HMS Conqueror (1881)

HMS Conqueror as she appeared upon completion in 1886.
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Conqueror
Builder	Chatham Dockyard
Laid down	28 April 1879
Launched	8 September 1881
Completed	March 1886
Fate	Broken up 1907
General characteristics
Displacement	6,200 tons
Length	270 ft (82.3 m) p/p 288 ft (87.8 m) o/a
Beam	58 ft (18 m)
Draught	22 ft (6.7 m) light 24 ft 3 in (7.4 m) deep load
Propulsion	2-shaft Humphreys & Tennant inverted compound 4,500 IHP
Speed	14 knots
Complement	330 men
Armament	Armoured ram 2 BL 12-inch (305 mm) guns Mk II, replaced by Mk III in 1886/7 4 × BL 6-inch (152 mm) guns 7 × QF 6-pounder (57 mm) guns 6 torpedo tubes
Armour	Belt: 12 inches tapering to 8 inches Citadel: 12 inches to 10.5 inches Turret: 14 inches face, 12 inches sides Conning tower: 12 inches to 6 inches Bulkhead: 11 inches Deck: 2.5 inches to 1.25 inches

HMS Conqueror was an ironclad battleship of the Victorian Royal Navy, whose main armament was an armoured ram.

She was the first ship of the Conqueror class to be laid down, her only sister-ship being HMS Hero, which was completed some two years later. At the time of her design it was thought that ramming attacks were the most effective offensive manoeuvre against armoured warships, as the armour of the period was, for a short time, able to defend against the majority of contemporary guns extant. This belief was reinforced by the action at the battle of Lissa, when the Austrian battleship Ferdinand Max rammed and sank the Italian Re D'Italia. The Italian ship was at the time a stationary target, a detail which it appears did not receive, in naval architects' minds, the attention it deserved.