page_title: HMS Hero (1885)
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Hero (1885)
caption_attribution_description: English: The second and final Conqueror-class battleship, served in the Victorian Royal Navy The Royal Museums Greenwich describes this as H.M.S. Hero 2nd class battleship (Repro ID PAD6297)]] Read more at RMG mem
context_page_description: HMS Hero was the second and final Conqueror-class battleship. She was an ironclad who served in the Victorian Royal Navy.
  Hero was — like her sister-ship — designed to be an improved version of Rupert with a ram as her main armament. It was assumed by the Board of Admiralty and within Naval Architecture circles that the supremacy of armour over artillery would allow such a ship to ram an enemy vessel without being seriously damaged by enemy gunfire. This assumption was never tested in action.
  The ship carried two big guns in a turret placed on the foredeck. Gunfire over the bow was found to cause serious blast damage to the deck and its structures, while firing abaft the beam caused blast damage to the bridge and superstructure. The guns were limited to a firing arc of some 45° on either side; as they had been installed with the intention of engaging an enemy on the beam who had evaded a ramming attack, this limit was not seen as serious.
  Six tubes for the launching of 14 in torpedoes were mounted; they were carried in the after part of the superstructure and were intended to supplement the ram.
context_section_description: HMS Hero was the second and final Conqueror-class battleship. She was an ironclad who served in the Victorian Royal Navy.
  Hero was — like her sister-ship — designed to be an improved version of Rupert with a ram as her main armament. It was assumed by the Board of Admiralty and within Naval Architecture circles that the supremacy of armour over artillery would allow such a ship to ram an enemy vessel without being seriously damaged by enemy gunfire. This assumption was never tested in action.
  The ship carried two big guns in a turret placed on the foredeck. Gunfire over the bow was found to cause serious blast damage to the deck and its structures, while firing abaft the beam caused blast damage to the bridge and superstructure. The guns were limited to a firing arc of some 45° on either side; as they had been installed with the intention of engaging an enemy on the beam who had evaded a ramming attack, this limit was not seen as serious.
  Six tubes for the launching of 14 in (360 mm) torpedoes were mounted; they were carried in the after part of the superstructure and were intended to supplement the ram. The smaller guns were for defence against small craft, against whom the main armament could not be easily or economically employed.
  By the time she was launched, ramming had been discarded, leaving her and her sister exposed as perhaps the two most useless turret-armed battleships ever built.
caption: Painting of HMS Hero by William Frederick Mitchell
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