HMS Ajax (1880)

Right elevation and plan from Brassey's Naval Annual, 1886
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.

The Ajax class was designed as a shallow-draught version of the preceding Inflexible that was also smaller and cheaper; unfortunately the need, imposed by budgetary constraints, to produce a smaller ship produced a vessel with all of the shortcomings of Inflexible but with none of her virtues. The ships had a length between perpendiculars of 280 feet (85.3 m) and were 300 feet 9 inches (91.7 m) long overall, some 44 feet (13.4 m) shorter than Inflexible. They had a beam of 66 feet (20.1 m), and a draught of 23 feet 6 inches (7.2 m) and displaced 8,510 long tons (8,650 t). Their crew consisted of 345 officers and ratings, over 3,000 long tons (3,048 t) less than Inflexible. The Ajax-class ships were bad seaboats and steered very erratically, especially at high speed. More deadwood was added to their sterns in 1886 in a partially successful attempt to rectify the problem.