HMS TrafalgerHMSTrafalgar
Class overview
Operators	Royal Navy
Preceded by	Victoria class
Succeeded by	Royal Sovereign class
In commission	1890–1911
Completed	2
Retired	2
General characteristics
Type	Ironclad battleship
Displacement	11,940 tons (designed) 12,590 tons (actual)
Length	345 ft (105 m)
Beam	73 ft (22 m)
Draught	27 ft 6 in (8.38 m)
Propulsion	2 × coal-fired 3-cylinder steam engines, 6 cylindrical boilers, twin screws
Speed	16.7 knots (30.9 km/h; 19.2 mph)
Complement	577
Armament	4 ×BL 13.5-inch (342.9 mm) guns 6 ×4.7 inch (120 mm) QF guns 8 ×6-pounder guns 9 ×3-pounder QF guns 5 ×torpedo tubes
Armour	Belt: 20 in (508 mm) amidships, 14 in (356 mm) at ends ForwardBulkheads: 16 in (406 mm) After bulkhead: 14 in (356 mm) Citadel: 16–18 in (406–457 mm) Turrets: 18 in (457 mm) Conning Tower: 14 in (356 mm) Battery bulkheads: 4–5 in (102–127 mm) Deck: 3 in (76 mm)

The twoTrafalgar-class battleships of theBritishRoyal Navy were late-nineteenth-centuryironclad warships. Both were named after naval battles won by the British during theNapoleonic Wars under the command ofAdmiral Nelson. The two ships were namedHMSNile andHMSTrafalgar.

Laid down in 1886, they were designed byWilliam Henry White to be improved versions of theAdmiral class,^{[citation needed]} having a greater displacement to allow for improved protection. However they sacrificed a full armoured belt for greater thickness amidships in a partial belt.

They were originally intended to have a secondary armament of eight 5 inch guns but this was changed to six quick-firing 4.7 inch guns for use against attacking torpedo boats, which led to a weight increase of 60 tons, partly due to the increased amount of ammunition carried. This was one of the changes which led to the vessels being 600 tons overweight, causing an increase in draught of a foot.

TheTrafalgars were the penultimate low-freeboard battleships built for the Royal Navy. This design had been favoured for several years because it reduced the size of the target that the ships presented to enemy guns in battle, and because the smaller hull area allowed thicker armour. However, as a consequence of having a freeboard of only about 15 feet, the vessels were unable to cope with very rough seas. This was mitigated by having them spend most of their active service in the relatively calmMediterranean.

When they were built, many observers overestimated the vulnerability of large ships totorpedoes and the perceived inability to avoid them, which made them believe that large warships would inevitably be replaced by smaller, less vulnerable, and less valuable, vessels.^[1] For example,John Hibbert, the parliamentary secretary of theAdmiralty, toldParliament in March 1886: "I think I may safely say that these two large iron-clads will probably be the last iron-clads of this type that will ever be built in this or any other country. In France they are ceasing to go on with the construction of large iron-clads."^[2]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toTrafalgar class battleship.

• Archibald, E.H.H. (1971). The Metal Fighting Ship in the Royal Navy 1860–1970. Arco Publishing Co.ISBN 0-668-02509-3.
• Beeler, John (2001).Birth of the Battleship: British Capital Ship Design 1870-1881. Naval Institute Press.ISBN 1-55750-213-7.
• Brown, David K. (1997).Warrior toDreadnought: Warship Development 1860–1905. Chatham Publishing.ISBN 1-86176-022-1.
• Friedman, Norman (2018).British Battleships of the Victorian Era. Naval Institute Press.ISBN 978-1-68247-329-0.
• K. McBride,Nile andTrafalgar, The Last British Ironclads,Warship 2000–2001, Conways Maritime Press
• Parkes, Oscar (1990) [1966].British Battleships,Warrior 1860 toVanguard 1950: A History of Design, Construction, and Armament (New & rev. ed.). Naval Institute Press.ISBN 1-55750-075-4.
• Roberts, John (1979). "Great Britain (including Empire Forces)". In Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M. (eds.).Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Mayflower Books. pp. 1–113.ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.

• Battleship classes
• Trafalgar-class battleships
• Ship classes of the Royal Navy

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from August 2017
• Use British English from August 2017
• All Wikipedia articles written in British English
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from July 2009
• Commons category link is on Wikidata