Ajax-class ironclad

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Launch of HMS Agamemnon in 1879 from The Illustrated London News
Class overview
Builders	Pembroke Dockyard Chatham Dockyard
Preceded by	HMS Inflexible
Succeeded by	Colossus class
Built	1876–1883
In commission	1884–1904
Completed	2
General characteristics
Type	Ironclad battleship
Displacement	8,510 tons
Length	300 ft 9 in (91.67 m) o/a 280 ft (85 m) p/p
Beam	66 ft (20 m)
Draught	23 ft 6 in (7.16 m)
Propulsion	Two-shaft Penn inverted compound 6,000 ihp (4,500 kW)
Speed	13 kn (24 km/h)
Complement	345
Armament	4 × 12.5-inch (317 mm) muzzle-loading rifles 2 × BL 6-inch (152.4 mm) Mk II guns
Armour	Citadel: 18 in (460 mm) tapering to 15 in (380 mm) Turret: 16 in (410 mm) faces, 14 in (360 mm) sides Conning tower: 12 in (300 mm) Bulkheads: 16.5 in (420 mm) to 13.5 in (340 mm) Deck: 3 in (76 mm)

The Ajax class of ironclad battleships consisted of two ships, HMS Ajax and HMS Agamemnon, serving in the Victorian era Royal Navy. Their main armament was turret-mounted.

These two ships were built to the same concept as Inflexible - a heavily armoured citadel carrying four heavy guns mounted 'en echelon' in turrets to achieve all-round fire - but were required to be of lighter draught, and to displace 3,000 tons less. It was therefore necessary to arm them with guns of 12.5 inch calibre, as against 16 inch in Inflexible, and to accept a maximum speed of nearly two knots less. Also, unlike the Inflexible, these ships were dependent upon the integrity of their unarmoured ends to maintain buoyancy; should the ends have been damaged enough to become waterlogged, the ships would have sunk.

This class were the last ships in the Royal Navy to be armed with muzzle-loading rifles, and the first to carry any form of secondary armament. They were designed from the start not to carry any form of sailing rig.

• Oscar Parkes, British Battleships ISBN 0-85052-604-3
• Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.

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