RN Battleships: Pre-Dreadnoughts

[Brian James]

Second Class Pre-Dreadnought Battleship HMS Renown pictured in the Saint Lawrence River at Montreal in 1899.
Intended to command Cruiser Squadrons operating on foreign stations, she served as the flagship of the North America and West Indies Station and the Mediterranean Fleet early in her career. Becoming obsolete as Cruiser speeds increased, Renown became a Royal Yacht and had all of her secondary armament removed to make her more suitable for such duties. She became a Stoker's Training Ship in 1909 and was listed for disposal in 1913,she was sold for scrap in early 1914.
... Production of a new 12-inch gun was behind schedule and the three Battleships planned for the 1892 Naval Programme that were intended to use the new gun had to be delayed. In their stead, an improved Centurion-Class Battleship design was chosen to keep the workers at Royal Pembroke Dockyard fully employed. No formal requirement for a Second-Class Battleship suitable for use as the flagship on foreign stations or to reinforce Cruiser squadrons existed at the time, but the decision to build the ship was strongly influenced by the views of the Controller of the Navy, Rear Admiral John A. 'Jacky' Fisher and the Director of Naval Intelligence, Captain Cyprian Bridge who favoured smaller ships with a smaller main armament and large secondary armament. They pressed for additional ships of this type as substitutes for the two other Battleships originally programmed, but this was rejected by the Admiralty as there was no demand for additional Second-Class Battleships.
The Director of Naval Construction, William Henry White, submitted three designs in early April 1892 and the smallest one was chosen on April 11th. The design was quite innovative in several different ways. It was the first Battleship to use Harvey armour (case hardened steel), which allowed the secondary casemates to be armoured, the first to use a sloping armour deck and the first to provide armoured shields over the main armament.

[Brian James]

Second Class Pre-Dreadnought Battleship HMS Renown pictured at Montreal in 1899.She was built at Royal Pembroke Dockyard in 1865,intended to command Cruiser squadrons operating on foreign stations, she served as the flagship of the North America and West Indies Station and the Mediterranean Fleet early in her career. Becoming obsolete as Cruiser speeds increased, Renown became a Royal Yacht and had all of her secondary armament removed to make her more suitable for such duties. She became a Stoker's Training Ship in 1909 and was listed for disposal in 1913,she was sold for scrap in early 1914.

[jbryce1437]

Lovely photos Brian.
A few more pre Dreadnought battleships:


Agamemnon

HMS%20AGEMEMNON[2].jpg

hms Agamemnon[1].jpg

Barfleur

barfleur-(1890's.)-stb.side.jpg

Barfleur_04.jpg

Centurion

centurion%202[1].jpg

centurion[1].jpg

Lord Nelson

lord nel[1].jpg

lord-nelson-1908.jpg

Nile

HMS%20Nile[1].jpg

nile-(1896)-stern ply.jpg

Renown

COALING_ISLAND[1].jpg

renown-(1890)-pt.bow.jpg

Sans Pareil

Sans_Pareil_02.jpg

DSC_00126[1].jpg

Trafalgar

hms trafalgar[1].jpg

trafalgar-(1898)-valletta ply.jpg

[ivorthediver]

Curious screw configuration in the stern shot of the San Pareil vessel 2 Blade or others to be fitted as surely to soon for variable pitch screws

[Brian James]

Mersey Class,Second Class Cruiser HMS Thames in her role as a Depot Ship pictured alongside Admiral Class Battleship HMS Camperdown in her role as a Submarine Berthing Ship,tending to C Class Submarines HMS C33 and C38, at Chatham c1903.

[designeraccd]

The last pair of RN predreadnoughts. Interesting looking, even in my tiny JFS scale; totally over shadowed by the mighty DREADNOUGHT!

