Tag: royal navy
Minotaur and Agincourt
These broadside ironclads of the Royal Navy were the flagships of the Channel Squadron all their active lives, from 1867 to 1887. They were every inch what the mid-Victorian public expected of a battleship; the largest ships in commission, the longest single screw ships ever built and spreading an impressive suite of sails on no less than five masts. And yet they were obsolescent within five years, and obsolete within ten.
Collision off Tripoli
On the afternoon of 22 June 1893, the flagship of the Royal Navy's premier fleet was sunk in collision with a companion battleship, with the death of 358 men. The collision was caused by a minor, but fatal, error in the orders of the fleet commander, Vice Admiral Tryon. Although the error was immediately obvious to his captains, none of them took action to avoid the inevitable collision. Why?