Cyclops class monitor
Right elevation plan from Brassey's Naval Annual 1888–1889
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Cyclops class |
| Operators: |
 Royal Navy
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| Preceded by: | HMS Rupert |
| Succeeded by: | Conqueror class |
| Built: | 1870–1877 |
| In service: | 1874–1901 |
| Planned: | 4 |
| Completed: | 4 |
| Scrapped: | 4 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Breastwork monitor |
| Displacement: | 3,480 long tons (3,540 t) |
| Length: | 225 ft (68.6 m) (p/p) |
| Beam: | 45 ft (13.7 m) |
| Draught: | 16 ft 3 in (5.0 m) (deep load) |
| Installed power: | 1,472–1,709 indicated horsepower (1,098–1,274 kW) |
| Propulsion: | 2 shafts, 2 steam engines |
| Speed: | 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) |
| Range: | 3,000 nmi (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement: | 156 |
| Armament: | 2 × 2 - 10-inch (254-mm) rifled muzzle loading guns |
| Armour: |
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The Cyclops-class monitor was a group of four ironclad breastwork monitors built for the Royal Navy during the 1870s. They were slightly modified versions of the Cerberus-class monitors. The ships were ordered to satisfy demands for local defence during the war scare of 1870, but the pace of construction slowed down tremendously as the perceived threat of war declined. The Cyclops-class monitors spent most of their careers in and were finally sold off in 1903.
The immediate reason why these ships were ordered was for local coast defence during the war scare during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, but they were chosen for several other reasons. They were small and cheap, and their shallow draft was thought to limit them to defensive operations, which appealed to economy and defence-minded Members of Parliament. The Admiralty, however, envisioned them attacking shallow-water ports that larger ironclads could not enter and operating in the shallow waters of the Baltic Sea.
The ships used the basic design of the Cerberus-class breastwork monitors to reduce design and construction time. Their hulls were completed very quickly, but the pace of building reduced as the likelihood of their immediate use diminished. They were delivered to the Royal dockyards in 1872 and commissioned for fitting out, but a number of years elapsed before that process was completed as little sense of urgency remained.
The ships had an length between perpendiculars of 225 feet (68.6 m), a beam of 45 feet (13.7 m), and a draught of 16 feet 3 inches (4.95 m) at deep load. They displaced 3,480 long tons (3,540 t). Their crew consisted of 156 officers and men.
The Cyclops-class ships and other ships of her type were described by Admiral George Alexander Ballard as being like "full-armoured knights riding on donkeys, easy to avoid but bad to close with." While not unfit to face heavy weather their decks were frequently awash in even a moderate sea. Their accommodations were rated the worst in the fleet, referred to by ordinary seamen as "ratholes with tinned air".
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