HMS Tiger (1913)
foremast
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Class overview | |
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Operators | |
Preceded by | Queen Mary |
Succeeded by | Renown class |
Built | 1912–1914 |
In commission | 1914–1931 |
Completed | 1 |
Scrapped | 1 |
History | |
United Kingdom | |
Name | Tiger |
Builder | John Brown and Company, Clydebank |
Laid down | 20 June 1912 |
Launched | 15 December 1913 |
Commissioned | 3 October 1914 |
Decommissioned | 15 May 1931 |
Fate | Sold for scrap, February 1932 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Battlecruiser |
Displacement | 28,500 long tons (29,000 t) (normal) |
Length | 704 ft (214.6 m) ( o/a ) |
Beam | 90 ft 6 in (27.6 m) |
Draught | 32 ft 5 in (9.9 m) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion | 4 × shafts; 2 × steam turbine sets |
Speed | 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph) |
Complement | 1,112 (September 1914) |
Armament |
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Armour |
HMS Tiger was a
The ship was the oldest battlecruiser retained by the Royal Navy after the tonnage limits of the
In his book, The Price of Admiralty, British military historian John Keegan described her as "certainly the most beautiful warship in the world then, and perhaps ever[.]"[1]
Design and description
Tiger was the sole battlecruiser authorised in the 1911–12 Naval Programme. According to naval historian Siegfried Breyer, a sister ship named Leopard was considered in the 1912–13 Programme and deferred until 1914 as a sixth member of the Queen Elizabeth class,[2] but there is no record of any additional battlecruiser being provided for in any naval estimates before 1914.[3][4][5]
Tiger had an
Propulsion
Tiger had two paired sets of Brown-Curtis direct-drive steam turbines housed in separate engine-rooms. Each set consisted of high-pressure ahead and astern turbines driving an outboard shaft and low-pressure ahead and astern turbines, housed in the same casing, driving an inner shaft.[8] Her three-bladed propellers were 13 feet 6 inches (4.11 m) in diameter.[9] The turbines were powered by 39 Babcock & Wilcox water-tube boilers in five boiler rooms at a working pressure of 235 psi (1,620 kPa; 17 kgf/cm2).[10] The turbines were designed to produce a total of 85,000 shaft horsepower (63,000 kW) and a maximum of 108,000 shp (81,000 kW) when forced, but only achieved 104,635 shp (78,026 kW) during her sea trials, although she managed to exceed her maximum designed speed of 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph) by over a knot.[11]
The ship's fuel stowage capacity was 3,800 long tons (3,900 t) of
Armament
Tiger mounted eight 45-
Her secondary armament consisted of twelve
Four
Fire control
The main guns of Tiger were controlled from either of the two
Fire-control technology advanced quickly during the years immediately preceding the First World War and the development of the director firing system was a major advance. This consisted of a fire-control director mounted high in the ship which electrically provided elevation and training angles to the turrets via pointers, which the turret crewmen had only to follow. The director layer fired the guns simultaneously by an electrical trigger which aided in spotting the shell splashes and minimised the effects of the roll on the dispersion of the shells.[25]
During the war, Tiger's rangefinders had increased in number and in size. By the end of the war, 'A' and 'Q' turrets mounted 25-foot (7.6 m) rangefinders while 'X' turret, the armoured hood above the conning tower (also known as the gun control tower), and the torpedo control tower had 15-foot (4.6 m) instruments. A 12-foot (3.7 m) rangefinder was fitted in the fore-top and three 9-foot (2.7 m) instruments were fitted on 'B' turret, the gun control tower and above the compass platform. A high-angle 6-foot-6-inch (2.0 m) rangefinder was mounted above the roof of the fore-top for use by the anti-aircraft guns.[7]
Armour
Tiger's armour protection was similar to that of Queen Mary; her waterline
Like the
The gun turrets had 9-inch front and sides while their roofs were 2.5 to 3.25 inches (64 to 83 mm) thick. The
Service history
First World War
Tiger was laid down at the
Tiger was commissioned for the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron (1st BCS) on 3 October.
