Minotaur-Class

The armour of these ships was an improvement over that of the preceding HMS Achilles. It had a wrought iron armoured belt 140mm thick that tapered to 114mm at the ship’s ends, except for a small section of the bow between the upper and main decks. This armour extended 1.80 metres below the waterline, with a single 140mm transverse bulkhead protecting the forward chase guns on the upper deck. The armour was backed by 254mm of teak. This armour scheme made these ships the best protection of any of the early broadside ironclads, many of which were extremely vulnerable to end-on fire, especially around their steering gear. However, the armour in Northumberland differed from her sisters. To compensate for a heavier primary battery upon her completion, only her central battery was protected above the main deck. She was still fitted with an armoured belt 140mm thick, tapering to 114mm at the ends and this likewise extended 1.80 metres below the waterline. The sides of the central battery were 56.2 metres long, which was protected on all sides by 140mm thick armour plate, including transverse bulkheads fore and aft of the guns. The two forward chase guns were also protected by armoured bulkheads, although the aft chase guns were left exposed. The armour was backed by 254mm of teak as in her sister ships. Northumberland was also fitted with an armoured conning tower which was protected by 114mm of wrought iron armour plating.

The lead ship, Minotaur initially served as the flagship of the Channel Squadron until 1873 largely without incident until 1872, when she was involved in a near-collision with HMS Bellerophon as they were leaving Belfast Lough. Minotaur lost her bowsprit and fore topgallant mast, with Bellerophon suffering some minor flooding. She was then taken in for a refit, during which time her armament was altered. She rejoined the Channel Fleet in 1875 and she became the first ship in the Royal Navy to receive a permanent installation of an electric searchlight in 1876. It seems her tardiness in handling mirrored that of earlier broadside ironclads as on 24^th December 1886, she collided with HMS Monarch in the Tagus river in Spain, severely damaging the latter. On 28^th February 1887, she rescued the passengers and crew of the British steamship Valparaiso, which was wrecked on a reef off Vigo, Spain. The ship also served as the flagship of Vice Admiral Sir William Hewitt during Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee Fleet Review on 23^rd July 1887. Hewitt had earned the Victoria Cross during the siege of Sevastopol in the Crimean War in 1854. Minotaur was assigned to the Reserve from 1887 until 1893, when she became a training ship at Portland. She was sold for scrapping on 30^th January 1922.

Agincourt was assigned to the Channel Squadron after her return from a towing operation that followed her commissioning in 1868. She served as the flagship of the second-in-command of the fleet until she began a refit in 1873. It was during this period that she suffered a nearly catastrophic accident when she ran aground on Pearl Rock, near Gibraltar on 1^st July 1871 and nearly sunk. She was leading the column of ships (contrary to practice given her role as second-in-command) and she ran aground sideways when the senior flagship’s navigator failed to compensate for the set of the tide. Warrior, following behind, nearly collided with her, but managed to sheer off in time. Agincourt was stuck and had to be lightened; her guns were removed and much of her coal was tossed overboard before she was successfully towed away by Hercules, commanded by Lord Gilford, four days later. She was very lucky as heavy weather set in the night after and had she still been grounded; she would’ve been wrecked. Both the fleet commander and his deputy were relieved of their commands as a result. The ship cost £1,195 to repair at Devonport. Her new commanding officer, Captain J. O. Hopkins commented afterwards: “We turned the Agincourt from the noisiest and the worst disciplined ship in the squadron into the quietest and the smartest; and a few months after we commissioned, we went out to the Mediterranean for the Lord Clyde court martial and beat the whole Mediterranean fleet in their drills and exercises, which was a great triumph”.

Agincourt was one of the ships in Vice Admiral Sir Geoffrey Hornby’s Particular Service Squadron, which raced to Constantinople during the Russian war scare in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. She served as the flagship for Hornby’s second-in-command and the squadron sailed up the Dardanelles in a blinding snowstorm in February 1878. However, tensions faded and so the ship did not see any action, instead returning to the Channel Fleet, where she served as the flagship to no fewer than fifteen admirals during her time in service. She was paid off and held in reserve at Portsmouth from 1889 until 1893, when she was transferred to Portland for use as a training ship. She was converted into a coal hulk in 1909 and served as a “shrunken relic” of her former self for five decades, finally being scrapped on 21^st October 1960.

Northumberland almost never entered service with navy, being on the stocks for five years and with numerous changes to her design leading to an enormous struggle to launch her in 1866. Tugboats and hydraulic jacks failed but the use of pontoons on 17^th April 1866 finally saw her enter the water. However, her builders went bankrupt while she was being launched. This led to liquidators seizing the ship for eight months until the Admiralty finally took possession of her and began fitting her out for service. She first served with the Channel Fleet until 1873. Like her sisters, though, this wasn’t without incident and on 25^th December 1872, during a storm in Funchal, Madeira where she was anchored, her anchor chain was parted by the bad weather and the ship drifted onto the ram bow of the ironclad Hercules, causing serious damage, with one compartment being flooded, although she was able to return to Malta for repairs shortly afterwards. Northumberland became flagship of the second-in-command of the Channel Squadron until her sister ships returned from their refits. After her refit was completed in 1879, she returned to the Channel Squadron, before being paid off in 1885 for another refit, before serving once again as a flagship upon her return in 1887. She was placed in Reserve from 1890 until 1898 before being hulked as a stoker’s training ship. She later served as a coal hulk between 1909 and 1927 before being scrapped in 1935.

These were the last and most powerful of the Royal Navy’s iron-hulled broadside ironclads and would be followed by a new generation of “central battery” ships in the years to come. They saw no action although their careers weren’t without incident but were both long and successful until all three ships met rather ignominious ends as hulks in the 20^th century.