons. Actually, the weight of the armor on the Warrio-re was 950 tons, plus another 355 tons for a wooden lining.

The main power plant of the Warrior is traditionally single-shaft. A two-cylinder steam engine (horizontal, trunk, simple expansion) was manufactured by the Scottish company John Penn. On tests, she developed a power of 5270 indicator liters. with. and, together with the machine of the second Black Prince frigate of the same type as the Warrior, for a long time remained the most powerful in the world. The cylinder diameter was 2845 mm, the piston stroke was 1320 mm. Steam was produced by 10 box boilers in two boiler rooms (4 in the bow and 6 in the stern). The working steam pressure was only 1.4 kgf/cm2. The coal reserve is about 850 tons. Griffith's two-bladed propeller was lifting, but due to the enormous weight (together with the lifting frame of 24 tons), approximately 600 people were required to lift it from the mine to the deck. (almost the entire crew of the ship, excluding officers). Very character-

but that on the Warrior, according to the tradition of the sailing fleet, all operations for selecting the anchor, mooring, shifting the rudder, working with the spars, lifting the propeller and boats were carried out manually - there were no auxiliary mechanisms on the ship, except for a single steam-driven pump. The steam spire on the ship appeared only after 12 years of its service.

Despite the heavy-duty mechanisms for their time and the hull shape optimized for a steam power plant, the creators of the Warrior could not abandon sailing equipment - such a step for the late 50s would have been too revolutionary and would hardly have received approval from those brought up on sailing traditions admirals. At the same time, it was already clear that the sailing armament for the ships of the new type was already auxiliary. As a result, a compromise was found: the Warrior (larger in size than the largest ship of the 120-gun rank) received sailing equipment only for a standard 80-gun ship, which, according to the regulations, belonged only to the III rank. Nevertheless, thanks to the smooth contours, rigidity and strength of the metal spars, the Warrior turned out to be a good walker, overtaking its wooden counterparts with a larger sail area under sail.

According to the original design, the Warrior was supposed to carry 68-pound smoothbore bombing guns, but in the process of its construction, more advanced artillery appeared - Armstrong's 110-pound breech-loading guns. Therefore, the ship entered service with mixed weapons: 26 68-

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pound and 8 110-pound guns, of which 8 68-pounders were on the battery deck outside the armored citadel. Half of this artillery, of course, participated in the side salvo.

Despite many innovations, the Warrio-re also retained many archaisms inherent in the sailing fleet and not justified on new generation ships. It had a hand-operated rudder, and an exact replica of the Warrior's nose figure was made by the sculptor Nor-designers followed Slomann Gaches from the Isle of Wight - one of the last professional rules lived for craftsmen specializing in the decoration of sailing ships and yachts

full pen deflection ru-

le from the diametrical plane occurred only with three full revolutions of the steering wheel. For such a large and long ship with a significant rudder area, this greatly increased the load on the helm. To turn it required the efforts of too many watches. The high bulwark and massive bow figure, borrowed from the sailing predecessors, depicting an ancient warrior with a sword, also looked like senseless design elements (the word “warrior” in translation means “warrior”).

British battleship HMS WARRIOR. Until the middle of the 19th century, the development of military shipbuilding was very slow. The wooden sailing ships of the maritime powers differed from each other only in size. The service life of battleships of that time did not play a particularly important role, the main criterion was strength. During the periods of naval battles of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, warships sometimes served up to thirty years, until they fell victim to a grinder beetle or mold. In naval battles, they had amazing survivability. The exact hit of two or three hundred cast-iron cores for multilayer oak boards, the thickness of which could reach one meter, sometimes turned out to be ineffective. In fact, every battleship of the sail era was a kind of battleship, although it was wooden. The iron hull of the ship was much lighter and stronger, but the cores still left damage in the hull that could cause disastrous results in battle. The most far-sighted shipbuilders foresaw the development of fragmentation cores and prepared their response move. The idea of ​​an armored ship appeared immediately in several countries after the creation of specific guns. To the challenge of new technology, 19th-century Britain responded with a transformation in industry. The British city of Portsmas, where the main docks of the Royal Navy were located, became the largest industrial center in the world. At Block Mills MCD, the sound of a hammer replaced the sound of a steam engine. The most time-consuming work of cutting wood and assembling blocks for equipment has been radically changed. In the 30s of the 19th century, merchant ships with steam engines were already crossing the Atlantic. This propulsion system seemed promising in terms of speed and independence from the winds. The British Navy was studying the possible benefits of switching to new technologies. But the Admiralty concluded that steam would make the sailing fleet obsolete. When London received the news that a steam engine was being developed in France, the British had no choice but to rise to the challenge. In the early 1930s, the British installed steam engines and paddle wheels on all battleships. However, the experiment was unsuccessful. The wheels were easily disabled by enemy fire. The paddle wheel became incompatible with a warship. However, the Admiralty acquired a new type of frigates and corvettes. By the 40s of the 19th century, the British fleet consisted of battleships and frigates that towed them. The paddle wheel replacement first appeared on the transatlantic liner Great Britain in 1940 of the 19th century. Shipbuilders quickly came to the conclusion that a propeller was much more efficient than a wheel. On battleships, he will not be as vulnerable to enemy fire. Only after the invention of the propeller and its installation under the bottom of a warship did steam traction become a real advantage. On the Great Britain, another revolutionary introduction was applied - an iron hull. However, the Royal Navy was skeptical about the construction of iron battleships. The Admiralty saw no point in this. But England sought to maintain the superiority of technology, so the most formidable ship was created. HMS WARRIOR benefits In 1860, the warship HMS WARRIOR was launched. This is the most desperate project in the history of the British Navy. The battleship was 30 m longer than any ship of its time with incredibly powerful weapons, even more powerful than the classic battleship Victory. dividing the body into watertight compartments. The ship also had a double bottom. The armor belt consisted of plates weighing up to four tons. The ledges of one came after another, as evidenced by the careful and thoughtful work of the shipbuilders. This provided excellent overall armor strength. As additional protection, teak beams with an average beam thickness of up to 50 cm were used. Artillery also had a high advantage. Guns of all calibers were located on turntables, which gave a significant advantage to the firing sector when using guns. Also, ten breech-loading guns were installed on the battleship, which were loaded with explosive shells. It was a fundamentally new weapon that demonstrated incredible effectiveness during the Crimean campaign. The barrels of all guns were rifled, which increased the accuracy of firing. The rotating projectile rushed to a distance of 2.5 km. It was an unprecedented distance. The gun decks and massive steam engine were enclosed in a 10 cm thick iron fortress that no gun could penetrate. The battleship "HMS WARRIOR" was distinguished by rounded hull contours and a large ratio of length to width, as a result of which it turned out to be faster than its foreign counterparts. But the admirals did not fully rely on steam engines, so the warship had full sailing armament.