Battle of Dogger Bank
On 23 January 1915, a force of German battlecruisers under the command of Admiral Franz von Hipper sortied to clear the Dogger Bank of any British fishing boats or small craft that might be there to collect intelligence on German movements. However, the British were reading their coded messages and sailed to intercept them with a larger force of British battlecruisers under the command of Admiral Beatty. Contact was initiated at 07:20[Note 4] on the 24th, when the British light cruiser Arethusa spotted the German light cruiser Kolberg. By 07:35, the Germans had spotted Beatty's force and Hipper ordered a turn to the south at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph), believing this would suffice if the ships he saw to his north-west were British battleships and that he could always increase speed to Blücher's maximum speed of 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph) if they were British battlecruisers.[37]
Beatty ordered his battlecruisers to make all practicable speed to catch the Germans before they could escape. The leading ships, Lion, Princess Royal and Tiger, were doing 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph) in pursuit and Lion opened fire at 08:52 at a range of 20,000 yards (18,000 m). The other ships followed a few minutes later but, hampered by the extreme range and decreasing visibility, they did not score their first hit on Blücher until 09:09. The German battlecruisers opened fire themselves a few minutes later at 09:11, at a range of 18,000 yards (16,000 m), and concentrated their fire on Lion. At 09:35, Beatty signalled "Engage the corresponding ships in the enemy's line", but Captain Pelly, believing that Indomitable was already engaging Blücher, fired at Seydlitz, as did Lion, which left Moltke free to continue attacking Lion without risk.[38]
In the meantime, Blücher had been heavily damaged by fire from all the other battlecruisers; her speed had dropped to 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) and her steering gear had been jammed. Beatty ordered Indomitable to attack her at 10:48. Six minutes later, Beatty spotted what he thought was a submarine periscope on the starboard bow and ordered an immediate 90° turn to port to avoid the submarine, although he failed to hoist the "Submarine Warning" flag because most of Lion's signal halyards had been shot away. Shortly afterward, Lion lost her remaining dynamo to the rising water which knocked out all remaining light and power. He ordered "Course north-east" at 11:02 to bring his ships back to their pursuit of Hipper. He also hoisted "Attack the rear of the enemy" on the other halyard, although there was no connection between the two signals. Rear-Admiral Sir Gordon Moore, temporarily commanding in New Zealand, thought that the signals meant for him to attack Blücher, which was about 8,000 yards (7,300 m) to the north-east, which he did, turning away from Hipper's main body. Beatty tried to correct the mistake, but he was so far behind the leading battlecruisers that his signals could not be read amidst the smoke and haze.[39]
He transferred his flag to the destroyer Attack at 11:50 and set off in pursuit of his battlecruisers. He caught up to them shortly before Blücher sank and boarded Princess Royal at 12:20. He ordered the pursuit of the German battlecruisers to be resumed, but rescinded the order when it became clear that too much time had been wasted sinking Blücher and Hipper's ships would be able to reach German waters before the British could catch them. Lion was headed home at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) when the rest of the battlecruisers caught up with her around 12:45.[40]
During the action, Tiger was hit by six German shells, the most significant of which was a 28-centimetre (11 in) shell that burst on the roof of 'Q' turret. Although most of the shell was deflected overboard, fragments penetrated the roof, damaged the left gun's
Battle of Jutland
On 31 May 1916, Tiger and the 1st BCS had put to sea with the rest of the Battlecruiser Fleet, under Beatty's overall command, to intercept a sortie by the
This was later characterised as the "Run to the South" as Beatty changed course to steer east-southeast at 15:45, now paralleling Hipper's course less than 18,000 yards (16,000 m) away. The Germans opened fire first at 15:48, followed by the British. The British ships were still in the process of making their turn as only the two leading ships, Lion and Princess Royal, had steadied on their course when the Germans opened fire. The 1st BCS was
