H.M.S. Iron Duke (1870)

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H.M.S. Iron Duke (1870)
Builder: Pembroke Royal Dockyard[1]
Ordered: 1867 Estimates[2]
Laid down: 23 Aug, 1868[3]
Launched: 1 Mar, 1870[4]
Commissioned: 21 Jan, 1871[5]
Sold: 1906[6]
H.M.S. Iron Duke was one of four Audacious Class central battery ironclads completed for the Royal Navy.

Service

On 1 September 1875, while under the command of Captain Henry Dennis Hickley, Iron Duke collided with Richard Dawkins's central battery ironclad H.M.S. Vanguard in fog, sinking the Vanguard. Captain Dawkins was severely reprimanded and dismissed his ship following a Court Martial that criticised his role in the collision. Neither Hickley nor any of the crew of Iron Duke was subjected to a Court Martial despite their obvious complicity in the fog-bound misadventure.[7]

Commissioned at Portsmouth on 9 May, 1890 eventually to replace H.M.S. Devastation in the Coast Guard Service, Queensferry, North Britain.[8] First, however, she participated in the Annual Manoeuvres of 1890 under the command of Captain Frederick S. Vander-Meulen as part of the Hostile Fleet tasked with threatening British trade routes.[9]

In mid 1893, it was announced that the old battleship, now only capable of eleven knots, would be replaced at Queensferry by the armoured cruiser Galatea, which could still make fifteen knots.[10] She was paid off on 2 May under the care of a Staff Commander.[11]

Captains

See Also

Footnotes

  1. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. p. 15.
  2. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. p. 15.
  3. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. p. 15.
  4. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. p. 15.
  5. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. p. 15.
  6. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. p. 15.
  7. Hepper. British Warship Losses in the Ironclad Era: 1860-1919. p. 10.
  8. The Navy List. (April, 1891). p. 231.
  9. "Naval Intelligence." The Times (London, England), Saturday, Jul 19, 1890; pg. 12; Issue 33068.
  10. "Naval & Military Intelligence." The Times (London, England), 4 Apr. 1893, p. 5.
  11. "Naval & Military Intelligence." The Times (London, England), 3 May 1893, p. 10.
  12. Lambert Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/36/1939. f. 772.
  13. Lambert Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/36/1939. f. 772.
  14. The Navy List. (July, 1872). p. 157.
  15. The Navy List. (September, 1885). p. 219.
  16. The Navy List. (February, 1888). p. 215.
  17. The Navy List. (April, 1891). p. 231.
  18. The Navy List. (January, 1901). p. 270.


Audacious Class Central Battery Ironclad
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