HMS Northumberland (1866)

HMS "Northumberland" was a long-hulled broadside ironclad warship of the Victorian era, and was the third and final ship of the Minotaur class to be commissioned.

Although she had been laid down at the Millwall ironworks as a sister to the other "Minotaurs", she was altered while on the building slip after Sir Edward Reed succeeded Isaac Watts as Chief Constructor. It had originally been planned to arm her with smoothbore muzzle-loading cannon; the plans were revised to permit her to carry breech loading rifles manufactured by Sir William Armstrong; and by the time of her commissioning the Navy had reverted to the use of muzzle-loading rifles. It was decided to equip her with 9-inch and 8-inch muzzle loaders, as against 9-inch and 7-inch in her sisters. To compensate for the extra weight of these guns, the battery was reduced in length and the armour protection thereof was shortened. This resulted in an armoured conning tower, and a shorter battery with an armoured bulkhead at each end.

She was initially designed with three masts, but she was completed with five in conformity with her sisters. HMS "Minotaur" and HMS "Agincourt". Her first captain, Roderick Dew, had all of her yards painted black so that she could be visually distinguished from the other five-masted ships, whose yards were white.

"Northumberland" was on the building slip for five years, and when the time came to launch her construction was far advanced, and her weight was greater than the launch-weights of contemporary ships. She was stuck for an hour while the tide ebbed, then slid part-way down and came to a halt with her stern out of the water. She was persuaded into the water at the next spring tide by a combination of pontoons, jacks and tugs.

While she was hung up her builders, Mare and Company, went into liquidation, causing further delay in her completion.Her first posting was to the Channel Fleet, where she remained until 1873. During this time she helped HMS "Agincourt" to tow the Bermuda drydock to Madeira (from whence HMS "Warrior" and HMS "Black Prince" towed it to its ultimate goal of Bermuda). Anchored at Funchal, Madeira, on Christmas Day 1872, a storm parted her anchor chain, allowing her to drift across the ram bow of the battleship HMS "Hercules" and suffer serious underwater damage (though her compartmented iron hull limited the flooding, leaving her able to steam to Malta to be repaired).

After these repairs she became Rear Flagship, Channel until 1875, and was then paid off for refit and re-armament, in which she became a three-master and was given a new set of guns. She returned to the Channel Squadron in 1879, and served there right through until 1885; she was refitted from 1885 to 1887, and then returned yet again to the Channel until 1890, even touring as flagship toward the end of that period. Northumberland, now quite outdated, was harborbound.

From the early 1890s onward she was obsolete and confined to harbour, at first in reserve at the Isle of Portland (until 1891) and Devonport (1891-8) and then as a stokers' training ship at the Nore (renamed "Acheron"). From 1909-1927 served as a coal hulk, renamed C8 {1909-26) and then C68 (1926-27). She was sold by the Navy in 1927, and served at Dakar as the hulk "Stedmound" from then until scrapping in 1935.

Two large 1870s half-scale models of her are at the Museum in Docklands.

References

* Oscar Parkes "British Battleships" ISBN 0-85052-604-3
* Conway "All the World's Fighting Ships" ISBN 0-85177-133-5

External links

* [http://history.navy.mil/photos/images/h71000/h71227.jpg] Photo of HMS Northumberland (1875) in original 5-mast configuration (US Navy Archives)