HMS Royal Sovereign was designed as a 121-gun, first-rate modified , but was converted to screw propulsion whilst still under construction during the 1850s. As part of the conversion, she was lengthened and her armament increased to 131 guns. Completed in 1857, the ship was immediately placed in ordinary. Royal Sovereign was ordered to be cut down into a coastal-defence turret ironclad five years later and the work was completed in 1864. She was only sporadically in commission and spent most of her career as a gunnery training ship or as an experimental ship until she was paid off in 1869. The ship was sold for scrap in 1885.

Background and description Royal Sovereign was originally ordered on 19 February 1844 as a sister ship of the Surveyor of the Navy, Sir William Symonds's, 110-gun, first rate , but work was suspended on 9 December. After Symonds's resignation in 1847, her design was modified by the Assistant Surveyors John Edye and Isaac Watts into a 120-gun ship and she was reordered to the modified design on 29 June 1848. She was intended to measure at the gun deck and at the keel. The ship would have had a beam of , a depth of hold of and had a tonnage of 3,185 tons burthen. Her crew would have numbered 970 officers and ratings.Winfield 2014, pp. 17, 19 The ship had the usual three-masted full-ship rig.Lambert, pp. 122, 127

The ship was intended to be armed with 120 muzzle-loading, smoothbore guns that consisted of thirty , 68 cwt"Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 65 cwt referring to the weight of the gun., 68-pounder shell guns on her lower gun deck, thirty 32-pounder (56 cwt) guns on her middle gun deck and thirty 32-pounders (42 cwt) on her upper gun deck. Her forecastle and quarterdeck would have carried a total of six 42 cwt 32-pounders and fourteen short 32-pounder (25 cwt) guns between them. Four 18-pounder carronades would have been positioned on her poop deck.Winfield 2014, p. 19

Conversion to screw propulsion The conversion of Royal Sovereign to screw power was authorised by the Admiralty in response to the French first rate, the 130-gun , despite the alliance between France and Britain during the ongoing Crimean War. Both the First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir James Graham, and the new Surveyor of the Navy, Captain Baldwin Wake Walker, believed that "France would resume her role as Britain's principal rival at sea".Lambert, p. 43 He reordered the ship as a 131-gun steam ship on 23 June 1854. She needed to be cut into two parts to add amidships to accommodate the engines and boilers and at the stern to improve the flow of water to the screw.Winfield 2010, p. 111

Royal Sovereigns length at the gun deck increased to and on the keel. She had a beam of and a depth of hold of . The ship had a light draught of and a tonnage of 3,765 . Her crew numbered 1,100 officers and ratings. The ship had an 800 nominal horsepower engine built by Maudslay, Sons and Field. The two-cylinder, horizontal, horizontal-return, connecting rod-steam engine drove a single propeller shaft.Winfield 2014, p. 20 To reduce drag and improve performance under sail, the ship could hoist her propeller into the hull and retract the telescoping funnel. During her sea trials on 12 August 1858 in Stokes Bay, the ship's boilers provided enough steam at for the engine to produce that was good for a speed of .Lambert, pp. 57, 59, 127–128Ballard, p. 246

The ship was armed with 131 guns that consisted of twenty-six 32-pounder (56 cwt) guns and ten 8-inch (65 cwt), 68-pounder shell guns on her lower gun deck, thirty 56-cwt 32-pounder guns and six 8-inch shell guns on her middle gun deck and thirty-eight 32-pounders (42 cwt) on her upper gun deck. Between her forecastle and quarterdeck, she carried twenty 32-pounder gunnades and a single 95 cwt 68-pounder gun that was positioned on the forecastle as a pivot gun so that it could serve as a bow chaser.

Conversion into a turret ship

Captain Cowper Coles, the inventor of the revolving gun turret, believed that a mastless ship armed with turret-mounted guns was the best possible design for a coast-defence ship; he proposed that an existing ship of the line be converted into an ironclad fitted with his gun turrets. Royal Sovereign, which had yet to see any active service, was selected by the Admiralty which ordered the conversion in early 1862 after the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Duke of Somerset, agreed to the experiment.Parkes, p. 73

She was cut down to the lower gun deck, leaving her with between of freeboard. The decks and hull sides were strengthened to carry the planned armament, and to absorb the force when the guns were fired. The foundations of the turrets had to be secured by of timber. To improve her seaworthiness, the ship was fitted with thin iron bulwarks that would be lowered in combat. On the completion of her conversion in 1864, she was the first British turret-armed ship, and the only one with a wooden hull. Her length-to-beam ratio was slightly under 4:1, which was the smallest ever ratio used in British armoured ships.Parkes, pp. 73–74, 76