Builder

Launched into the water

Commissioned

Price

"Warrior"

"Black Prince"

"Mare" "Napir"

25.05.1859 12.10.1859

29.12.1860 27.02.1861

377292 f. Art.

377954 f. Art.

Dimensions, m

115.8 x 17.8x7.92

Displacement, t

9210 (including building 6150, equipment 3060 t)

Armament

upon entry into service: 26 68-pound muzzle-loaders, 10 110-pound breech-loaders, 4 70-pound breech-loaders (saluting);

after re-equipment in 1867: 28 7 "6.5-ton muzzle-loaders (24 on the Black Prns"), 4 8" 9-ton muzzle-loaders, 4 20-pounders

Armor, mm

belt 114 (iron on 460mm teak lining), traverses 114 (total armor weight 1305 t: 950 t iron + 355 t teak)

Mechanisms

horizontal trunk simple expansion ("Penya"), rated power 1250 hp; cylinder diameter 2845 mm, piston stroke 1320 mm; 54-56 rpm; 10 box boilers (working pressure 1.4 atm.)

On trials

"Warrior" 5270 hp, 14.08 knots

"Black Prince" 5770 hp, 13.6 knots

Fuel reserve, t

850 (coal)

Crew, pers.

Constructors:

J. Large, W. H. Walker

The main concept of the project was that these ships were to surpass in speed and power any existing warship. Scott-Russell described the project creation process as follows:

Battleship "Warrior"

“Having decided that the Warrior should carry 40 guns on one deck, and the distance between them was required to be 4.6 m, we got a battery length of 91.4 m and a width of 15.24. On this basis, the middle part of the ship was designed. Then, in order to achieve the desired speed of 15 knots (!), if necessary, we slightly reduced this middle part and added bow and stern parts with a length of 41.2 and 27.5 m, respectively, which made it possible to give smooth contours.

Project Features

In order to obtain such outstanding speed, the bow of the hull had a V-shape for a considerable length, which, at the suggestion of Scott Russell, was not armored, as this could lead to a complete loss of buoyancy in the bow. Indeed, the weight of the bow 15 m of the hull, starting from the stem, was just equal to its displacement, i.e. the reserve of buoyancy here was equal to zero.

With the advent of the Warrior, the frigates achieved the status of a battleship, not only on par with the two-decker ships, but even superior to the Howe and Victoria - this state of affairs posed a curious problem for the Council. Until then, the fleet had been divided into "ranks" according to the simple principle of the number of guns on board, but now the ironclad, with its less numerous but much more powerful artillery, seriously confused the Council with such a classification. There could be no question of abolishing or modifying this time-honored system for evaluating the combat strength of ships, but including the most powerful warship in existence in the fourth rank (50 guns) was ridiculous. The solution was found in ignoring the number of guns and taking the size of the crew as the basis for the assessment, and the Warrior was ranked third rank (705 people) with a light heart, although it was stronger than all ships of the first rank. A comparison of the dimensions of the Warrior and the Mercy shows that the former was 13.4 m longer, 2 m wider and had a draft of 1.4 m. And if on a wooden ship the dimensions of the machine installation were limited by the size of the available tree trunks, and the hulls themselves eventually acquired a tendency to bend under the weight of the machine, then the size limits of ships with an iron hull or with an iron set depended only on the size of the docks. But in 1861, Britain had only one dock at Portsmouth, capable of accommodating the Warrior, and then at high tide. In order to enter Canada Dock in Liverpool and Dock No. 1 in Southampton, the ship had to be unloaded. Measuring 6.5 times its width, it sailed slightly better than the Mercy, but was generally similar to large frigates, except that its long black hull never had white stripes across the gunports. Its powerful spars appealed to fans of sailing traditions, but, like the wide frigate stern, it still begged for rework, representing 40 tons of useless weight, having no combat value that could justify its presence. Although officially the ship was considered "with a stem reinforced for ramming", the bow decor excluded the possibility of using a ram with any effect and even represented some kind of security measure for the Warrior's co-shippers in the squadron. Once, the decorative bow of the Warrior definitely saved the Royal Oak from being killed by a ramming blow, when it crashed into the lee side of the Oak and demolished all the lifeboats along with the main and mizzen vant putens on the starboard side.

