HMS Cyclops (1871)

Cyclops
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Cyclops
NamesakeCyclops
BuilderThames Ironworks, London
Cost£156,782
Laid down10 September 1870
Launched18 July 1871
Completed4 May 1877
CommissionedJanuary 1872
Out of service1901
Refit1887–89
FateSold for scrap 1903
General characteristics
Class and typeCyclops-class breastwork monitor
Displacement3,480 long tons (3,540 t)
Length225 ft (68.6 m) (p/p)
Beam45 ft (13.7 m)
Draught16 ft 3 in (5.0 m) (deep load)
Installed power1,528 ihp (1,139 kW)
Propulsion2 shafts, 2 steam engines
Speed11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph)
Range3,000 nmi (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement156
Armament2 × twin 10-inch rifled muzzle loaders
Armour

HMS Cyclops was the lead ship of the Cyclops-class breastwork monitors built for the Royal Navy during the 1870s. The ships were ordered to satisfy demands for local defence during the war scare of 1870, but the pace of construction slowed tremendously as the perceived threat of war declined. The ship spent most of her career in reserve; her only sustained period in commission was four months in Portland Harbour, during the Russo-Turkish War in 1878 when the British were trying to force the Russians to end the war without allowing them to seize Constantinople. Cyclops was sold for scrap in 1903.