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Minotaur, 1875–1887
Class overview
Name	Minotaur class
Operators	Royal Navy
Preceded by	HMS Achilles
Succeeded by	Prince Consort class
Completed	3
Scrapped	3
General characteristics
Class and type	Armoured frigate
Displacement	10,627 long tons (10,798 t)
Length	407 ft 0 in (124.05 m) (o/a)
Beam	59 ft 6 in (18.1 m)
Draught	27 ft 9 in (8.5 m)
Installed power	10 fire-tube boilers 6,949 ihp (5,182 kW)
Propulsion	1 shaft, 1 trunk steam engine
Sail plan	5-masted
Speed	14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Range	1,500 nmi (2,800 km; 1,700 mi) at 7.5 knots (13.9 km/h; 8.6 mph)
Complement	800 actual
Armament	4 × 9-inch (229 mm) rifled muzzle-loading (RML) guns 24 × 7-inch (178 mm) RMLs
Armour	Belt: 4.5–5.5 in (114–140 mm) Bulkheads: 5.5 in (140 mm)

The Minotaur-class ironclads consisted of three armoured frigates built for the Royal Navy during the 1860s. They were enlarged versions of HMS Achilles with heavier armament, thicker armour, and more powerful engines. The ships of this class were unique among ironclad warships in possessing on completion five masts, named fore-, second-, main-, fourth- and mizzen-.

History

They were originally intended to mount forty Armstrong 110-pounder breech-loading guns on the main deck, with ten more on pivot mountings on the upper deck. The failure of these guns in service led to a complete re-evaluation of their armament, with a concomitant delay in the arming of the whole class. The ships were armed with a combination of 9-inch muzzle-loading rifles (MLR) on metal carriages and 7-inch MLRs on rope-worked carriages. In a moderate swell these 7-inch guns were virtually unworkable, making the Minotaurs both the heaviest and the worst armed of the Victorian battleships.

The Minotaurs were poor sailors, never exceeding a speed under sail of about 9.5 knots (17.6 km/h; 10.9 mph) with all sail set and a favourable wind. They were, in spite of the number of masts they exhibited, the most sluggish of all British ironclads under sail. They were regarded as good sea-boats, and were considered to be among the steadiest ships in the battle-fleet. They were slow in manoeuvre under hand-steering, but were regarded as good after steam steering was fitted.

Notes

References

• Ballard, G. A., Admiral (1980). The Black Battlefleet. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-924-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Brown, David K. (2003). Warrior to Dreadnought: Warship Development 1860–1905 (reprint of the 1997 ed.). London: Caxton Editions. ISBN 1-84067-529-2.
• Friedman, Norman (2018). British Battleships of the Victorian Era. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-68247-329-0.
• Parkes, Oscar (1990) . British Battleships. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-075-4.
• Roberts, John (1979). "Great Britain (including Empire Forces)". In Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M. (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. New York: Mayflower Books. pp. 1–113. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.* Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-88254-979-0.
• Text Book of Gunnery. London: Harrison and Sons for His Majesty's Stationery Office. 1887. Archived from the original on 4 December 2012. Retrieved 27 September 2010.

• Minotaur-class ironclads
• Ship classes of the Royal Navy