Orlando-class cruiser

The Orlando class was a seven ship class of Royal Navy armoured cruisers completed between 1888 and 1889.

HMS Orlando
Class overview
Name: Orlando class
Operators:  Royal Navy
Preceded by: Imperieuse class
Succeeded by: Blake class
Built: 1885–1889
In commission: 1887–1906
Completed: 7
Retired: 7
General characteristics
Type: First class armoured cruiser
Displacement: 5,600 tonnes (5,500 long tons)
Length: 300 ft (91 m)
Beam: 56 ft (17 m)
Draught: 22.5 ft (6.9 m)
Installed power:
  • 5,500 hp (4,100 kW)
  • 8,500 hp (6,300 kW) forced-draught
Propulsion:
  • 3-cylinder triple-extension steam engines
  • two shafts
  • 4 double-ended boilers
Speed:
  • 17 knots (31 km/h) natural draught
  • 18 knots (33 km/h) forced draught
Range: 10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h)
Complement: 484
Armament:
  • 2 × BL 9.2-inch (233.7 mm) Mk V or VI guns (2 x 1)
  • 10 × BL 6-inch (152.4 mm) guns (10 x 1)
  • 6 × QF 6-pounder (57 mm) guns (6 × 1)
  • 10 × QF 3-pounder (47 mm) Hotchkiss guns (10 × 1)
  • 6 × 18-inch (450-mm) torpedo tubes (4 above water broadside, 1 bow and 1 stern submerged)
Armour:

Building Programme
Right elevation and deck plan as depicted in Brassey's naval annual 1888

On 2 December 1884, the Secretary to the Admiralty stated, "The present Board have been gradually developing, and, as I would venture to say, in an effective manner, our resources for the protection of commerce. The late Board of Admiralty laid down an admirable type for the purpose in the Leander class. We have followed in their footsteps by producing the Mersey type, and we now propose to go a step further in the same direction, by laying down vessels of the Mersey class, but protected by a belt in lieu of an armoured deck. The belt will, I think, be approved by my hon. Friend who sits behind me (Sir Edward J. Reed)."[1] These belted cruisers were the Orlando class.

The following table gives the build details and purchase cost of the members of the Orlando class. Standard British practice at that time was for these costs to exclude armament and stores.[2] In the table:

  • Machinery meant "propelling machinery".
  • Hull included "hydraulic machinery, gun mountings, etc."[3]
Ship Builder Maker
of
Engines		 Date of Cost according to
Laid Down Launch Completion (BNA 1895)[4] (BNA 1903)[5]
Hull Machinery Total
excluding
armament
Orlando Palmers, Jarrow 23 Apr 1885 3 Aug 1886 June 1888 £206,647 £60,165 £266,812 £303,065
Aurora Pembroke Dockyard J&G Thompson 1 Feb 1886 28 Oct 1887 July 1889 £220,550 £64,000 £284,550 £326,110
Australia Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering, Govan C & W Earle 21 Apr 1885 25 Nov 1886 October 1888 £195,390 £63,000 £258,390 £299,027
Galatea Robert Napier and Sons, Govan 21 Apr 1885 10 Mar 1887 March 1889 £195,390 £63,000 £258,390 £291,803
Immortalite Chatham Dockyard C & W Earle 18 Jan 1886 7 Jul 1887 July 1889 £221,500 £57,000 £278,500 £332,359
Narcissus C & W Earle, Hull 27 Apr 1885 15 Dec 1886 July 1889 £195,890 £61,500 £257,390 £300,149
Undaunted Palmers, Jarrow 23 Apr 1885 25 Nov 1886 July 1889 £195,890 £60,165 £256,055 £300,863

Notes
  1. Hansard HC Deb 02 December 1884 vol 294 c455 House of Commons, the Secretary to the Admiralty, Sir Thomas Brassey.
  2. Note that the costs quoted in the 1895 edition and the 1903 edition are not the same. There seems to have been a revision of the costs quoted for British warships in The Naval Annual between the 1902 and 1903 editions, and a further revision between the 1905 and 1906 editions. (The 1906 edition costs cannot be quoted for the Orlando class because the class is not listed in the 1906 edition.)
  3. The Naval Annual 1895 , p192-200
  4. The Naval Annual 1895, p192-200
  5. The Naval Annual 1903, p236-243
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References
  • Brassey, T.A. (ed) The Naval Annual 1895
  • Brassey, T.A. (ed) The Naval Annual 1903
  • Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
  • Friedman, Norman (2012). British Cruisers of the Victorian Era. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK: Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-59114-068-9.
  • Lyon, David; Winfield, Rif (2004). The Sail & Steam Navy List. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-032-9.
  • Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-88254-979-0.
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