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Turret ship

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For the type of late 19th century commercial steam vessel with an unusual hull shape, seeturret deck ship.
Turret ofUSSMonitor,one of the first turret-armed warships

Turret shipswere a 19th-century type ofwarship,the earliest to have their guns mounted in a revolvinggun turret,instead of abroadsidearrangement.

Background[edit]

HMSPrince Albert,a pioneering turret ship, built by naval engineerCowper Phipps Coles.

Before the development of large-calibre, long-range guns in the mid-19th century, the classicship of the linedesign used rows of port-mounted guns on each side of the ship, often mounted incasemates.Firepower was provided by a large number of guns which could only be aimed in a limited arc from one side of the ship. Due to instability, fewer larger and heavier guns can be carried on a ship. Also, the casemates often sat near the waterline, which made them vulnerable to flooding and restricted their use to calm seas.

Turretswereweapon mountsdesigned to protect the crew and mechanism of theartillery pieceand with the capability of being aimed and fired in many directions as a rotating weapon platform. This platform can be mounted on afortifiedbuildingorstructuresuch as an anti-navalland battery,or on acombat vehicle,anaval ship,or amilitary aircraft.

Origins[edit]

Designs for a rotating gun turret date back to the late 18th century.[1]Practical rotating turret warships were independently developed inGreat Britainand theUnited Stateswith the availability of steam power in the mid-19th Century.

British developments[edit]

HMSCaptainwas one of the first ocean-going turret ships.

During theCrimean War,CaptainCowper Phipps Colesof the BritishRoyal Navyconstructed araftwith guns protected by a 'cupola' and used the raft, namedLady Nancy,toshellthe Russian town ofTaganrogin theBlack Sea.Lady Nancy"proved a great success",[2]and Coles patented his rotating turret after the war. Following Coles' patenting, theBritish Admiraltyordered aprototypeof Coles' design in 1859, which was installed in the floating battery vessel,HMSTrusty,for trials in 1861, becoming the first vessel to be fitted with a revolving gun turret. Coles' design aim was to create a ship with the greatest possible all round arc of fire, as low in the water as possible to minimise the target.[3]

The British Admiralty accepted the principle of the gun turret as a useful innovation, and incorporated it into other new designs. Coles submitted a design for a ship having ten domed turrets each housing two large guns. The design was rejected as impractical, although the Admiralty remained interested in turret ships and instructed its own designers to create better designs.

Coles enlisted the support ofPrince Albert,who wrote to theFirst Lord of the Admiralty,theDuke of Somerset,supporting the construction of a turret ship. In January 1862, the Admiralty agreed to construct a ship,HMSPrince Albert,which had four turrets and a low freeboard, intended only for coastal defence. Coles was allowed to design the turrets, but the ship was the responsibility of the chief ConstructorIsaac Watts.[3]

Another of Coles's designs,HMSRoyal Sovereign,was completed in August 1864. Its existing broadside guns were replaced with four turrets on a flat deck and the ship was fitted with 5.5 inches (140 mm) of armour in abeltaround thewaterline.[3]Early ships likeUSSMonitorandRoyal Sovereignhad littlesea-keepingqualities being limited to coastal waters. Coles, in collaboration with SirEdward James Reed,went on to design and buildHMSMonarch,the first seagoing warship to carry her guns in turrets.Laid downin 1866 and completed in June 1869, it carried two turrets, although the inclusion of aforecastleandpoop deckprevented the guns firing fore and aft.[3]

American developments[edit]

Inboard plans ofUSSMonitor.

The gun turret was independently invented by the Swedish inventorJohn Ericssonin the United States.[4]Ericsson designed USSMonitorin 1861. Erickson's most prominent design feature was a large cylindrical gun turret mountedamidshipsabove the low-freeboard upperhull,also called the "raft". The raft extended well past the sides of the lower, more traditionally shaped lower hull. A small armouredpilot housewas fitted on the upper deck towards the bow, however, its position preventedMonitorfrom firing her guns straight forward.[5][a]One of Ericsson's prime goals in designing the ship was to present the smallest possible target to enemy gunfire.[6]

The turret's rounded shape helped to deflect cannon shot.[7][8]A pair ofdonkey enginesrotated the turret through a set of gears; a full rotation was made in 22.5 seconds during testing on 9 February 1862.[6]This design was technologically inferior to Coles', and made fine control of the turret difficult.[4]If turret rotation overshot its mark it was difficult to make a correction. Either the engine would have to be placed in reverse or another full rotation was necessary.

