HMS Ajax (1880)

Ajax at the Queen's Jubilee Naval Review 1887, Spithead
History
United Kingdom
Name	Ajax
Namesake	Ajax
Builder	Pembroke Dockyard
Laid down	21 March 1876
Launched	10 March 1880
Completed	30 March 1883
Commissioned	30 April 1885
Out of service	November 1901
Fate	Sold for scrap, March 1904
General characteristics
Class and type	Ajax-class ironclad battleship
Displacement	8,510 long tons (8,650 t)
Length	280 ft (85.3 m) (pp) 300 ft 9 in (91.7 m) (oa)
Beam	66 ft (20.1 m)
Draught	23 ft 6 in (7.2 m)
Installed power	6,000 ihp (4,500 kW) 10 cylindrical boilers
Propulsion	2 shafts; 2 compound-expansion steam engines
Speed	13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Range	2,100 nmi (3,900 km; 2,400 mi) @ 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph)
Complement	345
Armament	2 × twin 12.5-inch (317 mm) rifled muzzle-loading guns 2 × single BL 6 in (152 mm), 80-pdr rifled breech-loading guns 6 × single QF 6-pdr 2.2 in (57 mm) Nordenfelt guns 2 × 14 in (356 mm) torpedo launchers
Armour	Waterline belt: 15–18 in (381–457 mm) Deck: 3 in (76 mm) Gun turrets: 14–16 mm (1–1 in) Conning tower: 12 in (305 mm) Bulkheads: 13.5–16.5 in (343–419 mm)

HMS Ajax was the name ship of her class of ironclad battleships built for the Royal Navy during the 1870s. Completed in 1883, she was immediately placed in reserve until 1885 when the ship was commissioned for the first time. Later that year, Ajax was assigned as a coast guard ship in Scotland and remained there for the next six years. She was reduced to reserve again in 1891 and was taken out of service a decade later. The ship was sold for scrap in 1904 and subsequently broken up.