Bellerophon-class battleship
Superb at anchor, shortly after commissioning
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Class overview | |
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Operators | Royal Navy |
Preceded by | HMS Dreadnought |
Succeeded by | St Vincent class |
Built | 1906–1909 |
In service | 1909–1921 |
In commission | 1909–1921 |
Completed | 3 |
Scrapped | 3 |
General characteristics (as built) | |
Type | Dreadnought battleship |
Displacement | 18,596 long tons (18,894 t) (normal) |
Length | 526 ft (160.3 m) (o/a) |
Beam | 82 ft 6 in (25.1 m) |
Draught | 27 ft (8.2 m) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion | 4 × shafts; 2 × steam turbine sets |
Speed | 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) |
Range | 5,720 nmi (10,590 km; 6,580 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
Complement | 680–840 |
Armament |
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Armour |
The Bellerophon-class battleship was a group of three
In late 1918, Temeraire and Superb were transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet and supported Allied forces in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea after the war ended in November. The Bellerophons were deemed obsolete by this time and were reduced to reserve in 1919 and were then used as training ships. Superb was used for gunnery experiments in 1920 and then became a target ship in 1922 before being sold for scrap later that year. Bellerophon and Temeraire were sold in late 1921 and subsequently broken up.
Background and description
The
The Bellerophon-class ships had an
The Bellerophons were powered by two sets of
Armament and armour
In the interest of saving time, the Bellerophons retained the same main battery and turret layout as Dreadnought:
The 12-pounder (3-inch (76 mm)) guns with which Dreadnought was equipped to provide protection from
In order to accommodate the weight of the enlarged anti-
The three centreline barbettes were protected by armour 9 inches (229 mm) thick above the main deck that thinned to 5 inches (127 mm) below it, except for the rear barbette which was 9 inches thick for its entire height. The wing barbettes were similar except that they had 10 inches (254 mm) of armour on their outer faces. The gun turrets had 11-inch (279 mm) faces and sides with 3-inch roofs. The three armoured decks ranged in thicknesses from 0.75 inches (19 mm) to 4 inches. The front and sides of the forward conning tower were protected by 11-inch plates, although the rear and roof were 8 inches and 3 inches thick, respectively. The aft conning tower had 8-inch sides and a 3-inch roof. While Dreadnought had torpedo bulkheads that protected only the magazines, the Bellerophons had complete longitudinal bulkheads, 0.75 to 3 inches thick, that covered the sides of the hull between the fore and aft magazines.[12]
Fire control
Dreadnought's tripod foremast was positioned behind the forward funnel to allow the vertical leg to serve as a support for the boat-handling derrick. This meant that the hot funnel gases could render the spotting top uninhabitable in conditions of little or no wind. The Bellerophons had the foremast moved forward of the funnels to reduce the problem in the spotting top and a second tripod mast was added to handle the derrick, but it had to be positioned in front of the aft funnel to do that, which rendered the aft spotting top almost useless as it could be exposed to the exhaust plumes from both funnels under certain circumstances.[13]
The control positions for the main armament were located in the spotting tops at the head of the fore and
An experimental
Modifications
The guns on the forward turret roof were transferred to the superstructure in 1913–1914 on Bellerophon and on her sisters in 1914. During the first year of the war, the guns on the wing turrets were moved into the aft part of the superstructure. Sometime around 1915, the guns on the stern turret were removed as were a pair from the superstructure, which reduced their secondary armament to a total of twelve guns. About that time, a pair of 3-inch (76 mm)
Ships
Ship | Builder[9] | Laid down[9]
|
Launched[9] | Commissioned[21] | Cost (including armament) according to | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Burt[3] | Parkes[8] | |||||
Bellerophon | HM Dockyard, Portsmouth
|
6 December 1906 | 27 July 1907 | 20 February 1909 | £1,763,491 | £1,765,342 |
Temeraire | HM Dockyard, Devonport
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1 January 1907 | 24 August 1907 | 15 May 1909 | £1,744,287 | £1,751,144 |
Superb | Elswick
|
6 February 1907 | 7 November 1907 | 9 June 1909 | £1,676,529 | £1,641,114 |
Careers
Upon commissioning, all three ships were assigned to the 1st
Between 17 and 20 July 1914, the sisters took part in a test
Battle of Jutland
In an attempt to lure out and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, the German
Once Jellicoe's ships had rendezvoused with the
Subsequent activity
The Grand Fleet sortied on 18 August to ambush the High Seas Fleet while it advanced into the southern North Sea, but a series of miscommunications and mistakes prevented Jellicoe from intercepting the German fleet before it returned to port. Two light cruisers were sunk by German U-boats during the operation, prompting Jellicoe to decide to not risk the major units of the fleet south of 55° 30' North due to the prevalence of German submarines and mines. The Admiralty concurred and stipulated that the Grand Fleet would not sortie unless the German fleet was attempting an invasion of Britain or there was a strong possibility it could be forced into an engagement under suitable conditions.[28]
During June–September 1917, Bellerophon served as the
Superb and Temeraire returned home the following month after supporting Allied operations in the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea and were placed into reserve. Later that year, Temeraire was converted into a cadet training ship and continued on that duty until early 1921 when she was
Notes
- ^ Dreadnought was the first battleship with a homogenous main battery, and was the most powerful and fastest battleship in the world at the time of her completion. She made all other battleships obsolete and gave her name to all the subsequent battleships of her type.[1]
- quick-firing QF Mark III guns.[3] Neither book by Preston identify the type, but he does call them quick-firers.[4][9] Parkes also does not identify the type, but he does say that they were 50-calibre guns[8] and Preston agrees.[9] Friedman shows the QF Mark III as a 40-calibre gun and states that the 50-calibre BL Mark VII gun armed all of the early dreadnoughts.[10]
Citations
- ^ Konstam, pp. 4–5
- ^ Friedman 2015, pp. 95–97
- ^ a b c d e f Burt, p. 64
- ^ a b Preston 1972, p. 125.
