The Development of Ironclads - 1872 to 1879 in the Royal Navy - The Last Stand of the Sail
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- Опубликовано: 17 апр 2025
- Today we take a look continuing look at the development of the ironclad in the Royal Navy!
Sources:
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Naval History books, use code 'DRACH' for 25% off - www.usni.org/p...
Free naval photos and channel posters - www.drachinifel.co.uk
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'Legionnaire' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au
Pinned post for Q&A :)
Had rotor sails been invented 20 years earlier and/or received far more popularity when introduced. Do you think we would see them in use on Naval Auxiliary craft? (Submarine tenders, colliers, oil tankers, ect)
I know you've visited The Mariner's Museum and USS Monitor Replica in Virginia -- have you ever visited Vicksburg, MS and the USS Cairo ((City class river ironclad)? Sunk by Confederate mine in 1862 and raised in 1966.
How could a Japanese Type 94 torpedo change the course of battle of Jutland in the favor of the Germans?
Had British battlecruiser design sacrificed some speed for armour, roughly how much extra tonnage in protection could they have had while still being effective in the battlecruiser role, and was this feasible for RN ship builders at the time?
What is a "transverse bulkhead"? The Eve Online player in me immediately recognized the term, then immediately after realized I had no idea what it meant in reality. 😅 I'd imagine it's not a modification that increases ironclad hit points by 20%-25%, right? 😅
EDIT: Thanks to those who replied! Nifty; essentially a bulkhead that runs along the length of the ship, instead of the width. Now the Eve Online modification makes more sense!
*_Half a million people_* people listening to Drach talk about naval stuff! Nelson would be proud! Congratulations!
Well, I'd imagine the first feeling he'd have would be "What have you monsters done to the British Navy?".
But after he became aware of the existence of RUclips? Yeah, probably.
@@harveywallbanger3123Well I would think after Lord Nelson grasped the concept of "recorded mini plays" he would give his blessing on realization that his Royal Navy traditions and exploits were being told world-wide, as they well should be. He would then order a ration of rum or spirit to be distributed in cheer!
Indeed.
😂 Nelson shouldn't be put on as high a pedestal as you place him. He didn't give a shit about his men and his Strategy at Trafalgar was underdeveloped and relied on pell-mell tactics...it succeeded only because he was against an incompetent enemy Admiral, who's own officers wanted to duel him to the death due to his repeated inaction.
@@-VOR doesn't matter, it's his reputation that makes the joke. Also... you're about to be visited by a million angry ghosts :D
This is it!! Record this for posterity! This Wednesday Ironclad special is THE video in which Drach achieved the incredible 500K subscribers Milestone!!!
Congratulations Drach!!
🎉🎉🎉 🍾 🍾
Yay!
The word you wanted was "Posterity".
@@Morgan_Sandoval Though 500K is also an achievement for Drach's own prosperity
@@alexv3357 I mean considering the state of youtube? Not really, sadly.
@@Morgan_Sandoval True enough, but it's still a good platform for directing people to Patreon or BuyMeaCoffee or the like
1875 navies be like: "If we fire this 100in shot with this super stubby overgrown potato gun at the enemy, we will eventually pile up so much additional tonnage on him that he´ll just drown."
Yes, and the bangy noise on the side of the enemy plates would most certainly get the point across.
Congratulations on 500k subscribers. May you now get 1 million subscribers next
Zoom right by 750,000 💨
@Fnstine
Maybe zoom right by 1 million and straight to 1 billion subscribers 😉
@animal16365 No. MANDATORY celebration at half a billion.🤗 Then it's OK to skip 3/4 of a billion.
And Only then.
Most assuredly he will garner a million. In time later this century a trillion will be subscribed as after we make full contact with extraterrestrials the interest will hit a logaryrthmic scale of progressional tenfold increase with each year, then decimal year, then per 3.65 days and so on. The future is certain to be bright for dear Drach. Cheers to all.
