HMS Irresistible (1898)
Irresistible in 1914
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History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Name | Irresistible |
Builder | Chatham Dockyard |
Laid down | 11 April 1898 |
Launched | 15 December 1898 |
Completed | October 1901 |
Commissioned | 4 February 1902 |
Fate | Mined and sunk, 18 March 1915 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Formidable-class battleship |
Displacement |
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Length | 431 ft 9 in (131.6 m) o/a |
Beam | 75 ft (22.9 m) |
Draught | 25 ft 11 in (7.90 m) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion |
|
Speed | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
Range | 5,500 nmi (10,190 km; 6,330 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
Complement | 780 |
Armament |
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Armour |
HMS Irresistible—the fourth British
Following the outbreak of
Design
The design for the Formidable class was prepared in 1897; it was an incremental improvement over the preceding Majestic and Canopus classes. Formidable adopted the larger size of the Majestics, while taking the stronger Krupp armour of the Canopus design. In addition, the new design incorporated longer (and thus more powerful) main and secondary guns and an improved hull form. These characteristics produced a ship with better armour protection than either earlier class, and the same high speed of Canopus.[1]
Irresistible was 431 feet 9 inches (131.6 m)
Irresistible had a
Irresistible had an armoured belt that was 9 inches (229 mm) thick; the transverse bulkheads on either end of the belt were 9 to 12 in (229 to 305 mm) thick. Her main battery turret sides were 8 to 10 in (203 to 254 mm) thick, atop 12 in (305 mm) barbettes, and the casemate battery was protected with 6 in of Krupp steel. Her conning tower had 14 in (356 mm) thick sides as well. She was fitted with two armoured decks, 1 and 3 in (25 and 76 mm) thick, respectively.[2]
Service history
Pre-World War I
The
She suffered two mishaps during her years in the Mediterranean, colliding with the Norwegian merchant steamer
World War I
Britain entered the
Dardanelles campaign
On 1 February 1915, Irresistible sailed from Sheerness in company with the battleship Majestic, bound for the eastern Mediterranean Sea. There, the British and French fleets, under the overall command of British Admiral Sackville Carden, were preparing to launch a major attack on the Dardanelles strait; the Entente commanders hoped to force the Dardanelles and enter the Sea of Marmara, where they could attack the capital of the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople, directly. She took part in the opening bombardment of the Ottoman forts guarding the entrance to the Çanakkale (Dardanelles) on 18–19 February as part of the 2nd Division, though she did not actively engage the Ottoman coastal defences during the attack.[15]
Another attack took place on 25 February; Irresistible and the battleship Agamemnon being tasked with providing long-range covering fire while other battleships closed with the fortresses to engage them directly. During their operation, the battleship Albion came under fire from the 9.4-inch (239 mm) guns from Battery "Orkaniye". Counter fire from Irresistible forced the Ottomans to cease firing, knocking out two guns in the process. By 15:00, the leading British and French battleships had silenced the Ottoman guns, allowing for minesweepers to advance and attempt to clear the minefields; most of the fleet withdrew while the minesweepers worked. By clearing these fields, Allied warships could now enter the Dardanelles themselves, opening the route to attack additional fortifications around the town of Dardanus. While other vessels shelled the forts there, Irresistible and the battleship Vengeance sent men ashore to destroy an abandoned artillery battery near Kumkale, with both ships remaining off shore to support the raid. The 75-man team from Irresistible landed unopposed at Sedd el Bahr, but quickly came under attack from a superior Ottoman force and was compelled to retreat. 6-inch fire from Irresistible broke up the Ottoman attack, however, and the landing party was able to make their way to the fort, where they found four of the six heavy guns still operable. They destroyed the guns with gunpowder from the Ottoman magazine before proceeding to Fort Helles. The Ottoman defences were too strong there, and so the British party retreated after they destroyed a pair of 12-pounder guns outside the fort.[12][16]
Two days later, Irresistible repeated the operation with another 78-man landing party under the command of Lieutenant F. H. Sandford, again at Sedd el Bahr. This time, the target was a battery of six 6-inch
On 3 March, another attack was launched against the fortresses, and Irresistible contributed a reconnaissance party that went ashore under cover of a heavy bombardment from the fleet's battleships. During their exploration of the area around Erenköy, they discovered a battery of six 15-pounder field guns, which they destroyed. They proceeded to the main fort and found that it had been evacuated under the heavy bombardment. Again, they returned to the ship with no casualties. The next day, a larger landing force of marines went ashore; Irresistible provided support off Kumkale. After the landing party came under sniper fire from windmills above the village, Irresistible demolished them before shifting fire to the town itself. The Ottoman fire proved to be too heavy, however, and the marines had to retreat to their ships.[18] Irresistible remained de Robeck's flagship until 6 March, when Vengeance returned.[12]