- ^ Burt, pp. 31, 64
- ^ Friedman 2015, p. 97
- ^ Friedman 2011, pp. 59–61
- ^ a b c Parkes, p. 498
- ^ a b c d e Preston 1985, p. 22
- ^ Friedman, pp. 97–98
- ^ Friedman 2011, pp. 97–98
- ^ a b Burt, pp. 62, 64; Parkes, p. 498
- ^ Brooks 1995, pp. 41–42
- ^ Brooks 1995, pp. 40–41
- ^ Brooks 2005, p. 61
- ^ Brooks 2005, p. 48
- ^ Brooks 1996, p. 168
- ^ "H.M.S. Bellerophon (1907)". The Dreadnought Project. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
- ^ Brooks 2005, pp. 157–158, 175
- ^ Burt, pp. 66, 68–71
- ^ Burt, pp. 71–73
- ^ a b c Burt, pp. 71–74
- ^ Massie, pp. 19, 69
- ^ Burt, p. 73
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 54–55, 57–58
- ^ Corbett, p. 431 and frontispiece map
- ^ Campbell, pp. 156–57, 208, 210, 212, 231–32, 349
- ^ Halpern 1995, pp. 330–32
- ^ a b Burt, p. 71
- ^ Massie, p. 748
- ^ Newbolt, p. 353
- ^ Burt, p. 73; Halpern 2011, pp. 3, 12, 14–15, 17–18, 25
Bibliography
- Brooks, John (2005). Dreadnought Gunnery and the Battle of Jutland: The Question of Fire Control. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-40788-5.
- Brooks, John (1995). "The Mast and Funnel Question: Fire-control Positions in British Dreadnoughts". In Roberts, John (ed.). Warship 1995. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 40–60. ISBN 0-85177-654-X.
- Brooks, John (1996). "Percy Scott and the Director". In McLean, David; Preston, Antony (eds.). Warship 1996. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 150–170. ISBN 0-85177-685-X.
- ISBN 1-55750-315-X.
- Burt, R. A. (1986). British Battleships of World War One. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-863-8.
- Campbell, N. J. M. (1986). Jutland: An Analysis of the Fighting. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-324-5.
- ISBN 1-870423-50-X.
- ISBN 978-1-84832-225-7.
- Friedman, Norman (2011). Naval Weapons of World War One: Guns, Torpedoes, Mines and ASW Weapons of All Nations; An Illustrated Directory. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-100-7.
- Halpern, Paul, ed. (2011). The Mediterranean Fleet 1920–1929. Navy Records Society Publications. Vol. 158. Farnham, UK: Ashgate. ISBN 978-1-4094-2756-8.
- Halpern, Paul G. (1995). A Naval History of World War I. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-352-4.
- OCLC 13614571.
- ISBN 978-1-78096-167-5.
- ISBN 0-679-45671-6.
- ISBN 0-89839-255-1.
- ISBN 1-55750-075-4.
- Preston, Antony (1972). Battleships of World War I: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Battleships of All Nations 1914–1918. New York: Galahad Books. ISBN 0-88365-300-1.
- ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
- Tarrant, V. E. (1999) [1995]. Jutland: The German Perspective: A New View of the Great Battle, 31 May 1916. London: Brockhampton Press. ISBN 1-86019-917-8.
External links
- World War I Naval Combat - HMS Bellerophon
- MaritimeQuest Bellerophon Class Overview
- Dreadnought Project Technical material on the weaponry and fire control for the ships