Minotaur and Agincourt

When ordered in September 1861, Isaac Watts, the Chief Constructor, intended the ships of the Minotaur class to carry the heaviest guns behind the thickest armour and at the highest speed. To meet this aim they were the biggest warships afloat at 10,700 tons when launched in 1863 and 1865. But such were the advances in weapon design their complete casing of 5½ inch wrought iron armour could be penetrated by every large gun afloat by 1872. And their broadside mounted 7 and 9-inch Rifled Muzzle Loaders (RML) were outperformed by the excellent French 11-inch breech loading rifles with a much higher rate of fire. Both ships were identical, with the exception of their engines which were different designs from different manufacturers.

Reputation and service lives

Minotaur was the flagship of the prestigious Channel Squadron for the entire 18 years of active life, flying the flag of ten admirals in that period. Over the same period, Agincourt was the second flagship of the same squadron and hosted no less than 15 admirals. Their only excursions from home waters were brief visits to the Mediterranean; Agincourt in 1877-1878 was with the fleet that braved the dangerous Dardanelles passage that forestalled war against Russia; and both ships were sent to the only British ironclad battle fleet action, the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882, but arrived too late to take part.

Most of their sea time was spent opposite each other leading columns of the Channel Squadron on its perambulations round the British Isles and associated port visits. There was usually a winter cruise to Lisbon, Gibraltar and perhaps the Azores; there were also diplomatic flag showing visits to Scandinavia and France. Their purpose was to impress and deter European rivals and to demonstrate to the great British public that Britannia ruled the waves. They were uniquely qualified for this latter function. Their upper decks, surrounded by seven foot bulwarks, were palatial, unobstructed ballroom affairs ideal for open days on their frequent port visits. Their ram bows were pugnacious but moderated by elaborate but tasteful scrollwork instead of a figurehead. Most impressive were the five masts - named fore, second, main, mizen and jigger. These were unique to these ships and their half-sibling Northumberland.

The Royal Navy ruled the waves because of Nelson and his sailing ships of the line - the epitomes of a proper battleship. Minotaur and Agincourt were worthy descendents of these fabled ships - recognisably line of battleships but longer, faster with more masts and the addition of steam engines and armour. Britannia's trident was safe with them and the tars that manned them.

Performance

Despite their impressive sailing rigs, these ships were the worst performing ironclads under sail alone. The drag of the propeller, which could be disconnected but not hoisted, contributed to their sluggish performance, but even with 32,377 square feet of sail plan they were underpowered1. Nor did they handle at all well under sail alone, refusing to answer the helm in anything other than a strong breeze well abaft the beam ('a soldier's wind'). As a result, if the squadron went anywhere under sail alone the ships acted independently. But mostly, they proceeded under steam and sail, although always fettered by strict Admiralty instructions to minimise coal consumption.

They were excellent sea boats and steady gun platforms with gun ports well above the waterline and which could be fought in all weathers. However, the 7-inch RML were too heavy to be worked safely on their rope handled carriages in anything above a moderate sea, making them severely under gunned in these conditions with the use of only their four 9-inch RML on metal Scott mounts. This problem was solved in 1875 when a uniform armament of 9-inch RML was fitted, which for Minotaur also involved the provision of the first electric searchlight in the fleet.

Until their mid-life refits, neither ship carried any engine other than their main propulsion - steering, anchor work and boat evolutions were all powered by the traditional sweat of the British seaman. With an unbalanced rudder and single screw this made them very unhandy indeed at full speed. At 14 knots, the Minotaur needed nine men on each of the two quadruple steering wheels, plus another 60 below on relieving tackles. Even so it took 7¾ minutes to make a full 360° turn, 1½ minutes of which was consumed putting the helm to a very moderate 23° angle. Once steam gear was fitted they performed much better despite their great length of 400 ft2.

Incidents

Both ships led humdrum lives of routine, but there were some highlights. For Agincourt, the time spent as flagship of Rear Admiral Commerell in the Mediterranean during the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878) was useful and sometimes risky service. Most daring was the passage through the narrow strait of the Dardanelles in a snowstorm and into the teeth of an easterly gale, all under the guns of the Turks whose exact instructions on whether to fire upon them were unknown.

Straight after first commissioning, the Agincourt (and half-sibling Northumberland) acted as ocean going tugs on the first stage of towing a large floating dock out to the naval base in Bermuda. Despite having another 500 tons of coal stowed on deck, there was only enough fuel to get to Madeira, where the tag team pair of Black Prince and Warrior took over the dock for the rest of the voyage. All the early ironclads had limited endurance3 under steam - in the case of Minotaur a radius of about 1,000 nautical miles with all ten boilers lit. In the days before a worldwide network of Admiralty coaling stations were established, the ironclad fleets were effectively limited to European waters.

Minotaur lost a bowsprit and fore topgallant mast in a collision with squadron mate Bellerophon in 1868, though the other ship was nearly sunk. However, the most serious marine incident was for Agincourt in 1871. The squadron was steaming out of Gibraltar after a visit, with Agincourt as second flag rather unusually leading the inshore column. Minotaur as first flagship was leading the offshore column but its navigation officer failed to properly take into account the 4 knot tidal inflow to the Mediterranean through the strait. The flagship led the squadron too close to Pearl Rock and the Agincourt ran very gently, but firmly, aground in the shallows. It took three days and nights for the whole squadron to assist in lightening the ship by removing coal, stores and guns. Eventually, fine seamanship by Lord Gillford commanding the Hercules managed to tug the Agincourt afloat, where the damage was revealed as not too serious. The weather had been calm until then, but had the ship not been refloated it would have been lost in the gale that blew up that night. The subsequent court martial held the officers of each ship to blame, and both the squadron admirals were superseded as a result.

Afterlife

All the pomp and circumstance of their service as flagships came to end in 1887, after their last hurrah heading the lines for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee on 23 June. Minotaur was renamed Boscawen as a training ship in 1893, then became a boy seaman's training ship as HMS Ganges at Shotley near Harwich before being scrapped in 1922. Agincourt was an overflow accommodation ship at Portland before briefly joining Minotaur at Shotley in 1904. In 1908, the ship was hulked at Sheerness as coal hulk C.109. This final degradation lasted for 52 years before the former Agincourt was towed away on Trafalgar Day 1960 to be scrapped at Grays in Essex. Sic transit gloria mundi.

Links

Minotaur-class ironclad

HMS Minotaur (1863)

HMS Agincourt (1865)

References and further reading

Ballard, G A, The Black Battlefleet, Nautical Publishing / Society for Nautical Research, 1980, ch 2.

Egerton, M A P, Admiral of the Fleet Sr Geoffrey Phipps Hornby, Blackwood and Sons, 1896, chs 11 & 13.
Life in the Channel fleet aboard both ships, and the passage of the Dardanelles.

Fitzgerald, C C P, Memories of the Sea, Edward Arnold, 1913, ch 15.
By former Commander of Agincourt; the grounding on Pearl Rock and life on an ironclad in the 1870s

Parkes, O, British Battleships, Seely Service, 1957, ch 14.

Picture Credits

Specific attribution is in the Alt Text for each image. The three copyrighted by the National Maritime Museum can be found at https://images.rmg.co.uk/. All the others can be seen at Wikimedia Commons

In Admiral Ballard's words - "no ships ever carried so much dress to so little purpose" (The Black Battlefleet, p. 26)

They were the longest battleships until the Duncans of 1903.

Due to low steam pressure in the boilers (between 15 and 25 pounds per square inch) and inefficient single cylinder steam engines.