@CharlesYuditsky
👉🤯👍
30:15 I do appreciate that the "flexible" propulsion options of steam-or-sail ended with HMS "Inflexible." Seems fitting.
Indeed. Wonder if that was an "inside" joke of that era's Admiralty.
I call this period the "Ugly Period" as none of these ships possessed any beauty or semblance of grace while moving. This is mostly due to the need to concentrate weight amidships as the iron hull structure would have hogged if the turrets were located fore and aft. The idea of a citadel amidships also addressed this problem and would be resolved only much later at the turn of the century. I would also note that when it came to being ugly France takes first place with their "hotel" superstructures and ugly tumblehome hulls. Kudos to Drach for hitting the 500k mark of subscribers, which just goes to show you that quality always wins.
Quality AND perseverence.
@@CharlesYuditsky Perseverance in the quest for quality!
There’s an intentionality to the French tumble home designs which I think is rather appealing. The RN designs tend to look like several thousand tons of boat where it’s quite hard to tell what you’re actually looking at.
Personally, I think they mostly look absolutely magnificent. But it's a matter of taste. I mean, I'd never call HMS Inflexible handsome, nor Orion (even though I'm a big fan of her) but HMS Alexandra in later Mediterranean Squadron white? Lovely. And HMS Superb was excellently proportioned; most handsome to behold, up there with HMS Hercules in terms of strong, clean lines.
@@AndrewGivens Yes some of these pre-Dreadnought ships were well proportioned, but they still lacked the grace of later ships.
Last time I was this early HMS Captain still seemed like a good idea!
Nice one!
But it never did look like a good idea...
@@AlexeyPiet some mad man at the admiralty must have for a brief period
It was a public petition (by Coles) as the admiralty didn't want to have anything to do, with Coles' idea, right?
So people, who have seen large Warships only at harbour or on newspaper thought: Ironclad for high seas with only a few feet of freeboard amidships? Seems neat, i want this! What a good idea this is!
@@AlexeyPiet ahh I forgot the details. Still Coles thought it was a good idea! I presume as it was foundering beneath him that opinion changed however.
FINALLY! I've been waiting for this series to continue for so long ❤
Back to aircraft Rex, I don’t want to have to come down here again and separate you. Don’t give me that flying boat crap either!
37:27 "Until in 1903 a torpedo test went a *little* better than expected, and sank her."
Aside from being a hilarious description of the sinking, am I the only one astonished that 1) a torpedo was actually being *tested* and 2) that it *worked?*
The RN tends to be a bit more thoroughgoing about these things than the USN.
I mean, if BuOrd tested a Mark XIV torpedo, and it worked as well as a happy fun times spicy rock carried by big metal bird, Admirals English and Christie would have died of shock...
...and the entire BuOrd torpedo department would have been in a drunken stupor for a whole week!
Nothing surprising in a torpedo working, unless USN bureau of ordnance designed it. Then it's expected.
He finally made part two!
Also only the Ironclad era would think of arming the same Ship with both 10" and 11" guns
Yes, freaky
this is part three
Congratulations on the milestone
So happy to see this series back! It's one of my favourite series on the channel.
1:17
If you can lie down on the deck and dip a hand into the sea … you may need more freeboard.
Maybe assign "belly rowers?"
@@CharlesYuditskyyeah it was actually a built in safety feature in case the engines broke
Any chance Drach of doing a history of the captain's Great Cabin? Mahogany splendors to MDF and plastic....
Drach, a discussion on ironclads and you don't mention _Thunder Child_ which engaged several Martian walkers and destroyed at least two and perhaps even three
Thunder Child's infamous last stand was in the 1890s, which Drach has covered in depth in another 2 videos
The joke is that if Thunder Child was real, she would have been built during the time period of this video.
@@jacobdill4499 Exactly... I thought he might have slipped in some mention
@@jacobdill4499 In fact, 'Tordenskjold' was built almost in parallel with the three central-citadel battleships discussed here, but she was Danish so hasn't, to the best of my knowledge, been discussed yet - despite the Danish ironclad fleet and construction history being at least as fascinating and full of wondrous marvels as the Dutch.