The next attack came on 8 March; the powerful
Loss
By mid-March, it had become clear that the plan to sweep the minefields had failed. In response, de Robeck, who had succeeded Carden as the commander of the Dardanelles campaign, proposed to launch a major daylight attack on the fortresses, suppress them as best as possible at longer range, and to clear the minefields at the same time. This would then allow the battleships to demolish the forts at close range. Ottoman opposition was expected to be very heavy, as they had been reinforcing their defences throughout the campaign; by this time, they had massed forty-two guns 8 inches (203 mm) or larger, along with numerous mobile field guns. The attack was launched on 18 March, and Irresistible was again part of 2nd Division, which formed the second wave of the attack. Irresistible joined the fray at 14:39, shortly after the French battleship Bouvet was mined and sunk in the straits; she and several other battleships attempted to suppress Ottoman guns that were firing on boats that were picking up survivors from Bouvet. Irresistible engaged the "Namazieh" Battery, which at that time was not actively firing. She quickly came under heavy fire from the "Hamidieh I" battery, which targeted the ship with four-shell salvos.[20]
At 15:14, Irresistible was rocked by an explosion, and by 15:32, had begun to take on a list, prompting de Robeck to order her to withdraw to avoid further damage. At 16:15, Irresistible, having idled her engines, struck a mine that caused extensive damage to the ship. The mine detonated under her starboard engine room, flooding it and killing all but three of the men on duty there. The bulkhead that divided the starboard from the port engine room collapsed under the sudden weight of water, disabling that engine as well. Unable to maneuver, with a list of 7 degrees to starboard, and down by the stern, Irresistible became an attractive target for the Ottoman gunners. She drifted helplessly into range of Turkish guns, which laid down a heavy fire on her. Her main gun turrets began to malfunction, and she was obscured by smoke and spray. De Robeck ordered the battleship Ocean to take her under tow and pull her out of range of the Ottoman guns, and the destroyer Wear came alongside and rescued most of the crew—28 officers and 582 men—despite the punishing Ottoman shelling. A group of ten men remained aboard to try to secure a line from Ocean. By the time Ocean had arrived it had become clear that Irresistible could not be saved. Her list had increased and the fire from the Ottoman guns had become very heavy, so the remaining men were evacuated and Ocean began to withdraw.[12][21]
With the heavy losses that day—Bouvet, Irresistible, and Ocean, which had been mined and disabled after withdrawing from her attempt to rescue Irresistible—de Robeck issued the order to break off the attack.[22] That evening, the destroyer Jed entered the Dardanelles to torpedo and sink the two abandoned battleships to prevent their capture in case they had remained afloat, but could find no sign of them. The Ottomans later reported that the derelict Irresistible had drifted closer to shore and suffered further severe damage from their shore batteries before sinking at about 19:30. Irresistible's crew suffered about 150 casualties during her sinking.[12][10]
Notes
- ^ Burt, p. 190.
- ^ a b c Lyon & Roberts, p. 36.
- ^ Burt, p. 173.
- ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36683. London. 5 February 1902. p. 10.
- ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36724. London. 25 March 1902. p. 9.
- ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36783. London. 2 June 1902. p. 9.
- ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36845. London. 13 August 1902. p. 8.
- ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36966. London. 1 January 1903. p. 4.
- ^ Burt, pp. 204–205.
- ^ a b c d Preston, p. 8.
- ^ Burt, p. 174.
- ^ a b c d e f Burt, p. 205.
- ^ Corbett 1920, pp. 76, 98, 259–262.
- ^ Burt, p. 201.
- ^ Corbett 1921, pp. 142–145.
- ^ Corbett 1921, pp. 157–165.
- ^ Corbett 1921, pp. 165–168.
- ^ Corbett 1921, pp. 172–173, 178–181.
- ^ Corbett 1921, pp. 193–195, 205–206.
- ^ Corbett 1921, pp. 213–216, 219.
- ^ Corbett 1921, pp. 219–221.
- ^ Corbett 1921, pp. 221–222.
References
- Burt, R. A. (2013) [1988]. British Battleships 1889–1904. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-173-1.
- OCLC 174823980.
- Corbett, Julian Stafford (1921). Naval Operations: From The Battle of the Falklands to the Entry of Italy Into the War in May 1915. Vol. II. London: Longmans, Green & Co. OCLC 924170059.
- Lyon, David & Roberts, John (1979). "Great Britain and Empire Forces". In Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M. (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 1–113. ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5.
- Preston, Antony (1985). "Great Britain and Empire Forces". In Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. pp. 1–104. ISBN 978-0-87021-907-8.
Further reading
- Dittmar, F. J. & Colledge, J. J. (1972). British Warships 1914–1919. London: Ian Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-0380-4.
- Gibbons, Tony (1983). The Complete Encyclopedia of Battleships and Battlecruisers: A Technical Directory of All the World's Capital Ships From 1860 to the Present Day. London: Salamander Books Ltd. ISBN 978-0-86101-142-1.
- Parkes, Oscar (1990) [1957]. British Battleships. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-075-5.
- Pears, Randolph (1979). British Battleships 1892–1957: The Great Days of the Fleets. London: G. Cave Associates. ISBN 978-0-906223-14-7.