HMS Rodney (1833)
HMS Rodney was a two-deck 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. Launched in 1833, she was broken up in 1884.
Design and description
The ships were at the gun deck and at the keel. The Rodney class had a beam of, a depth of hold of and measured 2,625 tons burthen. Their crew numbered 720 in peacetime and 820 in wartime. The ships had the usual three-masted full-ship rig with a sail area of.Captain Charles Napier called Rodney, "a fine warship, but it is not a very superior sailer". That is not supported by experience as the ship proved to be a steady gun platform with a slow roll and was able to make sailing large early during her first deployment to the Mediterranean. Minor modifications in the early 1840s that including raking her masts backwards subsequently reduced her performance. During comparative speed trials in 1845 against other ships of the line, including,, and, Rodney proved to be the fastest in a head sea, but performed less well under other conditions.
The muzzle-loading, smoothbore armament of the Rodney class consisted of thirty-two 32-pounder guns and two (50 cwt) shell guns on the lower gun deck and thirty-two 32-pounder and two 8-inch shell guns on the upper gun deck. Between their forecastle and quarterdeck, they carried twenty-four 32-pounder guns. The ships were later rearmed with twenty-six 32-pounders and six 8-inch shell guns on the lower gundeck and thirty 32-pounders and six 8-inch shell guns on the upper deck. The number of guns on the forecastle and quarterdeck increased to twenty-six 32-pounders guns. These guns made the Rodney-class ships the most powerful warships in the world when designed because they were the first to carry a full array of long guns that were accurate at long range. Without short-range carronades they outgunned French and American ships of the same size at long range.
The conversion of Rodney was ordered on 5 February 1859 and began on 16 March during a naval arms race between France and Britain in steam-powered ships of the line. Slightly longer than London at, she measured 2,739 tons burthen and displaced. During her sea trials on 3 July 1860, the ship reached 11.5 knots from her Maudslay, Sons and Field engine that produced.
History
Rodney was launched on 18 June 1833 at Pembroke Dockyard. She was based on a design by Robert Seppings and used his diagonal bracing construction.The majority of her commissions saw active service in the Mediterranean Sea, but she also served in the Black Sea during the Crimean War, and after being converted to a steam and screw propelled vessel, served in China as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Henry Keppel, commanded by captain Algernon Heneage from 21 January 1867.
Rodney was the ship where William Hall, later to become the first Black man and one of the first Canadians to win the Victoria Cross, began his naval career in 1852. On 29 October 1853, she ran aground in the Dardanelles. She was refloated with assistance from.
Rodney was fitted with screw propulsion in 1860, completed on 11 January, and was the last unarmoured wooden battleship in full commission. She was broken up in 1882.