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HMS ''Scorpion'' was an ironclad turret ship of the Royal Navy, built by John Laird Sons & Company, at Birkenhead. She was one of two sister ships secretly ordered from the Laird shipyard in 1862 by the Confederate States of America. To conceal her true ownership, all concerned endorsed the fiction that she was being constructed as the Egyptian warship ''El Tousson''. She was to have been named ''North Carolina'' upon delivery to the Confederates. The British government seized the pair of ironclads in October 1863, a few months after their launch and before they could be completed. ==Design and description== ''Wivern'' and her sister were intended, together with other warships, to break the Federal blockade of Confederate coastal cities and to hold some Northern cities for ransom.〔Scharf, p. 784〕 The ships had an length between perpendiculars of , a beam of ,〔Gardiner, p. 20〕 and a draught of at deep load. They displaced . The hull was divided by 12 watertight bulkheads and the ships had a double bottom beneath the engine and boiler rooms. Their crew consisted of 152 officers and ratings.〔Parkes, p. 78〕 The ''Scorpion''-class ships had two horizontal direct-acting steam engines, built by Lairds, each driving a single propeller shaft, using steam provided by four tubular boilers. The engines produced a total of which gave the ships a maximum speed of .〔 The ships carried of coal, enough to steam at .〔 They were barque-rigged with three masts. The funnel was made semi-retractable to reduce wind resistance while under sail.〔Parkes, p. 79〕 No ordnance had been ordered by the Confederates before the ships were seized in 1863, but in British service they mounted a pair of 9-inch rifled muzzle-loading guns in each turret. The guns could fire both solid shot and explosive shells.〔Gardiner, p. 6〕 According to Parkes, going from full depression to full elevation supposedly took one hour in smooth water and with an even keel!〔 The ''Scorpion''-class ships had a complete waterline belt of wrought iron that was thick amidships and thinned to at the bow and at the stern. It completely covered the hull from the upper deck to below the waterline.〔 The armour protection of the turrets was quite elaborate. The inside of the turret was lined with of iron boiler plate to which T-shaped beams were bolted. The space between the beams was filled with of teak. This was covered by an iron lattice thick that was covered in turn by of teak. The iron plates were bolted to the outside using bolts that ran through to the interior iron "skin". The area around the gun ports was reinforced by 4.5-inch plates to give a total thickness of 10 inches. The turret roof consisted of T-shaped beams covered by iron plates.〔Putnam, p. 11〕 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「HMS Scorpion (1863)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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