Everything about Cerberus Class Battleship totally explained
| Cerberus-class |
|
| General characteristics |
Displacement:
|
3,344 tons |
Length:
|
|
Beam:
|
|
Draught:
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|
Propulsion:
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two shaft Maudslay (Ravenhill, Magdala), 1,360 ihp (1,436 ihp, Magdala) |
Speed:
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Cerberus
Magdala |
Range:
|
|
Complement:
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155 |
Armament:
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4 × (2 × 2) MLR |
Armor:
|
8 in–6 in (203 mm–152 mm) belt with 11 in–9 in (279 mm–228 mm) wood backing
10 in–9 in (254 mm–228 mm) turret
9 in–8 in (228 mm–203 mm) breastworks
1 in–1½ in (25 mm–38 mm) deck |
Cerberus class battleships were a class of
warship in the
Royal Navy of the
United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. They were designed by
Sir Edward Reed in response to requests made by several
Dominions and
colonies for modern warships to be used for local
harbour defence.
The class ultimately consisted of only two ships,
HMS Cerberus and
HMS Magdala, although
HMS Abyssinia, while rather smaller, was built to the same concept and may be thought of as a half-sister.
The size of the ships was limited by cost, consequent upon the limited budgets of the countries placing the orders. They were designed and built to be used as local defence ships, and it wasn't expected that they'd ever need to be deployed far away from their bases. Their
displacements were on the order of half that of contemporary ships being commissioned into the Royal Navy. It was therefore possible to design them without
sails or
rigging and dependent only upon their engines, with a resulting limitation in their effective
range.
The absence of
masts and rigging resulted in two meaningful benefits. The weight saved by requiring less sailing equipment, crew, and supplies allowed more weight to be worked into the ship's
armour. This also meant it was possible to arm the ships with two
gun turrets, one fore and one aft, which had wholly unobstructed
fields of fire over the
bow and
stern and on wide arcs amidships.
The turrets were mounted on the upper
deck and hence had a greater height above water and a correspondingly greater command than guns mounted on the
broadside on the main deck. The turret armament provided an additional advantage of allowing the ships to have a low freeboard. This increased the steadiness of the ship and allowed the
hull armour to be applied more thickly over a more limited height of exposed hull.
Although they were built to order for distant parts of the
British Empire, and although none of them ever operated alongside any Royal Naval vessel in peace or in war, these ships were nonetheless always listed as part of the strength of the Royal Navy.
Further Information
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