As the new HMS Queen Elizabeth is being readied to enter service, Paul Brown recalls the previous warship of the name, a battleship which saw action in both world wars.
On 16 October 1913 the battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth slid down the ways in Portsmouth Dockyard watched by 70,000 spectators and accompanied by all the ritual and panoply of a battleship launch in peacetime. Her keel had been laid just under a year earlier, on Trafalgar Day, 21 October. She was the first of a new class of five super-Dreadnoughts that would be bigger, faster, more powerfully armed and more heavily armoured than any of her predecessors. And, for the first time in a British battleship, she would be oil-rather than coal-fired.
While the Admiralty was nervous about being reliant on imported oil rather than home-mined coal, Winston Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty, persuaded the government to invest in the Persian oilfields to secure supply. To achieve a speed of 24 knots, three knots faster than the preceding Iron Duke class, required doubling the power output of the steam turbines and employing 24 boilers, six more than in Iron Duke. The boilers were arranged in four adjacent compartments, aft of which were four engine rooms. The new ships would provide a fast wing for the Grand Fleet and, it was considered, obviate the need for more battle cruisers.
Four Queen Elizabeths were ordered in 1912, and a fifth was added in 1913. The decision was taken to design and mount a new 15-inch gun in four twin turrets in order to outgun the 14-inch guns of new Japanese and American battleships, and in the knowledge that Germany was to increase the calibre of its battleships’ main armaments.
The main armament was complemented by 16 quick firing six-inch guns, mounted in case mates on either side of the hull. The four guns under the quarterdeck were found to flood in heavy weather or at high speed, so were soon removed and two single guns in shields were fitted amidships above the case mated guns there.
Esta historia es de la edición November 2017 de Ships Monthly.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición November 2017 de Ships Monthly.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
PROPULSION REVOLUTION
Jim Shaw summarises the efforts being made by the world’s shipping industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships, and how these efforts are reshaping marine propulsion and vessel design in light of new IMO 2020 regulations.
THE HISTORIC FERRY BORE
Thomas Rinaldi profiles the historic motor ship Bore, now a combination museum and hotel ship docked permanently in Turku, originally built in 1960 by Oskarshamn shipyard in Sweden as the car/passenger ferry Bore for the Steamship Company Bore.
On duty from the Thames to Mesopotamia
Russell Plummer recalls the contribution made by excursion ships and ferry paddle steamers, large and small, during the two World Wars.
Space Ships
Patrick Boniface describes the ocean ships that recovered the space ships involved in the Apollo and Skylab missions of the 1960s and 1970s.
Hebridean Isles West Coast Stalwart
Marking her 35th anniversary in 2020, Caledonian MacBrayne’s long-serving stalwart Hebridean Isles can be found as one of two regular vessels serving Islay on Scotland’s west coast. Mark Nicolson looks at a vessel which is a popular sight wherever she goes, with her name appropriately reflecting the areas served by CalMac.
Spirit Of Discovery
Saga Cruises’ first new cruise ship in its history, Spirit of Discovery, made her debut in July. William Mayes went on board to assess the facilities on the new ship, which is arguably the most significant new cruise ship for Britain since Oriana of 1995.
Bravo!
Memories of the decrepit-looking cargo ship Bravoaltona arriving at Avonmouth in September 1976, and an awareness of a fleet of former Dutch ships with names commencing Bravo, led Malcolm Cranfield to research two different Greek-owned fleets.
The World's Biggest Ships
A decade and a half ago Ships Monthly reported on the world’s biggest ships and most have continued to grow, as Jim Shaw reports.
ACL G4 Class Profile Of The New G4 Class Of Con-ros
Matt Davies goes behind the scenes on Atlantic Container Line’s new G4 ships, which are the largest con-ros in the world.
A Great British Ship
SS Great Britain is a ship worthy of the name ‘Great’. When launched in 1843, she was the biggest ship in the world, had an iron hull and was fitted with a steam-powered propeller. James Hendrie describes her career, which ended with her being placed on display in Bristol, the city where she was built.
