Via email to Mayhem...
Dear Martin, as there seems to be an interest in the ship can I add some of its History?
It was thought up by Mr Churchill & Lord Fisher as a ship to go up rivers or land on the beach and fire its twin 15in turret 1920lb projectile 23,400yds inland. It had a Length of 355ft, breadth 90ft & draught 10.5ft. The pontoons on the sides were open to the sea and were for stability and protection against torpedoes. It was one of the first R.N. ships to use Diesel power the only trouble was that the engines were out of a ship half the weight and the turret was out of a battleship which when fitted left it 17ft above the deck. It was designed to travel at 10kn, they did say the only time it did this was when it went down the slip !! In its first year The engines gave no end of trouble , the steering kept jamming and sending it round in circles,if the tide was more than 5kns it was not going anywhere. So they removed the Turret and replaced it with lots of anti aircraft guns. It was then towed to various harbours to give protection. After the war it was used by various branches of the Navy as a base ship, so because it was such a "Pigs Ear" this ship outlived all the the other Monitors. If you need more info look up "Big Gun Monitors" by Ian Buxton