*(Tordenskjold, as you know, translates as 'Thunder Shield', and she was a low-freeboard 'torpedo ram' with an utterly enormous gun in a forward barbette... and two tall funnels rising from the amidships superstructure of a low-lying, 'almost water-logged' ship. Hmmm.)
Thanks, Drach,. I was afraid I would pass away before you resumed my favorite era of warship.
@drachinifel This was the original series that helped me find the channel, and I'm glad to see you going back!
Congratulations on half a million subscribers! Excellent channel, well deserved.
I've been waiting for this one ! Congratulations on 500k Drach.
Alexandras Artillerie attacked Alexandria.
This amused me as well recursive attacks
Congratulations on reaching 500k subs, Dönitz, Lockwood, Nimitz, and a sandwich shop would be impressed and jealous. It is well deserved. Now onward to a million!
And to the trillions when we make extraterrestrial contact! Ohh you bet they will be drawn to it!
Idea for a future research and video? Hi Drach, the HMS Ganges naval training school near Harwich is being quickly redeveloped. It has stood mostly unused since the last cadets left in 1976 when school leaving age went to 16 from 14. I went there with my Dad to see this. There is a museum but what I would like to know more about is the original HMS Ganges a wooden wall ship of the line which was built in Bombay out of teak shortly after the Napoleonic wars. It served as the original training vessel for the school and was finally broken up some time just before the second world war. I find it amazing that ships were built in India for the Royal Navy and this one certainly had a long career. I feel this would make for interesting content as even the museum has little information on this ship. Thank you and congratulations on meeting 500,000 subs.
That sketch at 9:41. The British are brilliant. They equipped their gun with a hind sight because hindsight is always 20-20!
Thank you I've been waiting so long for this
Wunderbar! I've been hanging out for another video on my favourite period of naval design. Many thanks, Drach.
Now on to the Marine Nationale!
Congratz on 500K, and thanks for all of the amazing videos through the years.
Congrats Drach on reaching 500k subscribers 🙂
Excellent video on a highly dynamic period in the RN's history. There is, however, a need to correct your reference to the ironclad Nelson 'replacing' a predecessor with the same name.
The ironclad Nelson in this video replaced the wooden screw corvette Wolverene as the Australia Station flagship in 1882 and was relieved by the armoured cruiser Orlando in 1888: clearly, the RN wasn't necessarily sending its First Eleven to Australia if it could be helped :-)
The previous Nelson you referred to was a 120-gun three decker built for the RN in 1814. However, having been razeed the first time and receiving a screw engine in 1860, she never entered RN service: instead, she was gifted to the colonial Victorian Naval Forces (as *their* flagship) in 1865 as a harbour defence and training ship, for service in Melbourne's Port Phillip Bay. She was razeed again the late 1870s before she was laid up in 1891 and sold in 1898. She was cut down again for use as a coal lighter on the Tamar River in northern Tasmania until she was slowly scrapped in the late 1920/early 1930s.
Although clearly pedantic, the point to make is that besides the RN Squadron, four of the six Australian colonies had their own mostly part-time naval forces (although NSW more often than not didn't actually have any ships :-)) Even so, the RN and the locals didn't have much to do with each other until the RAN was established in 1911: colonial prejudices aside, to be fair the RN didn't think much of its own reserves during this period either!
I can't help but imagine HMS Neptune reincarnated into the Kamchatka, with added paranoia.
Super glad this series is back - was just watching the last RN one yesterday, this was up when I woke up this AM!!
Out for breakfast, but going to listen to this tonight. Interesting topic.. to me these years are the forgotten years of ship design. Looking forward to it.
Interesting, the top video youtube is recommending I watch after this is one of Drach's from two years ago.....about the early development of ironclads in the Royal Navy.
It still amazes me how the Royal Navy just kept some of their outdated ships around or even in reserve even after most of them were basically or COMPLETELY outdated.