Including the guns, the turret weighed approximately 160 long tons (163 t); the entire weight rested on an iron spindle that had to be jacked up using a wedge before the turret could rotate.[6]The spindle was 9 inches (23 cm) in diameter, which gave it ten times the strength needed in preventing the turret from sliding sideways.[9]When not in use, the turret rested on a brass ring on the deck that was intended to form a watertight seal. In service, however, this proved to leak heavily, despitecaulkingby the crew.[6]The gap between the turret and the deck proved to be a problem as debris and shell fragments entered the gap and jammed the turrets of severalPassaic-classmonitors,which used the same turret design, during theFirst Battle of Charleston Harborin April 1863.[10]Direct hits at the turret with heavy shot also had the potential to bend the spindle, which could also jam the turret.[11][12][13]

The turret was intended to mount a pair of 15-inch (381 mm)smoothboreDahlgren guns,but they were not ready in time and 11-inch (279 mm) guns were substituted.[6]Each gun weighed approximately 16,000 pounds (7,300 kg).Monitor's guns used the standard propellant charge of 15 pounds (6.8 kg) specified by the 1860 ordnance for targets "distant", "near", and "ordinary", established by the gun's designer Dahlgren himself.[14]They could fire a 136-pound (61.7 kg) round shot or shell up to a range of 3,650 yards (3,340 m) at an elevation of +15°.[15][16]

Culmination[edit]

HMSThundererincorporated hydraulic mechanisms into the turret, and marked the transition toward the modernbattleship.

HMSDevastationof 1871 andHMSThundererof 1872 represented the culmination of this pioneering work. Theseironcladturret ships were designed by Edward James Reed. They were also the world's firstmastlessbattleships,built with a centralsuperstructurelayout, and became the prototype for all subsequent warships, leading directly to the modern battleship.

Surviving examples[edit]

Footnotes[edit]

  1. ^Ericsson later admitted that this was a serious flaw in the ship's design and that the pilot house should have been placed atop the turret.

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^Davis, William C. (2012-05-09).Duel Between the First Ironclads.Knopf Doubleday Publishing.ISBN9780307817501.
  2. ^Preston, Antony (2002).The World's Worst Warships.London: Conway Maritime Press. p. 21.ISBN0-85177-754-6.
  3. ^abcdK. C. Barnaby (1968).Some ship disasters and their causes.London: Hutchinson. pp. 20–30.
  4. ^abStanley Sandler (2004).Battleships: An Illustrated History of Their Impact.ABC-CLIO. pp. 27–33.ISBN9781851094103.
  5. ^Tucker, Spencer (2006).Blue & gray navies: the Civil War afloat.Maryland: Naval Institute Press. p. 171.ISBN1-59114-882-0.
  6. ^abcdeThompson, Stephen C. (1990). "The Design and Construction of the USS Monitor".Warship International.XXVII(3). Toledo, Ohio: International Naval Research Organization.ISSN0043-0374.
  7. ^Mindell, David A. (2000).War, Technology, and Experience Aboard the USS Monitor.Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 41.ISBN978-0-8018-6250-2.
  8. ^McCordock, Robert Stanley (1938).The Yankee Cheese Box.Dorrance. p. 31.
  9. ^Baxter, James Phinney, 3rd(1968).The Introduction of the Ironclad Warship(reprint of the 1933 publication ed.). Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books. p.256.OCLC695838727.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. ^Canney, Donald L. (1993).The Old Steam Navy.Vol. 2: The Ironclads, 1842–1885. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. pp. 79–80.ISBN0-87021-586-8.
  11. ^Reed, Sir Edward James (1869).Our Iron-clad Ships: Their Qualities, Performances, and Cost. With Chapters on Turret Ships, Iron-clad Rams.London: J. Murray. pp.253–54.
  12. ^Broadwater, John D. (2012).USS Monitor: A Historic Ship Completes Its Final Voyage.Texas A&M University Press. p. 8.ISBN978-1-60344-473-6.
  13. ^Wilson, H. W. (1896).Ironclads in Action: A Sketch of Naval Warfare From 1855 to 1895.Vol. 1. Boston: Little, Brown. p. 30.
  14. ^Field, Ron (2011).Confederate Ironclad vs Union Ironclad: Hampton Roads.Osprey Publishing. p. 33.ISBN978-1-78096-141-5.
  15. ^Olmstead, Edwin; Stark, Wayne E.; Tucker, Spencer C. (1997).The Big Guns: Civil War Siege, Seacoast, and Naval Cannon.Alexandria Bay, New York: Museum Restoration Service. p. 90.ISBN0-88855-012-X.
  16. ^Lyon, David & Winfield, RifThe Sail and Steam Navy List, all the ships of the Royal Navy 1815-1889,pub Chatham, 2004,ISBN1-86176-032-9pages 240-2

Bibliography[edit]

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