- Author
- Bastock, John
- Subjects
- None noted
- Tags
- None noted.
- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- December 1971 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
BENBOW
Launched: 1885
Displacement: 10,600 tons
Length: 330 feet
Beam: 68½ feet
Armament: Two 16.25in. 110-ton breech- loaders. Ten 6in, Twelve 6 pounders. Several smaller guns and five torpedo-tubes.
Protection: (Compound armour). Sides up to 18-in. thick. Bulkheads 16in. Barbettes 14in.
Machinery: IHP 7,500. Twin screws. Speed 17 knots.
The Admiral Class, of which Benbow was a unit, represented the first real breakaway from the preceding experimental types which were now to give place to some degree of homogeneity in design. All six of the Admirals were built to similar dimensions. One of them was armed with 12-in. guns, four with 13.5’s while Benbow received the 16.25s.
She was the first ship to mount these 110 ton monsters, which fired a shell weighing 1,800 lbs. at the rate of one round in four or five minutes. The big guns were mounted in open barbettes which, in service, were covered with light canvas. This was easily washed away in heavy weather, when much water found its way below, sometimes resulting in the magazine passages becoming knee-deep in water!