The Conqueror-class ships of the line consisted of a pair of 101-gun, second-rate screw-propelled ships designed by the Surveyor's Department for the Royal Navy during the 1850s.
Design The Conqueror class ships were designed in 1852 as two-decker 101-gun second rates in a period when many under-construction sailing ships of the line were being redesigned to use screw propulsion in addition to sail. Two ships were subsequently completed, and .
Careers Both ships saw service in the Channel Squadron. Both were used to transport troops to Mexico in support of the French intervention there in 1861. HMS Conqueror was wrecked on Rum Cay whilst carrying this out, but without losses, and most of her machinery, guns and stores were subsequently salvaged. The advent of armoured ironclads, such as in the 1860s made the traditional ships of the line largely obsolete. HMS Donegal continued in service as a guard ship, in which role she took the last surrender of the American Civil War. She was hulked in 1886, and became part of the torpedo training school . She served until the establishment moved on shore in 1923, and was broken up in 1925.
Ships
Builder: Devonport Dockyard Ordered: 16 November 1852 Laid down: 25 July 1853 Launched: 2 May 1855 Completed: 9 April 1856 Fate: Wrecked at Rum Cay, 13 December 1861Colledge, Warlow & Bush, p. 94
Builder: Devonport Dockyard Ordered: 27 December 1854 Laid down: 27 September 1855 Launched: 23 September 1858 Completed: 27 August 1859 Fate: Renamed , 14 January 1886. Sold for breaking up, 18 May 1925Colledge, Warlow & Bush, p. 121
Notes
References
External links History of Donegal