3-028-522 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Launch of H.M.S. Cyclops at Blackwall, 1871. Ship built by the Thames Shipbuilding Company on the River Thames in London, '...for the defence of our home ports...the vessel has been constructed within nine months, which is unprecedented in the annals of shipbuilding...The Cyclops is a twin-screw double-turret ship, with a hull 225 ft. in length...Fore and aft above the hull is a raised breastwork, 117 ft. long by 34 ft. wide, plated with 6 ft. 6 in. depth of armour, varying in thickness from 8 in. to 9 in., and a teak backing...This breastwork...protects the engines and machinery for working the turrets...She is built with a water-tight double bottom, and thus, in case of her outward one being injured, her inner skin would remain intact, and no danger from sinking need be apprehended. Each of her turrets contains two 18-ton guns, capable of firing projectiles of 400 lb. weight. Her engines are of 250-horse power, from the works of Messrs, Elder and Co., of Glasgow; and it is calculated they will give the vessel a speed of ten knots an hour...The ceremony of christening was gracefully performed by Miss. A. F. Rolt, the daughter of the chairman of the company'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.