HMS Abyssinia

Abyssinia circa. 1895
History
Bombay Marine
Name	HMS Abyssinia
Builder	J & W Dudgeon, Cubitt Town, London
Cost	£116,549[1]
Laid down	23 July 1868
Launched	19 February 1870
Completed	October 1870
Fate	Broken up, 1903
General characteristics
Class and type	Modified Cerberus-class monitor
Displacement	2,901 tons
Tons burthen	1854 bm[1]
Length	225 ft (69 m) pp
Beam	42 ft (13 m)
Draught	14 ft 7 in (4.45 m)
Installed power	1,200 ihp (890 kW)
Propulsion	2 × 2-cylinder diagonal single-expansion steam engines by Dudgeon 2 screws
Speed	9.59 knots (18 km/h)
Complement	100
Armament	From 1870: 4 × 10-inch (254 mm) rifled muzzle-loading guns From 1892: 4 × BL 8-inch (203.2 mm) Mk VI guns
Armour	Belt 7 inches (18 cm) amidships, 6 inches (15 cm) fore and aft Breastwork 7–8 inches (18–20 cm) inches Turrets 10 inches (25 cm) faces, 8 inches (20 cm) sides Deck 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) Breastwork deck 1 inch (2.5 cm)

HMS Abyssinia was a breastwork monitor ordered, designed and built by J & W Dudgeon specifically for the Bombay Marine for the defence of the harbour at Bombay.

She was designed by Sir Edward Reed, and was a smaller version of, and hence a half-sister to, the Cerberus-class monitors Cerberus and Magdala. It was intended that Abyssinia and Magdala would serve in mutual support on the same station. Given that the stipulated naval requirement was for two ships for the coastal defence of the Bombay area, the India Office were pressed by the Board of Admiralty and the Chief Constructor to order two ships of the Cerberus class. After the placing of the order for Magdala, budgetary limitations meant that a smaller, cheaper vessel had to be acquired.

Abyssinia, while being similar in layout to Magdala, was smaller and cost £20,000 less. She had slightly less freeboard, a shorter breastwork, could carry less coal and had about one knot less speed.

The ferry trip out to her base in Bombay was made under her own power, without the use of any sail whatsoever. Unlike her half-sisters, the hull was not built up for the trip, which she made in a faster time than they did.

Abyssinia remained at anchor in Bombay harbour, other than for occasional brief trips for firing practice, for the whole of her service career. When the Indian Harbour Defence Service was discontinued in 1903, she was sold locally and broken up.

• Winfield, R.; Lyon, D. (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC 52620555.

• Oscar Parkes, British Battleships ISBN 0-85052-604-3
• Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
• Magdala & Abyssinia slideshow

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