Bulwark

The high bulwark was such an ingrained tradition of wooden ships that the Warrior and subsequent battery frigates with an armored side (converted from wood) were equipped with it, so that two meters of walls rose above their upper decks, despite the weight, cost and absolute uselessness.

According to the original design, neither of both ships had a poop, but about 12 years after completion, a light open aft deck was installed on the Warrior, and a full poop on the Black Prince. This partly corrected their innate nose trim, which occurred due to the erroneous distribution of weights. Since the French battleship Couronne, although laid down in February 1859, was not launched until March 1861, the Warrior became the first seaworthy iron-hulled battleship to go ashore. However, there were delays due to additions to the original design: a reduction in the size of the gun ports, a groove of tongues and ridges in the edges of the armor plates. The last, very time-consuming and costly operation was caused by the results of tests of plates in Schöburiness, which sagged when hit by a heavy shot. Armor fastening like this was never repeated due to the difficulty of replacing damaged plates. As a result of all this, the ship entered service a year later than the contract period.

Steering gear

The weak point of the project was the lack of protection for the head of the rudder and the steering gear, which were equipped in accordance with the practice of the sailing fleet, when it was possible to provide for spare tillers and steering cables, and only a direct hit on the head of the rudder represented a serious danger.

Subdivision into compartments

To reduce the risk of flooding of unarmored extremities when shells hit them, a system of internal subdivision of the hull into watertight compartments was used, of which there were 92 in total. This main feature of the project could not be used on ships with a wooden hull, although they were separated by light bulkheads. For the first time, vehicles, boilers, coal, ammunition, etc. were also partitioned off by bulkheads, which became almost a standard feature for subsequent battery battleships.

Double bottom

It was located in the middle part of the hull for 57 frames under the engine and boiler rooms, but in the rest of the hull the skin was single, and if it was damaged, the water flooded the compartments located here.

Case weight

One of the components of success in the design of a ship is the presence of excess weight, which characterizes the carrying capacity of the ship compared to the actual weight of the hull of the required strength. But due to the complete novelty of the issue and lack of experience, the Warrior's hull weighed 4969 tons, and its carrying capacity was only 4281 tons. A few years later, the weight of a similar hull would no longer exceed 3300 tons.

gun ports

For the armament of 20 guns from each side requested by the original design assignment, on standard wheeled carriages, it was necessary to have the same large gun ports as on the Gluar. But after they were already cut, they adopted a more practical system of a gun machine on an onboard pin. A new type of machine made it possible to give the gun a horizontal aiming angle of the order of 25 ° -30 ° with a port width of only 0.6 m. Therefore, the already cut ports were closed with 178-mm plates to the required width and reinforced from the outside, so that this did not interfere with aiming . As a result, the sides of the Warrior had only narrow loopholes compared to the Gluar.

Armament

According to the original design, there were only 19 ports on the main deck on each side, in which there were 38 68-pound smoothbore guns, while two more were to be on the upper deck in the bow and stern. But since the first breech-loading 110-pound Armstong guns were ready during the completion of the Warrior, two such guns were installed on the upper deck instead of the previous 68-pound guns, and four more 70-pound breech-loading guns were added as salutes. In the battery, the number of guns at the extremities was reduced to save weight and guns located outside the armored casemate were abandoned. After the ship entered service, four 110-pound and 13 68-pound guns from each side stood on its main deck in the middle part. Of course, if a sufficient number of 110-pounder guns were available, the armament would consist entirely of them. However, the experimental shooting of the turret of the Captain Kolz project, installed on board the Trusty, from 68- and 110-pound guns, carried out in September 1861, demonstrated that the new breech-loading gun was inferior to the 68-pound one in terms of armor penetration. This turned out to be a rather unexpected conclusion, which stunned and confused the Naval Artillery Committee: as a result, the number of 110-pounder guns on the Warrior was never increased.

110-pounder (7”) Armstrong gun

At the end of the 50s. XIX century, after a long series of tests and experiments with many samples of rifled and smoothbore guns, it was decided to re-equip the Royal Navy with breech-loading guns of the Armstrong system. The largest of these weapons. The 110-pounder 7" gun (photo above) was introduced into service in 1861 and replaced the 68-pounder smoothbore gun. there was no clear way for the loader to make sure that the lock was completely closed) and did not penetrate armor well compared to modern muzzle-loading guns of an improved design.Starting from the second half of the 60s, it was withdrawn from service along with a 40-pound breech-loading gun of about this the same length, but lighter proportions, although the same medium and small-caliber Armstrong guns (6-. 9-. 12- and 20-pounders), which proved to be relatively safe in service, remained in service with the ships of the fleet for several more years and were eventually replaced by the next generation of rapid-fire guns.

