HMS Cornwallis (1901)

12-inch (305 mm) guns and they were broadly similar to the London-class battleships, though of a slightly reduced displacement and thinner armour layout. As such, they reflected a development of the lighter second-class ships of the Canopus-class battleship. Cornwallis was built between her keel laying

First World War. The 6th Squadron covered the crossing of the British Expeditionary Force to France in August 1914, and thereafter its ships were transferred to the 3rd Battle Squadron to reinforce the Grand Fleet on the Northern Patrol

Dardanelles campaign against the Ottoman Empire. She fired the first shots of the campaign on 19 February during a bombardment of Ottoman coastal defences. Over the following two months, she participated in numerous attacks on the forts that failed to destroy them, leading to the decision that a major ground attack would be necessary to neutralise the defences. Cornwallis supported the Landing at Cape Helles on 25 April and shelled Ottoman troops over the following month as the Allied soldiers sought to push further inland. She thereafter served with the Suez Canal Patrol and briefly on the East Indies Station until March 1916, when she returned to the Mediterranean. While on patrol off Malta on 9 January 1917, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German U-boat U-32

launched in 1898. The Russian ships were fast second-class battleships, so William Henry White, the British Director of Naval Construction, designed the Duncan class to match the purported top speed of the Russian vessels. To achieve the higher speed while keeping displacement from growing, White was forced to reduce the ships' armour protection significantly, effectively making the ships enlarged and improved versions of the Canopus-class battleships of 1896, rather than derivatives of the more powerful Majestic, Formidable, and London series of first-class battleships. The Duncans proved to be disappointments in service, owing to their reduced defensive characteristics, though they were still markedly superior to the Peresvets they had been built to counter.^[1]

amidships. The Duncan-class ships had a top speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) from 18,000 indicated horsepower (13,000 kW).^[2] This made Cornwallis and her sisters the fastest battleships in the world for several years. At a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph), the ship could steam for 6,070 nautical miles (11,240 km; 6,990 mi).^[3]

18-inch (457 mm) torpedo tubes submerged in the hull.^[2]

armoured belt that was 7 in (178 mm) thick; the transverse bulkhead on the aft end of the belt was 7 to 11 in (178 to 279 mm) thick. Her main battery turrets' sides were 8 to 10 in (203 to 254 mm) thick, atop 11 in (279 mm) barbettes, and the casemate battery was protected with 6 in of Krupp steel. Her conning tower had 12-inch-thick sides. She was fitted with two armoured decks, 1 and 2 in (25 and 51 mm) thick, respectively.^[2]

launched on 17 July 1901, when she was christened by Mrs. William L. Ainslie, wife of one of the directors. The launching ceremony was subdued, due to the Court mourning following the death of Queen Victoria, yet the launch was witnessed by a vast throng of spectators, including diplomats from the other naval powers at the time.^[5] She went to Chatham Dockyard to be armed and completed for sea in September 1902.^[6] The work was completed in February 1904.^[2]

Rear Admiral, on 25 August 1909.^[7]

6th Battle Squadron, Second Fleet, in March 1914.^[7]

3rd Battle Squadron in the Grand Fleet for patrol duties to make up for the Grand Fleet's shortage of cruisers. Accordingly, the 6th Battle Squadron was temporarily abolished, and Cornwallis joined the 3rd Battle Squadron at Scapa Flow on 8 August. The ships worked with Grand Fleet cruisers on the Northern Patrol to enforce the distant blockade of Germany.^[7][8]

antisubmarine defenses at Dover, the squadron returned to Portland on 19 November. The 6th Battle Squadron returned to Dover in December. Cornwallis was detached from the squadron in late December and assigned to West Ireland, where she was based at Clew Bay and Killarney Bay. She remained there until January 1915.^[7]