The German battlecruisers made their own turn north in pursuit,[55] but Beatty's ships maintained full speed, and gradually moved out of range. The British battlecruisers turned north, then north-east, to try to rendezvous with the main body of the Grand Fleet, and at 17:40 opened fire again on their German counterparts. The setting sun blinded the German gunners and they could not make out the British ships and turned away to the north-east at 17:47.[56] Beatty gradually turned toward the east so his ships could cover the Grand Fleet as it deployed into battle formation, but he mistimed his manoeuvre and forced the leading British division further from the Germans. By 18:35, Beatty was following the 3rd BCS as they were leading the Grand Fleet east-southeast, and continuing to engage Hipper's battlecruisers to their south-west. A few minutes earlier, Scheer had ordered a simultaneous 180° starboard turn, and Beatty lost sight of them in the haze.[57] At 18:44, Beatty turned his ships south-east, then south-southeast four minutes later, to find Hipper's force. He then ordered the two surviving ships of the 3rd BCS to take position astern of New Zealand, while slowing to 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) and altering course to the south to stay close to the Grand Fleet. At this moment, Lion's gyrocompass failed, and she—followed by the rest of the battlecruisers—made a complete circle before her steering was brought back under control.[58] At 18:55, Scheer ordered another 180° turn, which put the German ships on a converging course again with the Grand Fleet. However, the British had altered course to the south, allowing the Grand Fleet to cross Scheer's "T" and inflict damage on the leading German ships. Scheer ordered yet another 180° turn at 19:13, and successfully extricated the High Seas Fleet from the trap his manoeuvring caused.[59]
The British lost sight of the Germans until Castor spotted smoke to the west-northwest at 20:05, then identified and engaged several German torpedo boats. On hearing the sound of gunfire, Beatty ordered his ships west, and spotted the German battlecruisers only 8,500 yards (7,800 m) away. Inflexible opened fire at 20:20, followed almost immediately by the rest of the battlecruisers.[60] Shortly after 8:30, the pre-dreadnought battleships of Rear Admiral Franz Mauve's II Battle Squadron were spotted. The British battlecruisers and German pre-dreadnoughts exchanged fire; the Germans fired only a few times before turning away to the west because of poor visibility and the more accurate British gunnery, and disappeared into the mist around 20:40. Beatty's battlecruisers sailed south-southeast, ahead of both the Grand Fleet and the High Seas Fleet, until the order to reverse course for home was given at 02:55.[61]
Tiger and the rest of the battlecruisers reached Rosyth Dockyard in Scotland on the morning of 2 June. Docked the next day for repairs which took until 1 July, she was the first of the "Splendid Cats" to be repaired. Tiger was hit a total of 18 times during the battle, mostly by shells fired by Moltke, suffering 24 men killed and 46 wounded. The battlecruiser fired 303 shells from her main guns during the battle and is credited with one hit on Moltke and two on Von der Tann. The ship also fired 136 rounds from her 6-inch guns at the light cruiser Wiesbaden and German destroyers.[47]
Post-Jutland service
After her repairs were completed, Tiger served as the temporary flagship of the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron while Lion was under repair.
The ship received a lengthy refit from 10 November 1916 to 29 January 1917 at Rosyth[29] where her deck and turret roof armour were reinforced and additional rangefinders were added over her conning tower and the rear of 'X' turret.[24] For the remainder of the war, Tiger uneventfully patrolled the North Sea, as both fleets were essentially forbidden to risk any more losses. She provided support for British light forces involved in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight on 17 November 1917, but never came within range of any German forces.[65] The same year saw her undergo a minor refit during which a flying-off platform for a Sopwith Camel was mounted on 'Q' turret and a searchlight platform was added to her third funnel. She underwent a more extensive refit in 1918 which saw her topmast shifted to the top of the derrick-stump and a more substantial observation platform added to the foremast. Some of her short rangefinders were replaced by longer ones as well.[24]
Post-war
Tiger remained in service with the Royal Navy after the
Tiger took the cheers of the Atlantic Fleet on 30 March 1931 at
Notes
- ^ "Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 30 cwt referring to the weight of the gun.
- ^ The British used asterisks to denote small changes between models.
- ^ Parkes attributed her general layout to the influence of the Kongo design,[28] but there is no evidence of that in the surviving documentation.[27]
- ^ The times used in this article are in UTC, which is one hour behind CET, which is often used in German works.
Footnotes
- ^ Keegan, p. 132
- ^ Breyer, p. 135
- ^ Brown, p. 60
- ^ "The Navy Estimates". News. The Times. No. 39529. London. 10 March 1911. col A, p. 7.
- ^ "The Navy Estimates". News. The Times. No. 40159. London. 14 March 1913. col G, p. 9.