Armstrong's 110-pound breech-loading gun on a wooden horizontally sliding machine

One of the earliest known photographs of Armstrong's 110-pound breech-loading gun on a wooden horizontal slide. This installation was only a modification of the previous machine on rollers, which was also replaced by wooden beams that move off when fired on a metal-bound wooden platform - a sled. The rollback was perceived partly by an ordinary chain hoist, and partly by a pair of compressors (the left of them - like a conventional clamp - is visible in the rear lower part of the hundred ""a). A horizontally sliding machine was introduced to facilitate the horizontal aiming of heavy guns, its front edge was mounted on a pin at the gun port in the side1, and the rear moved along the metal shoulder strap on the deck. Metal shoulder straps were also used to change the position of the gun on the deck, or to other ports, or to move the gun to the “stowed” position (several additional pins were provided on the deck). Bushings for pins and longitudinal rollers for shoulder straps were provided from both edges of the entire installation - both front and rear, and the movement of the gun was carried out by means of hoists and handguns.

In 1867, when they abandoned breech-loading guns and returned to muzzle-loading ones, the Warrior was completely re-armed - he received four 8 "and 28 7" muzzle-loading guns, four 20-pound breech-loading guns were left for salutes. This was the largest number of rifled guns above 6" caliber ever installed on British ships. Of these, eight 7" guns were on the upper deck - two in the bow, two just aft of the midships, a couple more on the quarterdeck and a couple at the very stern. Four 9-ton 8" guns replaced the 110-pound guns at the ports on the main deck, and 20 6.5-ton 7" guns were also located on the main deck. All the guns on the main deck were behind the armor and rose 2.6 m above the water. The later rearmed Black Prince carried four 8" and only 22 7" guns.

The Thorn Carpet contains a drawing of the Warrior with a high turret in the stern, which was not mentioned anywhere in the text of the description, but which was mentioned by its commander, Arthur A. Cochran, in his testimony before the Committee on the Turret Seaworthy Ship Colza (1865) :

“I would like to show you a drawing of a turret, which, when installed on the deck of some of our ships, would give them an advantage in battle. This is a drawing of a fixed tower 7.6 m high with a swivel gun mounted on a barbette. Such a turret height will allow the gun to fire indirectly when an enemy ship is close; the projectile will pass over the side armor and pierce the decks and bottom, whereby all ships armored according to the now accepted principle will become useless. But this design was not installed, since this adversely affected the stability of the ship as a whole.

Armor

Unlike the full-length armored Gluar, the Warrior carried 114 mm low-carbon wrought iron plates on a 460 mm teak lining that extended 4.9 m above and 1.8 m below the waterline, for only 65 m of the length of its hull. Together with 114-mm traverses at the ends, the side armor formed a citadel, in which ports for 26 guns were cut, while the ends of the hull remained armorless. In the bow and stern for 26 m there was only a thin plating without any lining, which was just as dangerous as the rejected plating of the Saimum-class frigates. Even taking into account that the vulnerabilities of the Symum were covered with bad metal, and the best quality iron was used to build the Warrior, the adoption of a hull design rejected 12 years ago was no good.

Warrior booking scheme

Machine installation

Peni's trunk steam engines were the best marine-type engines of the time, and those installed on the Warrior (indicative power over 5000 hp) remained for a long time the most powerful ever designed for a warship. There were no piston rods in the trunk machines (the crank was connected directly through the connecting rod to the piston), which was caused by the small space of the engine room in height and the desire to reduce the piston stroke, and their horizontal arrangement gave large areas of working surfaces, which reduced wear and tear. The screw drive was left-handed, so that as a result of the reciprocating movement of the pistons, the connected connecting rods acted on the upper parts of the trunks, saving the lower parts of the bearing surfaces from wear. Trunk machines were abandoned only with the advent of compound machines - they were not suitable for double expansion of steam.

Drawing midship frame "Warrior" and a section of his steam engine

The boilers produced steam at a pressure of only 1.4 kg/cm 2 , which today may seem ridiculous, but at that time such pressure was considered high. On a measured mile, the Warrior showed a speed of 14.3 knots - this figure could not be surpassed by battleships for several more years, and the Black Prince was almost half a knot slower, its best speed was 13.6-13.9 knots. The Griffith Warrior's two-blade propeller weighed Yuti and was the largest of the lifting propellers. To lift it, it required the efforts of 600 people who pulled the halyards of the old-style cargo arrows installed in the stern. The screw on the Black Prince was heavy.