Kumkale at close range; at the same time, she used her 6-inch guns to attack the "Helles" battery. About an hour and a half later, the Ottoman coastal guns finally began to engage the Anglo-French fleet, and Cornwallis came under fire but was unscathed. By 17:20, with the setting sun beginning to silhouette his ships, Carden ordered the fleet to break off the attack and withdraw.^[9]

Émile Paul Amable Guépratte with Suffren and Charlemagne. These four battleships attacked the defences at close range, while several other battleships shelled them at longer range to suppress the Ottoman gun crews. The other ships began shelling the Ottoman fortresses in the late morning, and de Roebeck was given the order to begin his run into the narrows at 12:15. Cornwallis followed Vengeance at a distance of four cable lengths and the two ships made their initial pass into the straits before turning about to allow Guépratte room to manoeuvre. Neither ship was damaged in the attack and de Roebeck reported that several of the Ottoman batteries were no longer manned, so Guépratte began his run. His ships received only a single shot in return, so Carden ordered a group of minesweepers to enter the straits and begin clearing the naval mines. Cornwallis and most of the rest of the fleet were detached to return to Tenedos while a few ships remained behind to cover the minesweepers.^[10]

Intepe before joining the attack on Erenköy. She quickly neutralised the guns at Intepe before turning to shell those at Erenköy, which were also quickly suppressed. Cornwallis then fired two shells at Dardanus before de Roebeck recalled his ships, as the Ottoman guns all appeared to have been destroyed.^[12]

super-dreadnought Queen Elizabeth, with her eight 15-inch (380 mm) guns, to bombard the inner fortresses from the Aegean coast of the Gallipoli peninsula, while Cornwallis, Irresistible, and Canopus steamed in the strait to spot for Queen Elizabeth. Poor visibility and harassing fire from mobile Ottoman field guns prevented Queen Elizabeth from inflicting serious damage, and the attack was called off.^[14]

Bulair before leaving for Tenedos.^[15] Assigned to the 2nd Division during the major attack on the forts on 18 March, she did not take an active rule in the attack that saw the sinking of three Allied battleships. The repeated failures to destroy the coastal fortifications and force the straits led the British and French commanders to decide that a major landing of ground forces would be necessary to secure the peninsula and allow a direct attack on Constantinople.^[16]

armoured cruiser Euryalus, which was the flagship of Rear Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss, the 1st Squadron commander. Early on the morning of 25 April, the three ships moved into position, having taken on the men of the first three battalions to go ashore. After arriving in her bombardment location, Cornwallis transferred the soldiers to trawlers, which in turn transferred them to small boats to carry them ashore to V Beach. Wemyss instructed Cornwallis to shell the Ottoman defences until the men had landed, and then to support the landing ship River Clyde. Cornwallis conducted a heavy bombardment of the heights above V Beach as the British troops battled their way off the beach. By 10:00, the British troops had secured a beachhead, so Cornwallis left to support River Clyde that had been beached under heavy fire at Sedd el Bahr, but by this time, the decision had been made to refrain from landing the men stranded aboard River Clyde until nightfall, owing to the stiff Ottoman resistance.^[17]

Suvla Bay, in early December. Here, she supported the evacuation effort, though the Ottomans made no attempt to pursue the withdrawing troops on 18 December. Cornwallis fired extensively on 20 December to destroy equipment that could not be evacuated,^[19] expending some five hundred 12-inch shells and six thousand 6-inch shells. She was the last capital ship to leave the Suvla Bay area.^[7][20]

starboard, but counter-flooding corrected the list.^[23] She was also rendered immobilised, which made her an easy target for a second attack from U-32, which was able to evade the depth charge attack from Cornwallis's escorting destroyers. By this time, the British had begun preparations to take her under tow, but Hartwig launched another torpedo at long range.^[24] About 75 minutes after the first torpedo hit, another struck Cornwallis, also on the starboard side, and the ship rolled quickly to starboard.^[a] Fifteen men were killed in the torpedo explosions, but she stayed afloat long enough to get the rest of the crew off. She sank about 30 minutes after the second torpedo hit.^[23]