Specs (Wiki):

Displacement: Lord Nelson: 15,358 long tons (15,604 t) normal; 16,090 long tons (16,348 t) load; 17,820 long tons (18,106 t) deep
Agamemnon: 15,925 long tons (16,181 t) load; 17,683 long tons (17,967 t) deep

Length: 443 ft 6 in (135.18 m)
Beam: 79 ft 6 in (24.23 m)
Draught: 26 ft 0 in (8 m)
Installed power: 16,750 ihp (12,490 kW)
Propulsion: 2 shafts; 4-cylinder inverted vertical triple expansion steam engines
15 coal-fired water-tube boilers (Babcock & Wilcox in Lord Nelson; Water-tube boiler#Yarrow in Agamemnon) with oil sprayers

Speed: 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Range: 5,390 nmi (9,980 km; 6,200 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) with coal only
9,180 nmi (17,000 km; 10,560 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) with oil added
ca. 800 in wartime[1]

Armament: 2 × 2 - BL 12-inch 45-caliber Mark X guns
4 × 2, 2 × 1 - BL 9.2-inch Mark XI guns
24 × 1 - QF 12-pounder 18 cwt guns
2 × 1 - QF 3-pounder guns
5 × 18 inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes

Armour: Belt: 8–12 inches (203–305 mm)
Upper belt: 8 inches (203 mm)
Bulkheads: 8 inches (203 mm)
Citadel: 8 inches (203 mm)
Barbettes: 12 inches (305 mm)
12-inch (305-mm) gunhouses (turrets): 12 inches (305 mm)
9.2-inch (234-mm) gunhouses (turrets): 7–8 inches (178–203 mm)
Conning tower: 12 inches (305 mm)
Deck: 1–4 inches (25.4–102 mm)[2]

Site with many gr8 pics: http://www.navyingallipoli.com/b_predread.html DFO

[Brian James]

Majestic Class Pre-Dreadnought Battleship HMS Illustrious pictured in 1904.
She was built at Chatham Dockyard; her keel was laid down in March 1895, her completed hull was launched in September 1896, and she was commissioned into the fleet in April 1898. She was armed with a main battery of four 12-inch guns and a secondary battery of twelve 6-inch guns,with a top speed of 16 knots.
Illustrious was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet until 1904. Transferred to the Channel Fleet (which was subsequently reorganised to the Atlantic Fleet) she underwent a refit which was duly completed in early 1906. Rendered obsolete by the emergence of the new dreadnoughts, she served with the Home Fleet from 1908. One of the oldest Battleships in the Royal Navy when World War I broke out, she served as a Guard Ship at various regions around Northern England until late 1915. Her main armament was removed and she then served as a Store Ship for the remainder of the war. She was decommissioned in 1919 and scrapped the following year.

[Brian James]

Lead Ship,Pre-Dreadnought Battleship HMS Centurion pictured c1906.

[Brian James]

Lord Nelson Class Pre-Dreadnought Battleship HMS Agamemnon pictured c 1909.
She was one of two Lord Nelson Class Battleships launched in 1906 and completed in 1908.She was built at William Beardmore & Company,Dalmuir,Glasgow.She was the Royal Navy's second-to-last Pre-Dreadnought Battleship to be built, followed by her sister ship, Lord Nelson. She was assigned to the Channel Fleet when the First World War began in 1914.She was transferred to the Mediterranean Sea with Lord Nelson in early 1915 to participate in the Dardanelles Campaign. She made a number of bombardments against Turkish fortifications and in support of British troops. Agamemnon remained in the Mediterranean after the conclusion of that campaign to prevent the German Battlecruiser SMS Goeben and Light Cruiser Breslau from breaking out into the Mediterranean. Agamemnon shot down the German Zeppelin LZ85 during a bombing mission over Salonica in 1916. On October 30th 1918, the Ottoman Empire signed the Armistice of Mudros on board her while she was anchored at Lemnos in the northern Aegean Sea. She was converted to a radio-controlled Target Ship following her return to the United Kingdom in March 1919 and began service in 1921.Agamemnon was replaced by Centurion at the end of 1926 and sold for scrap in January 1927, the last Pre-Dreadnought in service with the Royal Navy.

[Brian James]

HMS Colossus was a Colossus Class second Class Battleship,launched at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1882 and commissioned in 1886. She had a displacement of 9,520 tons, and an armament of 4 × 12-inch breechloaders, 5 × 6-inch guns and had a respectable speed of 15.5 knots.
She was one of the first, if not the first, modern Battleship. She had several features which would be standard for all gun warships up to the Second World War including all steel construction, a main battery of breech loading major caliber guns (ie. 10 inches or greater) mounted in turrets and was propelled only by steam engines instead of a combination of steam and sails - as was common in the mid-19th century.