Like HMS Temeraire was launched in 1876 but wasn’t scrapped until 1921, image being told in 1916 “you’ll be sailing on Temeraire, the ironclad not the battleship” 😂
Yes it actually was a waste of manpower that could have been deployed in the field, as in France or the Mid-east. That and could have provided a great deal of steel scrap, thus reducing the number of miners needed for extraction operations. And then of course the surplus miners be deployed in France or the Mid-East. Maybe as more tunneling troops on the Western Front?
Finally! We've been waiting years for this!
I hope you are well satisfied with this episode. I certainly am.
@@CharlesYuditsky Can't get enough of the Drach videos where he talks about the progression of naval technology in the 19th century. I can't wait til the next one
Congratulations Drach on reaching 500k subs. Ive been here since you had 1,000 or less. Cheers you brilliant beautiful bastards. Hahahahaha
Wow a return to the ironclad series! Thank you
My dad was a gunner on a liberty ship ww2 and I love the way you describe the nuts and bolts of all things warship.
And he touches on the personages that made these ships live. I am thinking of producing a series of notable naval personell for the period 1914 to 1945. Or do the same for US Army soldiers in WWII who garnered high amounts of awards. Like a DSC, 3 Silver stars 2 purple hearts and so on. There are thousands of "Joes" like this who deserve to be lauded for being average guys who flipped out and did extraordinary acts.
Informative, informal and inspirational. I think I need to sculpt some 1/1500 ironclads now!
One must wonder at what point engineers were like "lets illuminate this otherwise pitch dark room by installing lamps that blind you when looking at them and kill you when bumping into them" and mounted open 800 Volt DC arc lamps. The amazing amounts of UV radiation aside, arc lamps need to be maintained frequently since they work by essentially burning graphite rods with an electric arc between them.
Thanks!
One interesting video idea would be to interview the science fiction author David Weber. I can see several ways that he used Naval Design history of the late 1800's and early 1900's to influence his storytelling.
What are his works? I would like to look into his literature
@@CharlesYuditsky the Honor Harrington series. First book At Basilsk Station
Congrats on 500k subscribers Drach.
A litany of issues seems a tad understated .... Superb work again sir 😊
Congratulations Drach!
5:07 it sure seems like there was an extended period wherein a navy could choose many small guns that fired quickly but could not possibly penetrate an enemy vessel’s main armor, or a few large guns that would visit utter destruction upon any enemy vessel, but that fired once every four minutes and would only hit an enemy vessel if they were tied up alongside the same pier.
That picture of Nelson as a training ship looks like something from Fallout.
Really enjoying your content
Drach your my favorite channel, we need to get you to do a Ultimate Admiral play with Mr. Tex that would be a dream come true!
Great video, love the Ironclad era. Well done on 500k subs, well deserved.
YAY! Ironclad-dreadnaught period is fascinating!
Congratulation on 500K subs, well deserved :)
Congrats on 500.000 subscribers!
Congrats on 500k Drach!
I have been so waiting for this one.
Thanks @drachinifel! Been waiting so long for this one 😁😁
As usual, good selection of photos and diagrams. Interesting comments on the tactical deployment of HMS Shannon.
For a very short time in the 1870s the Dutch ironclad turret ram ships HNLMS Koning der Nederlanden and her half-sister were the most powerful ships in Asian waters, signalling the Dutch commitment to retaining their East-Asian colony. It all went downhill from there.
Holy cow, I think you have a series for Drach! Serious, try and get his humble attention.
Good luck on your Norway field trip
I've missed this series, thanks drach!
Bloody hell, that took a while 😂 Great to see another addition to the series, I've just open my beer, so perfect timing 😁😁
Yes was waiting forever for this thank you Admiral Drach
Okay I listen to this to sleep but everytime I hear that the Alexandria needed a full sail rig because of the size of the empire only to spend her entire service life in the Mediterranean totally negating the need for a full sail rig I become fully awake for a minute!
