2-982-028 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Our Ironclad Fleet: H.M.S. Inflexible, 1876. 'The Inflexible is the greatest result yet attained by our naval architects and Board of Admiralty...[at] an estimated first cost of £521,000...many novelties have been introduced...One of the most important is the castle which protects her guns...The castle...is so contrived as to provide the guns with a full command of the horizon, and at the same time to render a flying deck unnecessary, while it affords good accommodation for officers and men...The [iron] plating is in two thicknesses of 12 in. each...Thus a shell penetrating one of the sides of the Inflexible, would encounter first 12 in. of iron, then a thick mass of wood, then 12 in. more iron, and, finally, the ordinary backing...[She] was designed by Mr. N. Barnaby, Director of Naval Construction, and was built under the superintendence of Mr. W. B. Robinson, Chief Constructor...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1876.