HMS Nelson (1876)
HMS Nelson was a armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the 1870s. She was sold for scrap in 1910. Design and description The Nelson-class ships were designed as enlarged and improved versions of HMS Shannon to counter the threat of enemy armoured ships encountered abroad. The ships had a length between perpendiculars of , a beam of and a deep draught of . Nelson displaced , almost more than Shannon. The steel-hulled ships were fitted with a ram and their crew numbered approximately 560 officers and other ranks. The ship had a pair of three-cylinder, inverted compound steam engines, each driving a single propeller, using steam provided by 10 oval boilers. The engines produced and Nelson reached her designed speed of on her sea trials. The Nelson-class ships carried a maximum of of coal which gave them an economical range of at a speed of . They were barque-rigged with three masts. Construction and career HMS Nelson, named after Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, was laid down by John Elder & Co. in Govan, Scotland on 2 November 1874, launched on 4 November 1876, and completed in July 1881. She sailed for the Australia Station after commissioning and became the