Victorian Innovation

HMS Inflexible and the vessel that inspired its design, Italy's Duilo of 1880/1. The guns about reached the limit for breech loaders on a warship in the Victorian era. They were just too damned difficult to operate.

The barrels had to be first depressed into a glacis below which an army of gun crew rammed the shell and charge up the barrel. The turret then was turned, aimed and fired, if lucky, inside 15 minutes.

The turrets themselves were mounted en enchelon amidships so, in theory they could both fire across the deck broadside. In practice, the muzzle blast caused more damage to the superstructure than any theoretical hit from the enemy.

The amidships section was an armoured box within which were the machinery spaces and the magazines. The ends were soft, ie unarmoured, but, it was reckoned, the armoured section would be sufficient to keep the ship afloat if the ends were punctured.

Another problem with the type of gun was the use of black powder. This caused a huge amount of smoke which had to clear before the gunlayers could relocate the target.

Lastly, the detonation factor of black powder meant these guns had to be very strong in the breech to cope with the sudden expansion of gases. This pushed the weight of these monster guns to over 120 tons for the 13.5 inch.

Don