For the first 12 years of service, there were no auxiliary machines on board, with the exception of a steam pump, but during the overhaul, both ships received a capstan drive on the main deck. Until that time, anchoring was the hardest thing to do. The Black Prince was the first ship in the fleet to have a steam-driven spire, although the rudder drive was installed on it only in 1880. The steering drive was unsatisfactory, the rudder angle did not exceed 18 ° -25 °, and even to get it, it was required between install a lot of chain hoists with a tiller and steering wheel, because of which friction increased very much and the time for shifting the rudder was delayed. Once "Black Prince" described the circulation, having a rudder deviation from the diametrical plane of 30 °. The transfer of the rudder to this position took 1.5 minutes, and the full circulation took 8.5 minutes, while 40 people were employed at the helm and lighter handguns.

The steering wheel itself, consisting of four wheels with handles, was located behind the mizzen mast and was controlled from a light hinged bridge thrown over the bulwarks of the quarterdeck. In 1861, an elliptical blockhouse made of 102-mm armor was installed under this bridge, which was intended for finding the ship's commander in battle. However, control from there was impossible, since there were no means of transmitting orders here, so this "cutting" in the end became just an unnecessary appendage.

Coal The fuel reserve was 800-850 tons - more than on any other ship in the next ten years. This should have been quite enough for a 1420-mile passage at a speed of 12.5 knots or for a 2100-mile passage at 11 knots. Since the machines and boilers weighed 920 tons, the total weight of the machine installation was 1720 tons, which was about 19% of the normal displacement. (As a comparison, it can be mentioned that the weight of the engine installation and fuel supply on the Tiger battlecruiser built in 1913 was 24.9%).

Sailing armament

For the first ironclads, full rigging was an essential element for the simple reason that they could not take on board enough coal to “feed” uneconomical boilers and machines during long passages that could fall to the lot of each ship during its service away from the mother country. .

It was clear that ironclads could not be considered sailing ships to the same extent as wooden battleships, although steam frigates sailed under sail no worse than purely sailing ones. When placing sails and machines on armored ships, two completely opposite conditions had to be combined: high initial stability in order to safely carry enough sails for a good move and rigidity under pairs to obtain a reliable gun platform. The list due to the effect of the wind on the sails was not at all the same as the roll from the effect of the waves on the hull during the roll. Moreover, the more sails were raised, the less roll was. In order for a sailing ship to withstand a storm, it must have high stability - the ship had to be “rigid”, with a low center of gravity; however, at the same time, without sails affecting stability on a wave, a “rigid” ship could have a strong side roll, i.e. turn out to be a bad gun platform. Since ironclads were meant to fight under steam, they had to be "stable" - have a center of gravity at a moderate height to reduce rolling when the sails were stowed, but at the same time be "stiff" enough to carry the right amount if necessary. sails.

It was decided to give the Warrior a sailing rig for an 80-gun ship (so to speak, the “golden mean”) that could be carried with the necessary safety, and at the same time it gave the ship a pretty decent move, since the displacement of the battleship was previously estimated at 8625 tons against 6000 tons for an 80-gun ship. In addition, the Warrior had a 46 m longer length and better contours to achieve high speed under steam, which, however, somewhat reduced its handling and maneuverability.

For such a long hull, three masts seemed not enough, and the chief builder of the fleet, Baldwin Walker, wanted to put 4 or 5 iron masts on it. But difficulties arose with the placement of machines and boilers, although Watte admitted that there would be no insurmountable obstacles to the installation of iron masts above the engine and boiler rooms in a constructive sense. However, "he saw the reason in another, because of which it would be undesirable", and in the end they adopted a three-mast rig.

After launching, it was expected that the Warrior would be equipped with a barque, but after completion, both received ship equipment with a total sail area of ​​4497 ​​m 2 (including fox). They became the only ironclads with wooden masts and tops. The bowsprit had a length of 14.9 m and a diameter of 1.02 m with the corresponding jib and bom jib. But due to an overload of the bow in March 1862, this was all removed and a single bowsprit 7.6 m long and 0.6 m in diameter was installed, the steps of which fell on the upper deck (both ships did not have an elevated forecastle). And only after adding the poop, when the trim on the nose was eliminated, did they return to the original bowsprit device.

Although both battleships carried fewer sails than the largest three-deck wooden battleships, with a total sail area of ​​​​only 23 times the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe submerged part of the midship frame, the Warrior was more rigid and could carry all its sails with greater wind strength. . His masts and yards were stronger and heavier in proportion to their length, which enabled them to withstand heavy loads.

figureheads

Both ships stood out for their majestic figureheads and were the last British heavy ships to have them (not counting the Rodney, 1884). There was even some sense in this - the first battleships successively reproduced the rich bow decoration of their wooden predecessors. In the future, the decoration of the stem was limited to a heraldic shield with curls. The figure of the Warrior is currently on display in Portsmouth and has been restored to its original form, as the shield and sword and hand broke off in a collision with the Royal Oak in 1868 (after this incident it was deposited in the Armory). The figure on the Black Prince was 4.6 m high and reproduced a warrior in black armor, dressed in a white and gold mantle.

Warrior and Black Prince nose figures

rigging

The record speed of the Warrior under all direct sails (including the fox) was 13 knots, and only the Royal Oak could block it, and the Royal Alfred and Monarch repeated it. "Black Prince" showed 11 knots in log with topsails and bramsails taken on two reefs with a backstay wind of force 7-8. In 1875, the wooden masts on it were replaced with iron masts taken from the Ocean.

