HMS Inflexible - How thick is that armour again?

[sharlin648]

Background and design

 

In warship design the race between gun and armour was never ending.  When a new compound of armour was developed, a shell would be made or more powerful gun that could penetrate the new compound, and in the 1880's the race seems to have been lead by the gun. The Italians had put to sea some truly massive 17 inch guns on several classes of warships with each barrel weighing 104 tonnes, there was simply no armour that could contend with the massive shells these rifles would slowly belch out with their glacial rate of fire of a round every 15 minutes or so.  Both impressed and feeling a little threatened by the Italian monster guns the British wanted a heavy gun of their own, as well as a ship that could resist such massive gunfire and tenders for such a design were requested in 1874.

The result was a ship that would mount four huge 16 inch breech loading guns, each rifle weighing in at 80 tonnes with them mounted amidships in a pair of armoured turrets, the ship, designed by Nathaniel Barnaby would be powered by steam engines and sails which would serve as an auxillery in case of engine failure. Her armour would be the thickest afloat, a record never equaled or beaten.

 

The ship to be called Inflexible was a large one for the time too 11,880 tonnes, 344 feet long, 75 feet wide and 25 feet deep.

 

http://www.cityofart...hip/barnaby.jpg   http://www.cityofart.net/bship/hms_inflex_stern_aerial.jpg

Sir Nathaniel Barnaby, the Inflexible's designer.   The Inflexible at Malta with her original (and useless) rigging.

 

Guns and armour

 

The Inflexible was fitted with a quartet of 80 tonne guns, each one firing a 1,684 lb shell with a rate of fire of a round per 5 minutes (which makes the KV-2's derp gun look positively speedy!).  Because of the length of the guns the big muzzle loaded rifles could not be reloaded inside the turret and instead a rather ingenious system for reloading them was developed.  Once the guns had fired the turret would turn awa and the guns would point down at the hull, lining up with large hydraulic rams that extended down into the hull, the crews would load these rams with the propellant and the shell and the ram would then push the whole collection up into the waiting guns who would turn away, fire and repeat the whole process.  A terribly complicated system for sure but it worked!  The Inflexible was the first British ship fitted for electric power which helped run the system, she was also the first British warship where a sailor was electrocuted.

A small number of light 20 pounder guns were the only other guns the huge ship would carry two small torpedo carrying launches in her stern which could be launched in battle to harass and threaten a foe with their 14 inch torpedoes.

 

http://www.cityofart...loading_dia.gif

An illustration from the time of the Inflexible's loading system.

 

It was with her armour that the Inflexible entered the record books, instead of trying to armour the whole waterline as was common practice the Inflexible opted for what would later be called the All or nothing scheme, her protection was designed to shield her vitals, her guns, engines  and magazines from any possible gunfire whilst everywhere else was to be left un armoured.  The 'raft' as it was called was designed to be boyant enough that even with both her bow and stern flooded and shot up the inviolate armoured region protected by the citadel of armour would keep the warship afloat.  To this end the scale of protection was staggering.

 

Her belt was a sandwitch of materials laid out in the following way:  12 inches of iron, backed by 12 inches of teak, then another 12 inches of iron and 11 inches of teak giving her a belt a staggering 24 inches thick of solid metal but 41 inches thick when factoring in the wood as well!  This massive protection was topped off by bulkheads a maximum of 21 inches thick, a 3 inch thick deck and turrets that were shielded by 3.5 inches of steel and 4.5 inches of iron which was then backed by an inner layer of 7 inches of iron and 18 inches of teak.  To resist flooding the un armoured ends were broken up into watertight bulkheads as well as the waterline itself being covered by 400 tonnes worth of coal that could be stored above the boilers which was then backed by 18 inches of cork to absorb water.

 

http://www.cityofart..._armor_plan.gif

The armoured citadel here is shown in black.

 

Engineering

 

Powered by a 8400hp engine that drove two screws the Inflexible could plod along at a capable 14 knots and by all accounts was a steady seaboat for her 440 crew and handled extremely well being responsive to the helm at any speed.  Such was her level of technical sophistication that many crew often became lost and her first Captain a certain Jacky Fisher, had the different decks and sections of the ships floors painted in different colours so the crew would know where they were.  The two huge masts, giving 18,500 feet of sail proved completely useless in moving the Inflexible's armoured bulk and in 1885 the masts and sails were replaced with military masts with positions for light guns up in the foretops.

 

http://www.cityofart...p/stokehold.jpg

A boiler room of a warship of the time period. Not a nice place to be.

 

Service

 

Although never seriously tested the Inflexible did fire her guns in anger when she formed part of the squadron that bombarded the Egyptian port of Alexandria in 1882.  Moored in the harbour the Inflexible fired 88 shells from her huge guns at the fortifications manned by Egyptian rebels.  She was hit by several shells, including a 10 inch round which caused moderate damage to her unprotected hull outside of the citadel as well as damaging her upperworks with the concussion of her guns firing across the decks.  The development of larger quick firing, breech loaded guns and high explosive shells quickly rendered her obsolete though and she was sold for breaking up in 1902 for some £20.000.

 

The Inflexible towards the end of her days, moored in Portsmouth awaiting disposal, here you can see her military masts.

[NagatoroHayase]

I like the name of the ship. Looks like a nice ship to maybe see in the game.

[sharlin648]

Far too old i'm afraid, I belive that WoWS will go back to the Dreadnought which is 1906 and won't feature any armoured cruisers or pre-dreadnoughts the Inflexible is far too old and she's be utterly useless too.

[Ariecho]

sharlin648, on 09 December 2012 - 01:05 PM, said:

Far too old i'm afraid, I belive that WoWS will go back to the Dreadnought which is 1906 and won't feature any armoured cruisers or pre-dreadnoughts the Inflexible is far too old and she's be utterly useless too.

That's correct!

[Blink309]

sharlin648, on 09 December 2012 - 01:05 PM, said:

Far too old i'm afraid, I belive that WoWS will go back to the Dreadnought which is 1906 and won't feature any armoured cruisers or pre-dreadnoughts the Inflexible is far too old and she's be utterly useless too.

Yea unfortunately the Tier 1s and 2s would wipe the floor with poor old Inflexible.

[DementedMind]

Hopefully there'd be tier 1 premium ships for "old" ships like these!  :Smile_sad:

[Coldt]

This would be an AWESOME ship for a game like Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai, but not for anything with post dreadnaught designs.

[RRR3]

sharlin648, on 09 December 2012 - 01:05 PM, said:

Far too old i'm afraid, I belive that WoWS will go back to the Dreadnought which is 1906 and won't feature any armoured cruisers or pre-dreadnoughts the Inflexible is far too old and she's be utterly useless too.

yea pretty "inflexible" :)

[Sampsonite]

The early years of steel ships would be cool

[Capcon]

Interesting to note her first captain was Fisher.

 

Thanks for taking the time.