HMS Empress of India
Empress of India at anchor, 1906
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History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Name | HMS Empress of India |
Namesake | Regnal title of Queen Victoria |
Ordered | 1889 Naval Programme |
Builder | Pembroke Dockyard |
Cost | £912,612 |
Laid down | 9 July 1889 |
Launched | 7 May 1891 |
Completed | August 1893 |
Commissioned | 11 September 1893 |
Out of service | Early 1912 |
Fate | Sunk as target, 4 November 1913 |
General characteristics (as built) | |
Class and type | predreadnought battleship |
Displacement | 14,150 long tons (14,380 t) (normal) |
Length | 380 ft (115.8 m) (pp) |
Beam | 75 ft (22.9 m) |
Draught | 27 ft 6 in (8.4 m) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion | 2 shafts; 2 Triple-expansion steam engines |
Speed | 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph) |
Range | 4,720 nmi (8,740 km; 5,430 mi) @ 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
Complement | 692 (as flagship, 1903) |
Armament |
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Armour |
HMS Empress of India was one of seven
Design and description
The design of the Royal Sovereign-class ships was derived from that of the
Propulsion
The Royal Sovereigns were powered by a pair of three-cylinder, vertical
Armament
Their main armament consisted of four
Armour
The Royal Sovereigns' armour scheme was similar to that of the Trafalgars, as the waterline belt of compound armour only protected the area between the barbettes. The 14–18-inch (356–457 mm) belt and transverse bulkheads 14–16 inches (356–406 mm) thick closed off the ends of the belt. Above the belt was a strake of 4-inch (102 mm) nickel-steel armour closed off by 3-inch (76 mm) transverse bulkheads.[2] The barbettes were protected by compound armour, ranging in thickness from 11 to 17 inches (279 to 432 mm) and the casemates for the 6-inch guns had a thickness equal to their diameter. The thicknesses of the armour deck ranged from 2.5 to 3 inches (64 to 76 mm). The walls of the forward conning tower were 12–14 inches (305–356 mm) thick and the aft conning tower was protected by 3-inch plates.[3]
Construction and career
HMS Empress of India, named after a
Empress of India was commissioned at Chatham on 11 September 1893 to relieve the ironclad battleship
The ship arrived at
Empress of India was assigned to the Home Fleet on 7 May 1902, in which she served as flagship in port and as flagship of the second-in-command when the fleet was at sea. The ship participated in the
That same day, Empress of India recommissioned in reserve at Devonport and relieved the battleship Barfleur as flagship of the new Fleet in Commission in Reserve at Home. In July 1905 she participated in Reserve Fleet manoeuvres. In September 1905, the protected cruiser Aeolus relieved her of her duties, but she recommissioned on 31 October 1905 with a new nucleus crew to resume her Reserve Fleet duties. She then underwent a refit that lasted into 1906.[8] Empress of India collided with the submarine A10 in Plymouth Sound on 30 April 1906.[8]
When the Reserve Fleet was abolished in February 1907 and became the Home Fleet, Empress of India continued her service as flagship, but now for the Rear-Admiral, Devonport Division. On 25 May she was relieved as flagship by the protected cruiser
Sinking
On 4 November 1913,
When Empress of India sank, she settled upside-down on the seabed, and some salvage was soon carried out by a Jersey company which owned the rights to the vessel. A big hole in her side was made not by a shell, but by salvage divers removing a condenser. The wreck is accessible and is a deep dive for recreational divers.[23]
Details of the firing are given in the table below.[22]
Ship firing | Type of ship | Range | Firing order | Ammunition | Fired | Hits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liverpool | Light cruiser | 4,750 yd (4,340 m) | First | 6-inch HE shell
|
16 | 7 |
4-inch (102 mm) HE shell | 66 | 22 | ||||
Thunderer Orion |
Dreadnought battleship | 9,800 yd (9,000 m) | Second | 13.5-inch common shell | 40 | 17 |
King Edward VII | Predreadnought battleship | 9,800 yd (9,000 m) | Second | 12-inch common shell | 16 | 5 |
9.2-inch (234 mm) common shell | 18 | 7 | ||||
6-inch common shell | 27 | 5 | ||||
Neptune King George V Thunderer Vanguard |
Dreadnought battleships | 8,000–10,000 yd (7,300–9,100 m) | Third | 13.5-inch and 12-inch common shell |
95 | 22 |
Notes
- ^ Gardiner, p. 116; Parkes, pp. 359
- ^ a b c d Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 32
- ^ a b c d e Burt, p. 73
- ^ Parkes, p. 355
- ^ Burt, pp. 73, 85, 87, 100
- ^ Silverstone, p. 229
- ^ Colledge, p. 244
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Burt, p. 100
- ^ Phillips, pp. 245–46
- ^ a b c Parkes, p. 362
- ^ McTiernan, p. 36.
- ^ The British in Crete, 1896 to 1913: Ottomans Evacuate Crete
- ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36577. London. 4 October 1901. p. 8.
- ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36582. London. 10 October 1901. p. 8.
- ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36715. London. 14 March 1902. p. 9.
- ^ "The Coronation - Naval Review". The Times. No. 36845. London. 13 August 1902. p. 4.
- ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36852. London. 21 August 1902. p. 8.
- ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36857. London. 27 August 1902. p. 4.
- ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36869. London. 10 September 1902. p. 8.
- ^ But note that Burt, p. 92, places the relief date on 9 May
- ^ Burt, p. 92
- ^ a b c d e Brown, pp. 176–77
- ^ "HMS Empress of India Wreck in Lyme Bay". Teign Dive. Teign Diving Centre. Archived from the original on 8 May 2016. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
References
- Brown, David K. (1997). Warrior to Dreadnought: Warship Development 1860–1905. London: Chatham. ISBN 1-86176-022-1.
- Burt, R. A. (2013). British Battleships 1889–1904. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-065-8.
- Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
- ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
- Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1992). Steam, Steel and Shellfire: The Steam Warship 1815–1905. Conway's History of the Ship. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 1-55750-774-0.
- McTiernan, Mick, A Very Bad Place Indeed For a Soldier. The British involvement in the early stages of the European Intervention in Crete. 1897 - 1898, King's College, London, September 2014.
- ISBN 1-55750-075-4.
- Phillips, Lawrie; Lieutenant Commander (2014). Pembroke Dockyard and the Old Navy: A Bicentennial History. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7509-5214-9.)
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-88254-979-0.