During the course under steam and sail, the Warrior achieved very good results. On November 15, 1861, during tests in difficult conditions, he showed a log speed against the current of 16.3 knots, and the propeller-driven two-decker ship Revenge, which accompanied him, only 11 knots. Again, in November of the same year, she sailed from Portsmouth to Plymouth at full speed in 10 hours - a maximum speed of 17.5 knots upstream (at low tide), with all straight sails set, down to the bom-bramsails, with a calm sea ​​and wind in the backstay of the port side.

Both chimneys on it were telescopic and retracted when the ship was under sail. In October 1861, their height was increased by 2 m to provide better traction in the boilers, and as a result, in subsequent tests, the speed of the Warrior increased by 0.3 knots (14.4 knots with 5469 hp reached).

Due to the large length of the hull and poor agility, these ships made an unreliable turn through the gybe and tack - they either turned around, or they rushed forward with the wind. In rough seas they drew water when their squadron brethren remained dry—the price of forward overload combined with a V-shaped hull and a picturesque stem.

Cheek Keels To reduce rolling, both battleships were for the first time equipped with two bilge keels, which turned out to be even more effective than originally expected. With regard to seaworthiness among all the ships of the "Black Linear Fleet" 12 they could be put between the Achilles and the Minotaur, which were the most stable on the wave, and the Lord Warden and Lord Clyde, which were much worse. Due to the location of their guns high above the water, they had no difficulty in firing from 68-pound guns on the roll up to roll angles of 10 ° -15.

Ram

The strong iron stem was supposed to be used as a battering ram, but the heavy knjavdiged neutralized any attempt at an effective strike. The chance to land it at right angles proved to be problematic, as both ships were so clumsy when maneuvering that any opponent could avoid their direct hit.

Firms' losses

As a result of the construction, both ships turned out to be unprofitable for their builders, but due to the difficulties that arose during the construction of iron ships, the Thames Iron Works company received a subsidy of £50,000, which saved it from ruin, and the Napier company received £35,000

Equipment

In general, the equipment was the same as on other steam battleships: manual steering, manual anchor capstan, chain hoists for working with boats and cargo booms for pulling the propeller into its well. Few ironclads had jackscrews as a gimmick to increase speed under sail, but the small increase in speed that was achieved did little to compensate for the structural weakening of the hull as a result of the lifting well. For this reason, after only a few years, such screws were no longer used. Traditional methods of steering, raising anchors and boats prevented the gradual introduction of auxiliary steam engines in the line fleet, replacing the muscular strength of sailors. Some of the techniques and devices of the old sailing fleet, which were in vogue in the era of early armored shipbuilding, deserve more detailed consideration.

Steering

On these ships, as on all the first battleships, the rudder was controlled with the help of an excessive number of people, very slowly, and the maximum angles of its deviation from the diametrical plane were only 18 ° -25 °. As with most ship equipment, there was an unreasonable adherence to the ancient rule that a full deflection of the rudder from the center plane should require only three revolutions of the helm, which was enough for slow sailing ships with a narrow rudder. This unnecessary "reduction" increased the load on the steering wheel so much that it took a lot of people and time to rotate it when shifting the steering wheel.

The propeller on steam ships prevented the use of the old tiller, so it became necessary to replace the rocker at the head of the rudder, where the available space was so narrow due to the aft contours of the hull that this traverse was very short. Such a loss in strength could be compensated either by increasing the number of chain hoists on the steering ropes going from the steering wheel to the rocker, or by increasing the number of steering wheel revolutions required for the necessary steering deflection. In the first case, half of the gain in strength was spent on overcoming the increased friction forces, while the reliability of such a complex steering cable wiring system was low, and the requirements already mentioned did not allow changes to be made. Moreover, believing that everything on the ship should be free and elastic, like the sea itself, they used leather ropes instead of hemp, and the skin had the property of stretching strongly and indefinitely. Therefore, to select the steering cables, muscular strength was used, through which the steering wheel could be shifted to a small angle.

Anyone who sought to improve steering, tried to do the impossible - to help a person turn the steering wheel, it was necessary either to increase the diameter of the steering wheel or the number of revolutions. For many years, the efforts and ingenuity of naval officers and ship engineers were aimed at achieving greater power on a lever of a given length without increasing its arm and shifting its point of rotation, because they tried, through various rocker arms and block systems, to increase the power transmitted from a fixed wheel rotating a certain number of times. diameter, to the steering wheel deflected at a given angle.

And only in September 1861, Captain Cooper Key, who at that time was the Chief of the steam ships laid up in Plymouth, recommended that ships with engine power over 400 hp. it was allowed to have four turns of the helm per full rudder angle. The following year, he asked his superiors to compare leather and hemp ropes, because he believed that leather ropes were twice as stiff as hemp ropes (a clever way to turn the tradition around, since leather ropes were popular precisely because of their elasticity).