Iron clads with a full sailing rig fascinate me
Great work, as usual. But, please look carefully at your diagram of Temeraire's disappearing gun mount. It's a simple parallelogram. The gun recoiled straight back, and the turntable then rotated to the loading position. It did not flip end-over-end. Your diagram seems to be from "The Big Gun" by Peter Hodges. His text makes the action clear -- it recoiled straight back.
Still no mention of Thunder Child?
I was so surprised that when Drach said the word "scrapped" at 12:12 and the video didn't end
Congratulations Drac on 500,000 subscribers!
HMS Neptune's final rampage against its own fleet is one part amusing and one part vaguely terrifying.
ITS HERE! ITS FINALLY HERE!
Whew, man, what will you do at 1 million? 10 million!?
@@CharlesYuditsky hes referring to this being the next part in a series of videos on ironclads. We have been waiting for this for a looong time!
Well worth the wait, Many thanks
Congratulations on the 500k👍👏
This took long enough that it could be the History of the Rust Clads, but worth the wait.
DRACH congratulations on 500K subs💯🖖
Great Video and thanks for the sources.
Half a million subscribers! Well done!!
Are there any preserved ships from this period? I would love to visit these old versions of the Warspite or Rodney. They are such a weird, transitional stage in warship development I would have been utterly fascinated to tour them.
Congrats on 500k subs!
501K eh Drach? Not bad. I think the salt beef, hard tack and beer video was what won it.
This series started when I was Freshman in college and now I'm a Senior, time flies.
Now get back to your summer internship
@@CharlesYuditsky Well since that ended as it was a spring internship, I think I'll just keep making RUclips videos.
@@ImportantNavalHistory ok then, hope a summer of beer, girls amd video games is in order
Thanks great job
Wonderful, I love this serie.
I missed this series soo much
21:32 Technically there were also some monitors with the ex-Furious guns, right?
Yay, I only watched the first part recently so this is nice.
@Drach can you explore the development of submarines?
That's a deep topic.
It'd be a lot of pressure making it too. Getting it wrong would be crushing and a titanic error.
*Neptune as shes being towed* "IF IM GOING DOWN IM TAKING EVERYNE WITH ME" *snapped cables and rams everything in sight* Im telling you that ship had a sour spirit.
Ooooo I made it to an upload early. Here's to another quality informative video
Next milestone: 1 Million Subscribers!!!
Thank you, Drach
Absolutely fascinating!! I had no idea the Regia Marina developed the 17.7" gun and before dawn of 20th century. Also the coastal battery style guns intrigue me. I wonder if anyone has reworked the design using modern metallurgical methods and materials i.e. aluminum and titanium. Great video Drach
They didn't really develop the 17.7" gun, they requested one from British Armstrong and got it from them
There was also a 20-inch smoothbore from the US in this era
TY for the correction. I must have gotten lost in the details and my imagination of manufacturing big bore barrels
oh another part to feed my evenings, thats gonna play a couple of dozen of time over the next 24months or so :D
10:10 I was wondering what that eliptical shape was all about. Very interesting
Just when I think that RUclips has become as vast a wasteland as broadcast TV -- Drach drops a new video.....
I cant see how that disappearing gun flips its self over to the loading position. Looing at the mechanism, im sure it loweres then rotates to a rearward faceing position.
I can just never understand why the Royal Navy on the Devastation stream of hull shapes in the 1870s went with what was clearly always going to be such a poor seakeeping hull? Was it because of concerns about armour coverage of a mast-free hull that stood higher above the waterline? The fact that they had to keep including additional hull panels to ensure that that generation of low slung ironclads wouldn’t founder the moment they entered the channel suggests they could be hardly unaware of the issues?
A 17.7 inch gun, the rate of fire must have been measured in shots per day... In single digits.
500K subs Yay Drach
Glad this is continuing.
The image with the men standing on the spreaders, (?) was this a typical method of "manning the rails" when a military ship entered a port?
Woohoo! 500k subs!