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&sq=crain_ford&lang=en&file=File:HMS_Iron_Duke_(1870).jpg) Iron Duke at anchor
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMS Iron Duke |
| Namesake | Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington |
| Ordered | 26 September 1867 |
| Builder | Pembroke Dockyard |
| Cost | £208,763 |
| Laid down | 23 August 1868 |
| Launched | 1 March 1870 |
| Completed | 21 January 1871 |
| Commissioned | 1 April 1871 |
| Decommissioned | 1890 |
| Reclassified | Converted to coal hulk, 1900 |
| Fate | Sold for scrap, 15 May 1906 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Audacious-class ironclad |
| Displacement | 6,034 long tons (6,131 t) |
| Tons burthen | 3,774 (bm) |
| Length | 280 ft (85.3 m) (p/p) |
| Beam | 54 ft (16.5 m) |
| Draught | 22 ft 7 in (6.9 m) |
| Installed power | |
| Propulsion | 2 shafts; 2 horizontal-return, connecting-rod steam engines |
| Speed | 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph) |
| Complement | 450 |
| Armament | |
| Armour |
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| Service record | |
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HMS Iron Duke was the last of four Audacious-class central battery ironclads built for the Royal Navy in the late 1860s. Completed in 1871, the ship was briefly assigned to the Reserve Fleet as a guardship in Ireland, before she was sent out to the China Station as its flagship. Iron Duke returned four years later and resumed her duties as a guardship. She accidentally rammed and sank her sister ship, Vanguard, in a heavy fog in mid-1875 and returned to the Far East in 1878. The ship ran aground twice during this deployment and returned home in 1883. After a lengthy refit, Iron Duke was assigned to the Channel Fleet in 1885 and remained there until she again became a guardship in 1890. The ship was converted into a coal hulk a decade later and continued in that role until 1906 when she was sold for scrap and broken up.
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