Anchor sampling

The practice, customary today, of placing the neck of the hawse on the forecastle appeared only in the 70s of the 19th century. on low-sided tower ships. On all early battleships, anchor chains were selected on the main deck and pulled out by means of a “messenger” cable - this was the only way that massive chain anchor ropes could be pulled to the main spire, carried far aft. This system has persisted since the days when the thick, soft ropes of wooden ships of the line were too large in diameter to be wound directly onto the capstan drum when the anchors were drawn. Anchor rope on them was attached to another looped rope of "infinite length" of smaller diameter, which rotated with a capstan and was called a "conductor". It was wrapped three times around the capstan drum, after which both of its free ends were pulled forward along the deck along each side to the bow hawse, where each of them covered the roller, and then they were woven together, forming a closed chain between the capstan and the hawse, which is in constant motion. - forward on one side and back on the other. As it was pulled into the hawse, the chain anchor rope was attached to the conductor by sections of a cable of smaller diameter, called “captures”, which were untied as it reached this section of the rope at the capstan, the rope was released from the conductor, which gave it the opportunity to go down into the underdeck rope box. Two especially strong and dexterous sailors, standing on both sides of the hawse and slightly behind him, tied the conductor's grips around the anchor rope, connecting them, and two gave a grip, which was then transferred to the bow to repeat the entire operation.

On the Warrior, the hemp guide cable was replaced by a chain with links without buttresses, which were mounted on the teeth of an asterisk installed at the bottom of the capstan drum. The rope box was located near the main mast, and the capstan had the usual two drums on one spindle - one of them was on the quarterdeck and the other below, although they usually worked only on the top. Five people walked on each of his 18 vymbovkas, another 20 people walked, leaning on the "accelerator" - a rope connecting the ends of the vymbovok. In total, the spire was served by more than 100 people, so that when the anchor was raised on the ship, a literally human whirlpool raged, minting a step to the music of the ship's orchestra. When the Black Fleet weighed anchor, there was as much music as at the Eldershot Parade. Immediately after lowering the signal “Raise the anchor!” on the flagship, the commanders of the ships gave the command “The spire has gone!”, And each orchestra began to play one of the tunes chosen by the commander, to the music of which the anchors were selected, taken to the cut and fit. But after arriving in the metropolis, having sailed abroad for 3-4 years, ship crews usually spent twice as much time shooting from anchor, and the orchestras had to adapt to this pace, which sometimes sounded quite curious. 13

Anchors "Warrior" had four Admiralty anchors with a wooden rod (two dead and two spare) weighing 4.3 tons each, one 1.3-ton stern stop anchor with an iron rod and two 0.87-ton verps, also with iron rods. The anchor anchors were fastened, as from time immemorial, between the kat-beam and the anchor pad; they were taken on a cut and on a fish with large manual cargo devices, the same as in the 18th century, except that the fish beams were motionless. Spare anchors were stored on the outer side in the bow of the waist, on folding fork-shaped supports so that they could be easily released. In order to put them back in place, they had to be taken to the cat and moved aft along the side with the help of cargo devices mounted on the fore and main yards. The stern anchor was lashed opposite the main mast, and the verps were lashed along the sides of the quarterdeck. 14

"Warrior"

Launched by Sir John Packington at the Mare shipyard at Blackoulle in the middle of winter, during which six tugs pulled her from the frozen launching skids for an hour. Entered service in Portsmouth in August 1861. In 1861 -1864. in the Canal fleet. Escorted Princess Alexandra's royal yacht from Denmark. Rearmed in 1864-1871. Channel Fleet 1867-1872 Collision with the Royal Oak in 1868. Together with the Black Prince, he towed a floating dock from Madeira to Bermuda in 1869. In 1872-1875. underwent repairs, during which a poop and a steam anchor capstan were installed. In 1875-1878. Coast Guard ship in Portland. He was a member of the Special Service Squadron in 1878 during the threat of war with Russia. In 1881 -1884. training ship Clyde. Disarmed, but left in the lists of the fleet as an armored cruiser. In 1904, the ship of the torpedo base in Portsmouth, then converted to serve at the Vernoy torpedo school, until the building on the shore was ready, after which it was excluded from the lists of the fleet and converted into a floating pier for the oil pipeline in Pembroke, where it also stands until now since 1953. The forerunner of the entire British armored fleet. 13

"Black Prince"

At the time of the descent was the largest ship built on the river Clyde. Capsized in dock at Greenock and damaged masts. Arrived at Spithead 10 November 1861 with temporary foremasts and mizzenmasts. Commissioned at Plymouth in May 1862. As part of the Channel Fleet in 1862-1866. In 1866-1867. flagship in Queenstown. Rearmed in 1867-1868. In 1868-1874. patrol ship on the river Clyde. In 1874-1875. repaired, equipped with a poop and a steam steering gear, wooden masts on iron ones. in the Channel Fleet, the flagship of His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh during a visit to Canada. In 1878-1896. in reserve at Devonport as an armored cruiser 1st class. Became a training ship in Queenstown in 1896, renamed Emerald in 1904. In 1910 he joined the Impregnable in Plymouth. Sold for scrap in 1923 after 61 years of service.

