HMS Colossus (1882)

HMS Colossus, painted in 1891, Malta?
History
United Kingdom
Builder	Portsmouth Dockyard
Laid down	6 June 1879
Launched	21 March 1882
Commissioned	31 October 1886
Fate	Sold 1908 to Thos. W. Ward and broken up
General characteristics
Class and type	Colossus-class ironclad
Displacement	9,420 long tons (9,570 t)
Length	325 feet (99.1 m) lpp
Beam	68 ft (21 m)
Draught	25 ft 9 in (7.85 m)
Installed power	10 × fire-tube boilers 7,488 indicated horsepower (5,584 kW)
Propulsion	2 × marine steam engines 2 × screw propellers
Speed	16.5 knots (30.6 km/h; 19.0 mph)
Complement	396
Armament	4 × BL 12 in (305 mm) guns 5 × BL 6 in (152 mm) guns 4 × 6-pounder 2 × 14-inch torpedo tubes
Armour	Citadel: 14 to 18 inches (356 to 457 mm) Bulkheads: 13 to 16 in (330 to 406 mm) Deck: 2.5 to 3 in (64 to 76 mm) Turrets: 14 to 16 in Conning tower: 14 in

The fourth HMS Colossus was a Colossus class second-class British battleship, launched in 1882 and commissioned in 1886. She had a displacement of 9,520 tons, and an armament of 4 × 12-inch breechloaders, 5 × 6-inch guns and had a respectable speed of 15.5 knots.

She was one of the first, if not the first, modern battleship. She had several features which would be standard for all gun warships up to the Second World War including all steel construction, a main battery of breech loading major caliber guns (ie. 10 inches or greater) mounted in turrets and was propelled only by steam engines instead of a combination of steam and sails - as was common in the mid-19th century.