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The ''Cyclops'' class monitor was a group of four ironclad breastwork monitors built for the Royal Navy during the 1870s. They were slightly modified versions of the s. The ships were ordered to satisfy demands for local defence during the war scare of 1870, but the pace of construction slowed down tremendously as the perceived threat of war declined. The ''Cyclops''-class monitors spent most of their careers in reserve and were finally sold off in 1903. ==Design and description== The immediate reason why these ships were ordered was for local coast defence during the war scare during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, but they were chosen for several other reasons. They were small and cheap, and their shallow draft was thought to limit them to defensive operations, which appealed to economy and defence-minded Members of Parliament. The Admiralty, however, envisioned them attacking shallow-water ports that larger ironclads could not enter and operating in the shallow waters of the Baltic Sea.〔Beeler, pp. 101–02〕 The ships used the basic design of the ''Cerberus''-class breastwork monitors to reduce design and construction time. Their hulls were completed very quickly, but the pace of building reduced as the likelihood of their immediate use diminished. They were delivered to the Royal dockyards in 1872 and commissioned for fitting out, but a number of years elapsed before that process was completed as little sense of urgency remained.〔Parkes, p. 212〕 The ships had an length between perpendiculars of , a beam of , and a draught of at deep load. They displaced . Their crew consisted of 156 officers and men.〔Parkes, p. 213〕 The ''Cyclops''-class ships and other ships of her type were described by Admiral George Alexander Ballard as being like "full-armoured knights riding on donkeys, easy to avoid but bad to close with."〔Ballard, p. 219〕 While not unfit to face heavy weather their decks were frequently awash in even a moderate sea. Their accommodations were rated the worst in the fleet, referred to by ordinary seamen as "ratholes with tinned air".〔Ballard, pp. 218〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cyclops-class monitor」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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