The ship measured at the perpendicular and at the keel. She had a beam of and a light draught of . Royal Sovereign had a tonnage of 3,963 tons burthen and displaced .Winfield 2014, p. 397 The ship retained her engine, although it only produced during her sea trials in Stokes Bay on 23 June 1864. This was enough to give her a speed of even though she only had a partial load of her supplies.Ballard, p. 247 Royal Sovereign was schooner rigged with three pole masts to steady the ship,Friedman, p. 93 the first British capital ship not to be fitted with a square rig. The ship had a quick roll, but was able to operate her armament perfectly well. "She proved to be a good if somewhat uncomfortable sea boat."Parkes, p. 76

Armament The original design included five circular, domed turrets, each containing either a 68-pounder or one smoothbore, muzzle-loading cannon that were estimated to weigh a total of . This was reduced to four turrets while under construction and their shape changed to vertical sides and were partially open topped to reduce weight, increase the space available inside and increase the chance of deflecting enemy shots. The thickness of their armour also increased and the total weight of the hand-worked turrets ballooned to .Friedman, p. 93Ballard, p. 216

The initial guns carried were muzzle loaders that fired a steel shot or a spherical one. In 1867 they were all replaced by rifled muzzle loaders. The shell of the 14-calibre, 9-inch gun weighed while the gun itself weighed . It had a muzzle velocity of and was credited with the ability to penetrate a nominal of wrought iron armour at the muzzle.Roberts, p. 6

Protection Royal Sovereigns hull was completely protected down to a depth of below the waterline by of wrought-iron armour, that reduced to at the ship's ends, backed by three feet of timber.Parkes, p. 75 The turret armour also 5.5 inches thick, although the front of the turret was further reinforced by 4.5 inches of armour. This armour was backed by of teak.Brown 1992, p. 79 The conning tower was located between the forward turret and the funnel and was also protected by 5.5-inch plates. The deck consisted of armour plates.

To evaluate how well Coles' turrets held up to gunfire, three shots were fired at against the aft turret of Royal Sovereign by one of the nine-inch guns carried by HMS Bellerophon on 15 January 1866. While the armour plates of the turret were displaced, and one shot pierced the back of the turret, the ability of the turret to rotate and the guns to fire was not impaired.

Construction and career

Royal Sovereign, the fifth ship of her name to serve in the RN,Colledge, Warlow & Bush, p. 373 was laid down on 17 December 1849 as a sailing ship at HM Dockyard, Portsmouth. Work began on converting her to screw power on 25 January 1855 and she was launched on 25 April 1857. The ship was completed and placed in ordinary three months later.Winfield, pp. 20, 397 Royal Sovereign was ordered to be converted into an ironclad turret ship on 4 April 1862. Construction was prolonged by many design changes and she was not completed until 20 August 1864. During her sea trials, her turrets and guns were extensively tested to evaluate the limits of their traversing arcs and the effects of muzzle blast on the deck and the hull compartments. No damage was done to either, even when the guns were fired at three degrees of depression.Brown 1997, p. 43

She was commissioned by Captain Sherard Osborn on 7 July for service with the Channel Fleet, where she undertook limited operational service. Royal Sovereign was paid off on 15 October and became a tender for HMS Excellent, the navy's gunnery school. Captain Frederick Herbert recommissioned the ship on 1 July 1865 and she was rejoined the Channel Fleet. The ship was present when the French Channel Squadron visited Portsmouth later that month. They issued an invitation to the British to celebrate Emperor Napoleon III's birthday in Cherbourg the following month. The Channel Fleet, including Royal Sovereign, arrived there on 14 August where the officers of both nations exchanged visits aboard each other's ships. The ironclad was inspected by the French Minister of Marine, Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat, and the prominent naval architect, Henri Dupuy de Lôme. She departed Cherbourg to return to Portsmouth before the British fleet continued onwards to Brest on 21 August. The ship was present when the French fleet returned to Portsmouth on 29 August for more festivities.Jones, pp. 31, 33–37 Royal Sovereign was paid off on 9 October and resumed her role as tender to Excellent. She was recommissioned by Coles in July 1867 to participate in the Naval Review held on 17 July and remained in commission until 3 September 1869. The ship was sold for scrap in May 1885.

Notes

Footnotes

Bibliography