HMS Imperieuse was the lead ship of her class of two armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the 1880s. She was sold for scrap in 1913.

Design and description

The Imperieuse-class ships were designed as enlarged and improved versions of the Nelson-class cruiser to counter the threat of enemy armoured ships encountered abroad. The ships had a length between perpendiculars of 315 ft, a beam of 62 ft and a deep draught of 27 ft. The ships were designed to displace 7390 LT, but displaced 8500 LT as built, an increase of over 1000 LT. The steel-hulled ships were fitted with a ram and their hulls were sheathed in teak which was covered in copper to reduce biofouling. Their crew numbered approximately 555 officers and other ranks. The ship had two 3-cylinder, inverted compound steam engines, each driving a single propeller, using steam provided by a dozen oval and cylindrical boilers. The engines produced 10000 ihp used forced draught and Imperieuse reached 16.75 kn on her sea trials. The Imperieuse-class ships carried a maximum of 1130 LT of coal which gave them an economical range of 7000 nmi at a speed of 10 kn. The ship was initially brig-rigged with two masts, but these were replaced by a single military mast amidships shortly after completion as she proved to have very poor sailing qualities during her trials and to reduce weight by 100 LT.

Construction and career

Imperieuse was laid down at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard on 10 August 1881, launched on 18 December 1883, and completed in September 1886. She was the flagship of the China Station from 1889 to 1894 and the Pacific Station from 1896 to 1899. She underwent extensive repairs at Chatham in early 1900. Imperieuse was renamed Sapphire II in February 1905 and reclassified as a depot ship for destroyers at Portland. Her name was reverted to Imperieuse in June 1909. She was sold on 24 September 1913 to Thos. W. Ward of Morecambe for breaking up.