HMS Achilles (1863)

History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Achilles
Namesake:	Achilles
Ordered:	10 April 1861
Builder:	Chatham Dockyard, England
Cost:	£469,572
Laid down:	1 August 1861
Launched:	23 December 1863
Completed:	26 November 1864
Renamed:	1902, Hibernia March 1904, Egmont 19 June 1916, Egremont 6 June 1919, Pembroke
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 26 January 1923
General characteristics
Type:	Armoured frigate
Displacement:	9,820 long tons (9,980 t)
Length:	380 ft (115.8 m)
Beam:	58 ft 3 in (17.8 m)
Draught:	27 ft 2 in (8.3 m)
Installed power:	5,720 ihp (4,270 kW) 10 rectangular boilers
Propulsion:	1 shaft, 1 Trunk steam engine
Sail plan:	Ship rig
Speed:	14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Range:	1,800 nmi (3,300 km; 2,100 mi) at 6.5 knots (12.0 km/h; 7.5 mph)
Complement:	709
Armament:	4 × 7-inch (178 mm) Armstrong breech-loaders 16 × 100-pounder (234 mm) Somerset smoothbore cannons 6 × 68-pounder (206 mm) smoothbore guns From 1868: 22 × 7-inch (178 mm) 6½ ton rifled muzzle-loading guns 4 × 8-inch (203 mm) rifled muzzle-loading guns From 1874: 2 × 7-inch (178 mm) muzzle-loading rifles 14 × 9-inch (229 mm) muzzle-loading rifles
Armour:	Belt: 2.5–4.5 in (64–114 mm) Bulkheads: 4.5 in (114 mm)

HMS Achilles was an armoured frigate built for the Royal Navy in the 1860s. Upon completion in 1864 she was assigned to the Channel Fleet. The ship was paid off in 1868 to refit and be re-armed. When she recommissioned in 1869, she was assigned as the guard ship of the Fleet Reserve in the Portland District until 1874. Achilles was refitted and re-armed again in 1874 and became the guard ship of the Liverpool District in 1875. Two years later, she was rejoined the Channel Fleet before going to the Mediterranean in 1878. The ship returned to the Channel Fleet in 1880 and served until she was paid off in 1885.

Achilles was recommissioned in 1901 as a depot ship at Malta under a succession of different names. She was transferred to Chatham in 1914 and was again renamed multiple times before she was sold for scrap in 1923. Achilles had more changes of her rigging and armament than any other British warship, before or since.

Achilles was the third member of the 1861 Naval Programme and was designed as an improved version of the earlier Warrior-class armoured frigates with a complete waterline armour belt.

The ship was 380 feet 2 inches (115.9 m) long between perpendiculars, had a beam of 58 feet 3 inches (17.8 m) and a draft of 27 feet 2 inches (8.3 m). She displaced 9,820 long tons (9,980 t) and had a tonnage of 6,121 bm. The hull was subdivided by watertight transverse bulkheads into 106 compartments and had a double bottom.Achilles was designed with a high centre of gravity and was very stiff. So much so that the ship only rolled 10 degrees during one storm that ripped the main and mizen topgallant masts off and split her topsails. Because of her great length she was not very manoeuvrable. Achilles had a crew of 709 officers and enlisted men.

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