HMS Shannon (1875)

The eighth HMS "Shannon" was the first British armoured cruiser. She was the last Royal Navy ironclad to be built which had a propeller that could be hoisted out of the water to reduce drag when she was under sail, and the first to have an armoured deck.

When she was built, she was considered to be a long-range cruising ironclad frigate, the term cruiser being invented and applied later. To allow her to operate for long periods far from British ports and coaling stations she was equipped with sails and a copper and wood sheathing on her hull.

She was designed as a counter to the perceived threat from second class ironclad anti-commerce raiders such as the Russian "General Admiral" and her sister "Gerzog Edinburgski". These ships were fast and lightly armed, and "Shannon" was to be better armed and armoured than them and with sufficient range and speed to catch them. In practice although she could outgun these ships, her design top speed of 13 knots (24 km/h), and actual speed of 12.25 knots (23 km/h) meant that she would have been too slow to get within range of many of them.

She also became obsolete very quickly since she lacked the armour of a battleship and the speed of later cruisers. In particular her low speed meant that of her 22 years in service, only three were actually spent in foreign waters - a year in the China station followed by two in the Pacific station. Her ammunition supply in the Pacific was also a problem as she was the only British ship there with 10 inch (254 mm) guns, although had her speed been sufficient she could have had her armament altered.

She was relegated to coastguard duty in 1883 and placed in the reserve fleet in 1893 before being sold for scrapping in 1899.

Building Programme

The following table gives the purchase cost of the members of the "Shannon". Standard British practice at that time was for these costs to exclude armament and stores. In the table:
*"Machinery" meant "propelling machinery".
*"Hull" included "hydraulic machinery, gun mountings, etc." [ The Naval Annual 1895 , p192-200]

References

* John Beeler, "Birth of the Battleship - British capital ship design 1870-1881", Chatham Publishing, 2001 ISBN 1-86176-167-8
* Brassey, T.A. (ed) The Naval Annual 1895
* Chesnau, Roger and Kolesnik, Eugene (Ed.) "Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905". Conway Maritime Press, 1979. ISBN 0-83170-302-4
*
* David Lyon, "The Ship - Steam, steel and torpedoes", National Maritime Museum, 1980, ISBN 0-11-290318-5
* Parkes, Oscar "British Battleships", first published Seeley Service & Co, 1957, published United States Naval Institute Press, 1990. ISBN 1-55750-075-4
* [http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/hms_shannon.htm Battleships-cruisers.co.uk]
* [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/aj.cashmore/britain/cruisers/shannon/shannon.html Warships on the Web]

Notes