Named for Princess Alexandra, long-suffering wife of the Prince of Wales (who officiated at the launch in 1875), this was the last and largest central battery ship built for the Royal Navy, with an iron hull and originally 3-mast square rig with bowsprit (below). Late in her career this was modified to a 3-masted military rig as seen above (circa 1891). The tall rig of early years draws the eyes and imbues the ship with something of the grace of the clipper, but the cut-aways in the hull to allow straight-ahead or -astern lines of fire become more noticeable when these distractions are removed. A modification of the traditional sailing-ship broadside gun mounting, the central battery design had grown naturally out of the armored-frigate tradition, seen in a series of increasingly larger ironclads designed by DNC Sir Edward Reed through the late 1860s. The central battery disposition reflected "end-on" battle tactics current in Navy doctrine at the time of Alexandra's design in the 1872-73 period: providing punishing fire while ramming an enemy. Tactical doctrine shifted almost immediately to favor broadside engagement, while the ship was on the ways.
In fact, the Admiralty's Committee on Designs was meeting to map out the future direction of battleship development precisely during the 4 years Alexandra was a-building -- years that marked the culmination of the 20-year "Age of Uncertainty." At the same time Alexandra was building, on a parallel slipway at the Royal Chatham Dockyard, the unique barbette ship HMS Témeraire took shape, carrying four 10" guns and two 11-inchers on broadside, plus two more 11" en barbette: Britain's first (only partially successful) experiment in barbette mounting. In the event, the Committee found both these designs wanting. Instead it settled on the Italian Caio Duilio model: two turrets mounted en échelon. Their first foray was the Inflexible and Chief Constructor Nathaniel Barnaby scrambled to oblige, finally abandoning the time-honored broadside deployment of the guns; instead following the Cerberus - Devastation line that would lead to the modern turret battleship.
Plan and Specifications
Alexandra measured 325 feet long by 64 feet in beam by 26 feet 3 inches draft, and displaced 9,492 tons. She was capable of slightly over 15 knots under steam and sail, or 14½ knots under steam alone, making her the fastest battleship afloat in her time. She was the first battleship built with vertical engines: inverted vertical Humphreys compound engines developing 8,500 SHP, shafted to twin, outward-rotating Mangin screws. Twelve cylindrical high-pressure boilers provided 60 psi to drive the engines at speed (30 psi had been standard steam pressure prior to that time). Alexandra also had a second set of 600-HP engines used only when the ship was under sail. She carried a mixed armament of two 11" muzzle-loading rifles (MLR), ten 10" MLR, six 20-pounders, three 9-pounders and four torpedo carriages. Protection consisted of 6/10/12" wrought-iron armor on the belt; 12" on the main deck battery and 8" on the upper deck battery; 8"/5" bulkheads; and 1"-1½" deck.
Above, the main characteristics of the central battery ship become clear in looking at a top-view deck plan. The main guns are mounted in the central redoubt (sometimes called a citadel). Alexandra's citadel contained two box batteries on different levels. While in profile the central battery ship looked rather like the armored frigates of the 1860s, the hull shape was radically different because of the cutaways to allow direct forward or astern fire from the forward or aft-facing sides of the redoubt. The decks were considerably narrowed to make this possible, and the hull bulged out to its full dimension only 8-10 feet above the waterline forward of the redoubt. In Alexandra this was not true aft, but most central battery vessels had a deep scoop out of the hull abaft the redoubt as well. The guns aimed out through enlarged embrasures in the armored sides, and were mounted on pivoting carriages giving broad arcs of fire as shown. For an enlarged plan including hull profile, click here.
Ship's History
At left is an illustration of an 11-inch gun crew on the Alexandra bombarding Alexandria, Egypt in 1882. Alexandra was the flagship of the Mediterranean fleet from 1878 until 1889, but surrendered that rôle on this occasion to the lighter-draft ironclad HMS Invincible of 1869. In this episode, Britain took advantage of a local rebellion against the Turkish-sponsored ruler, the Khedive Tawfik, to sieze the country in Tawfik's name and elbow the Turks out. Britain thus secured control over the Suez Canal, which had opened under French ownership in 1869. The whole of Egypt fell to three British armies within weeks, and remained under British control through WWII although nominal independence was granted in 1939. However, Britain's imperial ambitions came at a price. Almost immediately after taking over in Cairo, the British found themselves unexpectedly embroiled in Egypt's colonial war 1,600 miles up the Nile in Sudan. In January 1885 Alexandra earned a footnote in history when a 40-man detachment of machine gunners from the ship, traveling with the British camel corps up the Nile to relieve Gen. Charles G. "Chinese" Gordon at Khartoum, fought Sudanese Mahdist rebels at Abu Klea, some 30 miles north of the besieged city. Deployed at the corners of the infantry square, the naval gunners were sabred down by Sudanese tribesmen, losing 2 officers, an NCO and 5 enlisted men, although the British were deemed the victors in this fierce 15-minute encounter. Among the wounded was Lord Charles Beresford, an Irish-born society dandy and MP who made a name for himself commanding HMS Condor at Alexandria and in the clash at Abu Klea. Having established his patriotism and courage, he made a further name advocating bloated spending on the Navy in Parliament. Much later, in the early 1900s, Beresford became the leader of a reactionary faction in the Navy and government opposed to the reforms of Sir John Fisher, the father of the Dreadnought. During the Alexandria operation, Fisher was the skipper of HMS Inflexible, then Britain's newest and most technologically advanced battleship. At this time Fisher invented the armored train by bolting sheet iron onto a local choo-choo to bullet-proof engine and cars. It was used to deploy troops around the city as the British military took over.
At right, members of the Alexandra's 674-man crew pose after quelling the 'raging heathens' of Alexandria: shore parties from all the warships patrolled and fought ashore for more than a month after the celebrated Bombardment. For an enlarged view of the Alexandra's men-at-arms, click here. One more hold-over from the Old Navy, just visible in the top photo, is the gilt bronze figurehead of the Royal coat of arms mounted on Alexandra's iron prow. With the abandonment of the bowsprit, and now the sailing rig, the Alexandra marked one more tentative step away from the traditional sailing ship look. Although her profile in this magnificent photo can hardly be called modern in the 1950s sense, it certainly screams "industrial age" in comparison to the look of the Warrior built only 15 years before. Alexandra was no iron-hulled copy of a sailing clipper, but a full-blooded, frankly ugly and businesslike spawn of modern mass production techniques. Like contemporary French warships, she represented the struggle of naval architects to come up with a sensible embodiment of rapidly evolving technologies. As it happened, the main line of development was to abandon the central battery model in favor of the Devastation model turret ship. Ironically, this greatest of all British central battery ships was designed by Nathaniel Barnaby, now known chiefly for his advocacy of the turret.
Below, Alexandra at Valletta, during her hitch as Flagship, Med Fleet; with her in the Grand Harbour are (L-R) Colossus, Howe, and (at right) Shah. Following her glamour years in the Mediterranean, the Alexandra underwent modernization in 1890-1891. Her 11" guns were replaced with 9.2" breech-loaders and her sail rig was removed as shown at top. She became the flagship of the reserve fleet at Portland, doing her last sea time as flagship of the B fleet in the 1900 maneuvers. Subsequently she became an engineers' training ship from 1903-1908, and was sold for scrap in that year.
Alexandra with the Mediterranean Fleet at Malta, circa 1886.
