HMS Northumberland

Figure 1:  HMS Northumberland (British broadside ironclad battleship, commissioned in1868) in harbor, while fitted with her original five-masted rig, circa 1868-1875. Copied from the photographic album Types of Ships in the British Navy, prepared in 1877. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.   

Figure 2:  HMS Northumberland moored to a buoy while carrying her original five-masted rig, circa 1868-1875. Copied from the photographic album Types of Ships in the British Navy, prepared in 1877. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 3:  HMS Northumberland seen from astern while alongside a wharf while carrying her original five-masted rig, circa 1868-1875. Note her sternwalk and boats. Copied from the photographic album Types of Ships in the British Navy, prepared in 1877. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 4:  HMS Northumberland at anchor after her rig was reduced from five to three masts in 1875-1879. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.  

Figure 5:  HMS Northumberland in harbor, drying canvas aloft, after her rig was reduced to three masts during the later 1870s. Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, Washington, DC. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 6:  HMS Northumberland  in harbor while serving as the English Channel Squadron’s Second Flagship, 1890. Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, Washington, DC. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 7:  HMS Northumberland, center, and HMS Agincourt (British broadside ironclad, commissioned in 1868), at left, photographed together while serving in the English Channel Squadron after 1879, when Northumberland was reduced from five-masted to three-masted rig, but prior to 1889, when Agincourt was placed in reserve. Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, Washington, DC. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 8:  Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. View of Funchal harbor, taken by local photographer M.d.O. Perestrello during the 1870s or 1880s. Four British battleships are present, among them two of the three "five masters" (Minotaur, Agincourt and Northumberland). The ship at far right, partially hidden by the land, appears to be HMS Monarch. From the collection of Captain E.L. Bennett, USN. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

 

Named after a county in England, the 10,780-ton HMS Northumberland was a broadside ironclad battleship of the Minotaur class that was built by the Millwall Iron Works at Millwall, England. Northumberland was the third and final ship of the Minotaur class and was a modification of the type represented by HMS Minotaur and HMS Agincourt, the other two ships in the class. Northumberland was approximately 400 feet long and 59 feet wide, had a top speed of 14 knots, and had a crew of 800 officers and men. The ship was originally armed with an astonishing 48 68-pounder smoothbore guns, two 7-inch breech-loading guns, and eight 40-pounder guns, although this armament changed dramatically in later years.

Northumberland was of very similar appearance to the other two ships in her class, with five masts atop a long hull, but she had a shorter battery with an armored bulkhead at each end of the ship, plus an armored conning tower. Like her near sisters, she was laid down in 1861 and took a long time to complete. Her launching in 1866 encountered major problems, as she became stuck on the slipway and did not enter the water for a month. Further delayed by the financial collapse of her builders, the ship was finally commissioned in October 1868.

Northumberland’s first seven years of service was mostly spent with the English Channel Squadron, but in 1869 she was given a special task. In company with HMS Agincourt, Northumberland towed a large floating dry dock to Madeira, Portugal, where the ironclads HMS Warrior and HMS Black Prince took over and towed the dock to its final destination in Bermuda. While at the port of Funchal in Madeira, on Christmas Day 1872, her anchor chain parted during a storm and Northumberland drifted across the battleship HMS Hercules’ ram bow. Northumberland suffered serious underwater damage, but her compartmented iron hull limited the flooding and she was able to steam to Malta for repairs. The accident showed just how much punishment an ironclad of this class could withstand and still remain afloat.

Beginning in 1875, Northumberland underwent an extensive refit and overhaul, losing two of her five masts and receiving a new set of guns. After her overhaul was completed, Northumberland was armed with seven 9-inch muzzle-loading guns, 20 8-inch muzzle-loading guns, and two 20-pounder breech-loading guns. The ship rejoined the English Channel Squadron in 1879. Except for another period of dockyard refit from 1885 to 1887, Northumberland was active for the next decade, including a tour of duty as the Channel Squadron’s flagship.

Northumberland, though, was by now quite obsolete given the more modern steel battleships that were entering the Royal Navy. She was harbor bound from the early 1890s onward, initially in reserve and then as a stokers training ship (under the new name Acheron). In 1909, the ship was converted into a coal hulk and had 18 years’ service in this humble, yet important, role. Sold by the Royal Navy in 1927, the old former battleship was used as a hulk (now named Stedmound) at Dakar, Senegal, until 1935, at which point she was scrapped after almost 70 years of service.