James Watt-class battleship (1f/3m).
L/B/D:
230.3 × 55.3 × 24.1 (70.2m × 16.9m × 7.3m). Tons:
5,080 disp. Hull:
wood. Comp.:
860. Arm.:
34 × 8, 56 × 32pdr, 1 × 68pdr. Mach.:
Penn trunk engine, 2,268 ihp, single screw; 11.24 kts. Built:
Woolwich Dockyard; 1852.
Laid down in 1849, launched in 1852, and commissioned the following year, the ship-rigged steam battleship Agamemnon was the first warship built with screw propulsion, though other sailing vessels had been fitted with engines after commissioning. Agamemnon's success was such that she remained the basic model for the first decade of Britain's steam battlefleet. As flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons's Black Sea fleet (Captain William Mends commanding) during the Crimean War, she took part in the bombardment of Sevastopol on October 17, 1854. She also took part in the shelling of Fort Kinburn, at the mouth of the Dnieper one year later.
In 1857 the British government fitted out Agamemnon to carry 1,250 tons of telegraphic cable for the Atlantic Telegraph Company's first attempt to lay a transatlantic telegraph cable. Although this was unsuccessful, the following year the project was resumed. Agamemnon and her American counterpart USS Niagara spliced their cable ends in midatlantic on July 29 and then sailed for their respective continents. With William Thompson, the future Lord Kelvin, monitoring the progress of the 1,020 miles of cable, Agamemnon reached Valentia Bay in County Kerry, Ireland, on August 5, 1858. Niagara reached Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, the same day. Eleven days later, Queen Victoria sent a ninety-nine-word message to President James Buchanan, a process that took more than sixteen hours. (Three weeks later the cable failed and service was interrupted for eight years.) After service on the Caribbean and North American stations, Agamemnon was paid off in 1862 and sold in 1870.
Clarke, Voice across the Sea. Lambert, Battleships in Transition.
