HMS Barfleur (1892)

Barfleur, 1895
History
United Kingdom
Name	Barfleur
Namesake	Battle of Barfleur
Builder	HM Dockyard, Chatham
Cost	£533,666
Laid down	12 October 1890
Launched	10 August 1892
Completed	June 1894
Commissioned	22 June 1894
Decommissioned	June 1909
Fate	Sold for scrap, 12 July 1910
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Centurion-class pre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement	10,634 long tons (10,805 t)
Length	390 ft 9 in (119.1 m) (o/a)
Beam	70 ft (21.3 m)
Draught	25 ft 8 in (7.82 m)
Installed power	9,000 ihp (6,700 kW) 8 Cylindrical boilers
Propulsion	2 Shafts 2 Triple-expansion steam engines
Speed	17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph)
Range	5,230 nmi (9,690 km; 6,020 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	606–620
Armament	2 × twin 10 in (254 mm) guns 10 × single 4.7 in (120 mm) guns 8 × single 6-pdr (2.2 in (57 mm)) guns 12 × single 3-pdr (1.9 in (47 mm)) guns 7 × 18 in (450 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour	Belt: 9–12 in (229–305 mm) Decks: 2–2.5 in (51–64 mm) Barbettes: 5–9 in (127–229 mm) Gunhouses: 6 in (152 mm)

HMS Barfleur was the second and last of the Centurion-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the 1890s. Intended for service abroad, they exchanged heavy armour and a powerful armament for high speed and long range to counter the foreign armoured cruisers then being built as commerce raiders and were rated as second-class battleships.

Barfleur was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1895 and participated in the blockade of Crete imposed by the Great Powers after a Greek rebellion began on Crete against their Ottoman overlords in February 1897. She joined her sister ship Centurion on the China Station the following year and became the flagship of the station's second-in-command. During the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, both ships contributed landing parties to participate in the Battles of the Taku Forts and of Tientsin.

Already made obsolete by the increasing speeds of the cruisers the ship was designed to defend against, she was placed in reserve in 1904, although Barfleur often participated in the annual fleet manoeuvres. She also served as a flagship in the reserve for several years before the ship was listed for disposal in 1909. After being sold for scrap the following year, Barfleur got jammed underneath the piers of a swing bridge on her way to the scrapyard, forcing it to remain open and blocking traffic while she had to be freed.