The Minotaur class was a three-ship class of armoured cruisers built in the first decade of the twentieth century for the Royal Navy. These were the last class of armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy, with that role being substantially replaced by battlecruisers. ; HMS Minotaur (1816) was a 74-gun third rate launched in 1816, renamed Hermes in 1866 and broken up in 1869. The new Mk 26 mounts had full remote power control (RPC) and featured automatic loading that gave each gun a designed rate of fire of 15-20 rounds per minute, considerably faster than the 6-8 rounds per minute of the older Mk 24 mounts. Minotaur became flagship of the China Station in 1910 and Defence served as flagship of the 1st Cruiser Squadronin the Mediterranean from 1912; Shannon remain… They played no significant part in the Second World War, though Swiftsure, as flagship of the British Pacific C… However, in spite of the heavy toll of cruisers in that year and the following one, the building of this new class had a relatively low priority and only three were completed by end of World War II. Six ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Minotaur after the minotaur, a creature in Greek mythology: . HMCS Ontario (ex-Minotaur) was completed with the same close-range outfit as Swiftsure, and is reported to have had an outfit of six 40 mm and six 20 mm guns at the end of the war, all in single mountings.
The guns were individually sleeved and fired a 129.75 lb (58.9 kg) shell out to 25,000 yd (23 km). The Minotaur class, or Design Z, was a proposed class of light cruisers planned for the British Royal Navy shortly after the Second World War.Design Z had several proposed configurations with differing armament and propulsion arrangements. Swiftsure was completed with sixteen twin and six single 20 mm guns, but had all the singles and eight of the twin removed in the summer of 1945, when she received, in lieu, eight 40 mm Boffins and five single 40 mm Bofors Mk III. They retained the broadside ironclad layout of their predecessor, but their sides were fully armoured to protect the 50 guns they were designed to carry.
The face armour for the 7.5-inch turrets was also eight inches thick, but their sides were only 6 inches (152 mm) thick. The Minotaur-class armoured frigates[Note 1] were essentially enlarged versions of the ironclad HMS Achilles with heavier armament, armour, and more powerful engines.
These initially served with the Home Fleet, generally as the flagships of cruiser squadrons. The designs were large ships that were planned to be armed with ten 6 in (152 mm) dual purpose guns and an extensive array of 3 in (76 mm) secondary guns. It was the first British cruiser with both Type 275/274 "lock and follow", air- and surface- fire control and USN quadruple Bofors gun emplacements.
The secondary armament was much heavier than the older ships, with five single hydraulically powered turrets equipped with 50-calibre The faces of the primary gun turrets were 8 inches (203 mm) thick and they had 7-inch (178 mm) sides. The Minotaur class of light cruisers of the British Royal Navy, also known as the Swiftsure class, was designed as a modified version of the Crown Colony class incorporating war modifications and authorised in 1941. The Royal Navy's last wartime-built cruiser, HMS Minotaur, was handed over on schedule to the RCN in June 1945. Post War Cruiser Design in Warship 2006, p 56 While the The secondary armament consisted of rapid fire 3 in (76 mm) guns in eight twin mountings that would replace the G.Moore. The main barbettes were protected by seven inches of armour as were the ammunition hoists, although the armour for those thinned to two inches between the lower and main The funnels were raised 15 feet (4.6 m) in 1909 to eliminate smoke interference with the In early 1915, the sisters were all assigned to the Grand Fleet, each as flagship of their respective squadrons.For the Minotaur class design after World War II, see
"Post War Cruiser Design for the RN 1946-56", in Moore. She fought at the battles of the Nile and Trafalgar and was wrecked in 1810 off Texel. The Design Z proposals for light cruisers were evolutions of the Design Y ( A Minotaur size hull and armour was seen by naval staff as necessary for major Pacific and Indian Ocean carrier escorts with long range endurance, stores & workshops, as well as modern guns & missiles combining surface and AA guns, 3D 984 radar and a viable large armoured magazine for 48 The main gun armament was to be ten Quick-Firing (QF) 6 in (152 mm) Mark V dual-purpose guns in Mk 26 dual mounts. HMS Minotaur (1793) was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line launched in 1793.