HMS Hercules was a central-battery ironclad of the Royal Navy in the Victorian era, and was the first warship to mount a main armament of 10-inch (250 mm) calibre guns.
HMS Hercules painted by Henry J. Morgan in 1869.
Diagram of central battery from Brassey's Naval Annual 1888
A sketch by Charles Cooper Penrose Fitzgerald (1841-1921), Hercules' First Lieutenant, of Hercules (left) towing HMS Agincourt (right) off Pearl Rock near Gibraltar in July 1871.
The Foul of HMS 'Hercules' and 'Northumberland' in Funchal Roadstead, Madeira
HMS Agincourt was a Minotaur-class armoured frigate built for the Royal Navy during the 1860s. She spent most of her career as the flagship of the Channel Squadron's second-in-command. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, she was one of the ironclads sent to Constantinople to forestall a Russian occupation of the Ottoman capital. Agincourt participated in Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee Fleet Review in 1887. The ship was placed in reserve two years later and served as a training ship from 1893 to 1909. That year she was converted into a coal hulk and renamed as C.109. Agincourt served at Sheerness until sold for scrap in 1960.
Agincourt at anchor
Cutaway view of Agincourt's return connecting rod engine
Agincourt's sister Minotaur's deck in the late 1860s. A seven-inch muzzle-loading rifle on a wrought-iron pivot gun carriage is at lower left.
Hercules (left) towing Agincourt (right) off Pearl Rock
