HMS Minotaur (1863)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Minotaur.

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Career
Name:	HMS Minotaur
Builder:	Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company
Laid down:	12 September 1861
Launched:	12 December 1863
Commissioned:	19 December 1868
Fate:	Broken up 1922
General characteristics
Class and type:	Minotaur class ironclad
Displacement:	10,690 tons
Length:	400 ft 3 in (122.00 m) between perpendiculars 407 ft 0 in (124.05 m) overall
Beam:	59 ft 6 in (18.14 m)
Draught:	27 ft 9 in (8.46 m)
Propulsion:	One-shaft Penn horizontal trunk I.H.P.= 6,700 Five masts, sail area 32,377 sq ft (3,008 m2)
Speed:	14.32 knots under sail - 9.5 knots (17.6 km/h)
Complement:	705 nominal, 800 actual
Armament:	1868: Four 9-inch muzzle-loading rifles Twenty-four 7-inch muzzle-loading rifles Eight 24-pounder smoothbore 1875: Seventeen 9-inch muzzle-loading rifles Two 20-pounder smoothbore
Armour:	Belt and battery 5.5 inches amidships,4.5 inches fore and aft 10-inch teak backing Bulkheads 5.5 inches.

HMS Minotaur was the lead ship of the Minotaur class of broadside ironclad warships, being followed by her sister-ships HMS Agincourt and HMS Northumberland.

File:HMS Minotaur (1863) in the 1890s.jpg

Minotaur in the 1890s.

File:HMS Minotaur (1863) deck.jpg

Minotaur's deck in the late 1860s. A 7-inch (178 mm) muzzle-loading rifle on a wrought iron gun carriage is at lower left.

File:HMS Minotaur (1863) stern view.jpg

A stern view of Minotaur.

She was originally ordered as HMS Elephant, after the ship once commanded by Nelson seventy years before, but her name was changed to Minotaur during construction. She was launched at Thames Ironworks, London in 1863, after which she was some four years in completing because of changes in design, and experiments with her armament and with her sailing rig. She finally commissioned in Portsmouth in April 1867 as the flagship of the Channel Fleet, which position she retained until 1873. She paid off for re-armament in 1873, and in 1875 resumed her position as flagship, Channel Fleet. In 1887 she was demoted to the Reserve in Portsmouth.

In 1893 HMS Minotaur was re-named HMS Boscawen II and used as a training ship at Portland; from 1905 to 1922 she fulfilled the role of training ship at Harwich under the name of HMS Ganges.

She was sold in 1922, sixty-one years after she was laid down. She retained her masts and her black, white and buff livery to the end of her days.

References

• Oscar Parkes British Battleships ISBN 0-85052-604-3
• Conway All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905 ISBN 0-85177-133-5

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

[[Commons: Category:HMS Minotaur (1863)

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• A Royal Maritime Museum engraving of HMS Valiant c. 1870
• A National Maritime Museum engraving of HMS Minotaur c. 1863
• Lower deck plan of HMS Minotaur, c. 1890