They were ordered in response to a war scare with the Russian Empire and a realisation that the fleet would be insufficient in the event of a conflict with France. The Royal Sovereign class was authorised under the Naval Defence Act 1889, which established the "two-power standard" and led to a major naval construction programme. Main article: Royal Sovereign-class battleship The dates work began and finished on the ship and its ultimate fate Number of shafts, type of propulsion system, and top speed generated The maximum thickness of the armoured belt The number and type of the primary armament She served in this role until 1927, when she was sold for scrap. The surviving vessels were all broken up in the post-war reduction in naval strength save one, Agamemnon, which was converted into a radio-controlled target ship. Another five were sunk elsewhere during the war. With the start of the First World War in 1914, many of the vessels were mobilised for combat, and many served in the Dardanelles campaign, where five were lost to torpedoes and mines. One vessel, Montagu, was lost in an accidental grounding in 1906 and the oldest battleships of the Royal Sovereign and Centurion classes were broken up beginning in the early 1910s. As newer ships came into service, older vessels were placed in reserve or converted for subsidiary duties, including serving as barracks ships and depot vessels. The second-class ships generally operated abroad on the China Station or elsewhere in the British Empire. ![]() The ships built for the Royal Navy served in a variety of roles across the globe, seeing service in the Mediterranean, Home, and Atlantic Fleets, among others. A final class of two ships, designed by Philip Watts, was built while Dreadnought was being developed: the Lord Nelson class. A pair of small battleships originally built for the Chilean Navy-what became the Swiftsure class-were purchased after the Chileans placed them for sale in 1903. A trend toward larger secondary batteries in foreign battleships led to the eight-ship King Edward VII class, which carried 9.2 in (234 mm) guns. The latter were built as a stopgap while White completed work on the faster Duncan class, which were intended to counter new Russian ships. Six slightly smaller Canopus-class battleships intended for the China Station followed, after which White designed another tranche of eight larger battleships: three Formidable- and five very similar London-class ships. ![]() The nine Majestic-class battleships followed as refinements of White's original design, and they proved to be widely influential as foreign navies copied their general characteristics. They were followed by a trio of smaller, second-class battleships intended for overseas duties: the two Centurion-class battleships and HMS Renown. The first class, the Royal Sovereign class, comprised eight ships and introduced the standard armament layout associated with pre-dreadnought type battleships. William Henry White served as the Director of Naval Construction from 1885 to 1902 and thus oversaw the development of most of the pre-dreadnoughts. Primarily concerned with maintaining its "two-power standard" of numerical superiority over the combined French and Russian fleets, the Royal Navy built or purchased a total of fifty-two battleships of this type prior to the 1906 completion of the revolutionary all-big-gun Dreadnought, which gave the pre-dreadnoughts their name. These ships were characterised by a main battery of four heavy guns-typically 12-inch (305 mm) guns-in two twin mounts, a secondary armament that usually comprised 4.7-to-6-inch (120 to 150 mm) guns, and a high freeboard. ![]() The British Royal Navy built a series of pre-dreadnought battleships as part of a naval expansion programme that began with the Naval Defence Act 1889.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |