British army surgeon annex inventor Dr. John Collis Browne proposed around 1879 his design of an ironclad

Dr. John Collis Browne (18 June 1819 Maidstone, Kent, England-30 August 1884 Mount Albion House, Ramsgate, England) was a surgeon serving in the British Army and who invented Chlorodyna to be used against cholera. Furthermore he was inventor of items to be used for yachts. What Wikpedia not mentioned was his proposal for an ironclad.

Huët referred in 1879 to Iron. The Journal of Science, Metals and Manufacturer No. 148 Vol. VY. New Series dated 13 November 1875, page 612 where a fast ship for ocean routes was described. The ship was presented at the Paris Maritime Exposition, the merit of the invention claimed by M. Bazin. Dr. J. Collis Browne however forwared documents and dreawing that the merit of inventing and applying the principle so far as the hull was concerned, was his. His schooner yacht Kala-Fishbuilt on this principle in 1872was exhibited to the French authorities at Boulogne in 1873. At the Paris exhibition could a working steam model of the invention be seen. In the Kensington Museum were the past two years models presented. Browne showed an engraving of a proposed ironclad on the same plan. The ironclad was to be fitted out with a beak 60 feet long at each end and with a deck long 224 feet. Hetr decks sloped outwards at an angle of around 40 degrees. Flat in her bilge and with a keel. Displacement calculated at 15,000 tons and with a freeboard of nearly 16 feet. Before the ship wnet into action was she water ballasted in tanks constructed for that purpose “so as to expose no more of her hull than is duly protected with armour. The depth occupied by the latter (measured on the slope) will be 12 feet and the vertical depth of the hull 40 feet. Herbuoyancy, it is estimated, will be such taht the 12 feet of freeboard may be plated with armour three feet thick! This vessels swells mout both laterally and longitudinally below the water line. The principle which governs this design is that of gaining the power of carrying an enormous weight by immersing as great a bulk a possible.”

Sources

Browne, Dr.J. Collis. “Wave lines: a short description of their true form, and how ships ought to be constructed to meet them”, in Marine Engineering News, London 1 January 1876.

Huët, A. La Locomotive marine. Etude sur le Transport Maritime a grande vitesse. La Haye, Pays Bas, 1879.

John Collis Browne. Wikepedia 22-3-2026 14:22.