Crimean War Naval Ships of the United Kingdom - HMS Duke of Wellington, HMS Hornet, HMS Miranda, HMS Dauntless, HMS Queen, HMS Beagle (Paperback)

Chapters: Hms Duke of Wellington, Hms Hornet, Hms Miranda, Hms Dauntless, Hms Queen, Hms Beagle, Arrow Class Gunvessel, Hms Calcutta, Hms London, Hms Cornwallis, Hms Britannia, Hms Edinburgh, Hms Pique, Hms Odin, Hms Vulture, Hms Ardent. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 59. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: HMS Duke of Wellington was a 131 gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. Launched in 1852, she was symptomatic of an era of rapid technological change in the navy, being powered both by sail and steam. An early steam-powered ship, she was still fitted with towering masts and trim square-set yards, and was the flagship of Sir Charles Napier. An 1852 print from the Illustrated London News of HMS Windsor Castle on the slipway on the day of her launch that year. The ship later was renamed HMS Duke of Wellington.First christened HMS Windsor Castle, she was the first of a class of four that represented the ultimate development of the wooden three-decker ship of the line which had been the mainstay capital ship in naval warfare for 200 years. She was originally ordered in 1841 to a design of Sir William Symonds, the Surveyor of the Navy, but was not laid down until May 1849 at Pembroke Dock by which time Symonds had resigned and the design had been modified by the Assistant Surveyor John Eyde. At this stage the ship was still intended as a sailing vessel. Although the Royal Navy had been using steam power in smaller ships for three decades, it had not been adopted for ships of the line, partly because the enormous paddle-boxes required would have meant a severe reduction in the number of guns carried. This problem was solved by the adoption of the screw propellor in the 1840s. Under a crash programme announced in December 1851 to provide the Navy with a steam-driven battlefle...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=44097