HMS Black Prince (1861)
Template:Short description Template:Other ships Template:Good article Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English
Template:Infobox ship imageTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship characteristicsHMS Black Prince was the third ship of that name to serve with the Royal Navy. She was the world's second ocean-going, iron-hulled, armoured warship, following her sister ship, Template:HMS. For a brief period the two Template:Sclasss were the most powerful warships in the world, being virtually impregnable to the naval guns of the time. Rapid advances in naval technology left Black Prince and her sister obsolete within a short time, however, and she spent more time in reserve and training roles than in first-line service.
Black Prince spent her active career with the Channel Fleet and was hulked in 1896, becoming a harbour training ship in Queenstown, Ireland. She was renamed Emerald in 1903 and then Impregnable III in 1910 when she was assigned to the training establishment in Plymouth. The ship was sold for scrap in 1923.
Design and description
HMS Black Prince was Template:Convert long between perpendiculars and Template:Convert long overall. She had a beam of Template:Convert and a draught of Template:Convert.<ref name=b1>Ballard, p. 241</ref> The ship displaced Template:Convert. The hull was subdivided by watertight transverse bulkheads into 92 compartments and had a double bottom underneath the engine and boiler rooms.<ref name=p18>Parkes, p. 18</ref>
Propulsion
The Warrior-class ships had one 2-cylinder trunk steam engine made by John Penn and Sons driving a single Template:Convert propeller.<ref>Ballard, p. 246</ref> Ten rectangular boilers<ref>Gardiner, p. 7</ref> provided steam to the engine at a working pressure of Template:Convert. The engine produced a total of Template:Convert during Black PrinceTemplate:'s sea trials in September 1862 and the ship had a maximum speed of Template:Convert under steam alone.<ref>Ballard, pp. 246–247</ref> The ship carried Template:Convert of coal, enough to steam Template:Convert at Template:Convert.<ref name=p01>Parkes, pp. 20–21</ref>
The ironclads were ship rigged and had a sail area of Template:Convert. Black Prince could only do Template:Convert under sail, Template:Convert slower than her sister Template:HMS.<ref name=p01/>
Armament
The armament of the Warrior-class ships was intended to be 40 smoothbore, muzzle-loading 68-pounder guns, 19 on each side on the main deck and one each fore and aft as chase guns on the upper deck. This was modified during construction to ten rifled 110-pounder breech-loading guns, twenty-six 68-pounders, and four rifled breech-loading 40-pounder guns.<ref>Lambert, p. 85</ref>
The Template:Convert solid shot of the 68-pounder gun weighed approximately Template:Convert while the gun itself weighed Template:Convert. The gun had a muzzle velocity of Template:Convert and had a range of Template:Convert at an elevation of 12°. The Template:Convert shell of the 110-pounder Armstrong breech-loader weighed Template:Convert. It had a muzzle velocity of Template:Convert and, at an elevation of 11.25°, a maximum range of Template:Convert. The shell of the 40-pounder breech-loading gun was Template:Convert in diameter and weighed Template:Convert. The gun had a maximum range of Template:Convert at a muzzle velocity of Template:Convert.<ref>Textbook of Gunnery</ref> In 1863–1864 the 40-pounder guns were replaced by a heavier version with the same ballistics. All of the guns could fire both solid shot and explosive shells.<ref>Lambert, pp. 85–87, 89</ref>
Black Prince was rearmed during her 1867–1868 refit with twenty-four 7-inch and four Template:Convert rifled muzzle-loading guns. The ship also received four 20-pounder breech-loading guns for use as saluting guns.<ref name=p19>Parkes, p. 19</ref> The shell of the 15-calibre 8-inch gun weighed Template:Convert while the gun itself weighed Template:Convert. It had a muzzle velocity of Template:Convert and was credited with the ability to penetrate a nominal Template:Convert of wrought iron armour at the muzzle. The 16-calibre 7-inch gun weighed Template:Convert and fired a Template:Convert shell. It was credited with the nominal ability to penetrate Template:Convert armour.<ref>Gardiner, p. 6</ref>
Armour
The sides of Black Prince were protected by an armour belt of wrought iron, Template:Convert thick, that covered the middle Template:Convert of the ship. The ends of the ship were left entirely unprotected, which meant that the steering gear was very vulnerable. The armour extended Template:Convert above the waterline and Template:Convert below it. 4.5-inch transverse bulkheads protected the guns on the main deck. The armour was backed by Template:Convert of teak.<ref name=p19/>
Construction and service
_Masts_Manned.jpg){kind=link}
Black Prince was ordered on 6 October 1859<ref name=b0>Ballard, p. 240</ref> from Robert Napier and Sons in Govan, Glasgow, for the price of £377,954. The ship was laid down on 12 October 1859 and launched 27 February 1861.<ref name=Parkes1624/> On 10 March, she ran aground in the River Clyde near Greenock whilst being towed from Govan to Greenock.<ref name=FJ130361>Template:Cite news</ref> Her completion was delayed by a drydock accident at Greenock while fitting out, which damaged her masts. She steamed to Spithead in November 1861 with only jury-rigged fore and mizzenmasts.<ref name=Parkes1624>Parkes, pp. 16, 24</ref> The ship was commissioned in June 1862, but was not completed until 12 September 1862.<ref name=b0/> Black Prince was assigned to the Channel Fleet until 1866, then spent a year as flagship on the Irish coast. Overhauled and rearmed in 1867–1868, she became guardship on the Clyde. The routine of that duty was interrupted in 1869 when she and Warrior towed a large floating drydock from Madeira to Bermuda.<ref>Ballard, pp. 56, 58</ref>
Black Prince was again refitted in 1874–1875, gaining a poop deck, and rejoined the Channel Fleet as flagship of Rear Admiral Sir John Dalrymple-Hay, second-in-command of the fleet. In 1878 Captain Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh took command and the ship crossed the Atlantic to participate in the installation of a new Governor General of Canada. Upon her return Black Prince was placed in reserve at Devonport, and, reclassified as an armoured cruiser, she was reactivated periodically to take part in annual fleet exercises. Black Prince was hulked in 1896 as a harbour training ship, stationed at Queenstown, and was renamed Emerald in 1903. In 1910 the ship was moved to Plymouth and renamed Impregnable III when she was assigned to the training school HMS Impregnable before she was sold for scrap on 21 February 1923.<ref>Ballard, pp. 58–59</ref>
Notes
References
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book