Until the middle of the 19th century, the development of military shipbuilding was very slow. The wooden sailing ships of the maritime powers differed from each other only in size.

The service life of that time did not play a particularly important role, the main criterion was strength. During the periods of naval battles of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, warships sometimes served up to thirty years, until they fell victim to a grinder beetle or mold. In naval battles, they had amazing survivability. The exact hit of two or three hundred cast-iron cores for multilayer oak boards, the thickness of which could reach one meter, sometimes turned out to be ineffective. In fact, every battleship of the sail era was a kind of battleship, although it was wooden. The iron hull of the ship was much lighter and stronger, but the cores still left damage in the hull that could cause disastrous results in battle.

emergence of armadillos

The most far-sighted shipbuilders foresaw the development of fragmentation cores and prepared their response move. Idea armored ship appeared immediately in several countries after the creation of specific tools.

To the challenge of new technology, 19th-century Britain responded with a transformation in industry. The British city of Portsmouth, where the main docks of the Royal Navy were located, became the largest industrial center in the world. At the enterprise Block Mills MCD The sound of a hammer replaced the sound of a steam engine. The most time-consuming work of cutting wood and assembling blocks for equipment has been radically changed. In the 30s of the 19th century, merchant ships with steam engines were already crossing the Atlantic. This propulsion system seemed promising in terms of speed and independence from the winds. The British Navy was studying the possible benefits of switching to new technologies. But the Admiralty concluded that steam would make the sailing fleet obsolete. When London received the news that a steam engine was being developed in France, the British had no choice but to rise to the challenge.

In the early 1930s, the British installed steam engines and paddle wheels on all battleships. However, the experiment was unsuccessful. The wheels were easily disabled by enemy fire. The paddle wheel became incompatible with a warship. However, the Admiralty acquired a new type of frigates and corvettes. By the 40s of the 19th century, the British fleet consisted of battleships and frigates that towed them. Paddle wheel replacement first appeared on a transatlantic liner Great Britain in 1940 of the 19th century. Shipbuilders quickly came to the conclusion that a propeller was much more efficient than a wheel. On battleships, he will not be as vulnerable to enemy fire. Only after the invention of the propeller and its installation under the bottom of a warship did steam traction become a real advantage. On the ship" Great Britain"another revolutionary introduction was applied - the iron case. However, the Royal Navy was skeptical about the construction of iron battleships. The Admiralty saw no point in this. But England sought to maintain the superiority of technology, so the most formidable ship was created.

battleship "HMS WARRIOR" advantages

In 1860, a warship was launched HMS WARRIOR". This is the most desperate project in the history of the British Navy. Battleship was 30 m longer than any ship of its time with incredibly powerful weapons, even more powerful than the classic battleship "Victory".

British armadillo« HMS WARRIOR”was built entirely of iron, which made it possible not only to significantly lighten its hull, but also for the first time to use in shipbuilding the division of the hull into waterproof compartments. The ship also had a double bottom. The armor belt consisted of plates weighing up to four tons. The ledges of one came after another, as evidenced by the careful and thoughtful work of the shipbuilders. This provided excellent overall armor strength. As additional protection, teak beams with an average beam thickness of up to 50 cm were used. Artillery also had a high advantage. Guns of all calibers were located on turntables, which gave a significant advantage to the firing sector when using guns. Also, ten breech-loading guns were installed on the battleship, which were loaded with explosive shells. It was a fundamentally new weapon that demonstrated incredible effectiveness during the Crimean campaign. The barrels of all guns were rifled, which increased the accuracy of firing. The rotating projectile rushed to a distance of 2.5 km. It was an unprecedented distance. The gun decks and massive steam engine were enclosed in a 10 cm thick iron fortress that no gun could penetrate.

battleship HMS WARRIOR

original photos of the battleship "HMS Warrior"

armadillo propeller hoist

battleship "HMS Warrior" - a floating museum

ship stem

armadillo gun deck

battleship under sail

picture with the battleship "HMS Warrior"

Battleship« HMS WARRIOR"Differentiated by rounded hull contours and a large length-to-width ratio, as a result of which it turned out to be faster than its foreign counterparts. But the admirals did not fully rely on steam engines, so the warship had full sailing armament. At armadillo« HMS WARRIOR There were also original features. On board the ship were telescopic smokestacks that could be folded when sails were used. This feature includes a rising propeller weighing about 10 tons, the lifting of which required the involvement of almost the entire crew of the ship.

The materials were selected of excellent quality and the first ocean armadillo, as the British considered it and still continue to consider it, was in the ranks of the Royal British Navy until the end of the Second World War!

Currently armadillo is still preserved in its original form in the city of Portsmouth and belongs to the unique ship-museums of the world. With the advent of the British armadillo« HMS WARRIOR» The time of wooden battleships is over.

Technical characteristics of the battleship "HMS WARRIOR":
Length - 128 m;
Width - 17.8 m;
Draft - 7.9 m;
Displacement - 9140 tons;
Power plant - steam engines with a capacity of 5300 hp;
Speed ​​- 13.5 knots;
Crew - 700 people;
Armament:
203 mm caliber guns - 4;
Guns caliber 179 mm - 28;