- ^ Roberts 1997, pp. 43, 45
- ^ a b Burt 1986, p. 213
- ^ Roberts 1978, p. 88
- ^ Roberts 1997, p. 76
- ^ a b c d Burt 1986, p. 212
- ^ Roberts 1997, pp. 76, 80
- ^ Parkes, p. 556
- ^ Roberts 1978, p. 11
- ^ Roberts 1978, p. 89
- ^ Campbell, p. 35
- ^ Friedman, pp. 49–52
- ^ a b c d Roberts 1997, p. 83
- ^ Friedman, pp. 81–82
- ^ Friedman, pp. 108–110
- ^ a b Campbell, p. 36
- ^ Friedman, p. 331
- ^ Brooks, p. 170
- ^ Roberts 1997, pp. 91–92
- ^ a b c d Burt 1986, p. 219
- ^ Roberts 1997, pp. 92–93
- ^ Burt 1986, p. 214
- ^ a b Roberts 1978, p. 4
- ^ Parkes, p. 553
- ^ a b c Roberts 1997, pp. 112–113
- ^ Roberts 1997, p. 41
- ^ Parkes, p. 551
- ^ a b c d e Roberts 1997, p. 123
- ^ "Admiral Sir Henry Pelly". Obituaries. The Times. No. 49429. London. 29 December 1942. col F, p. 6.
- ^ Beatty, p. 160
- ^ Goldrick, p. 173
- ^ Fisher, p. 171
- ^ Massie, pp. 376–384
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 35–36
- ^ Massie, pp. 398–402
- ^ Tarrant, p. 38
- ^ Campbell 1978, p. 40
- ^ Quoted in Goldrick, p. 298
- ^ Fisher, p. 155
- ^ Beatty, pp. 245–248
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 69, 71, 75
- ^ Brooks, pp. 187–191
- ^ a b Campbell, p. 42
- ^ Tarrant, p. 83
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 80–85
- ^ Campbell 1998, p. 61
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 89–91
- ^ Massie, p. 595
- ^ Massie, pp. 598–600
- ^ Tarrant, p. 97
- ^ Massie, p. 601
- ^ Tarrant, p. 109
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 130–138
- ^ Tarrant, p. 145
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 149, 157
- ^ Tarrant, p. 175
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 177–178, 224
- ^ a b Burt 1986, p. 220
- ^ Marder, pp. 287–296
- ^ Naval Staff Monograph No. 33 1927, pp. 258, 267
- ^ Newbolt, p. 169
- ^ Burt 1986, pp. 219–220
- ^ Burt 1993, pp. 23, 51
- ^ Parkes, p. 557
Bibliography
- ISBN 0-85967-807-5.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - Breyer, Siegfried (1973). Battleships and Battle Cruisers, 1905–1970. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company Inc. ISBN 0-385-07247-3.
- Brooks, John (2005). Dreadnought Gunnery and the Battle of Jutland: The Question of Fire Control. Naval Policy and History. Vol. 32. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-40788-5.
- ISBN 1-55750-315-X.
- Burt, R. A. (1993). British Battleships, 1919–1939. London: Arms and Armour Press. ISBN 1-85409-068-2.
- Burt, R. A. (1986). British Battleships of World War One. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-863-8.
- Campbell, N. J. M. (1978). Battle Cruisers. Warship Special. Vol. 1. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-130-0.
- Campbell, John (1986). Jutland: An Analysis of the Fighting. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-324-5.
- Fisher, John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1959). Marder, Arthur Jacob (ed.). Fear God and Dread Nought: Restoration, Abdication, and Last Years, 1914–1920. Vol. III. London: Jonathan Cape.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ISBN 978-1-84832-100-7.
- Goldrick, James (1984). The King's Ships Were At Sea: The War in the North Sea, August 1914 – February 1915. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-334-2.
- Hiroshi, Takagi (2020). "A's & As: Battlecruiser Tiger". In Jordan, John (ed.). Warship 2020. Oxford, UK: Osprey. p. 201. ISBN 978-1-4728-4071-4.
- Marder, Arthur J. (1978). From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow, The Royal Navy in the Fisher Era, 1904–1919. Vol. III: Jutland and After, May 1916 – December 1916 (Second ed.). London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-215841-4.
- Keegan, John (1990). The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval Warfare. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-009650-7.
- ISBN 0-679-45671-6.
- Monograph No. 33: Home Waters Part VII: From June 1916 to November 1916 (PDF). Naval Staff Monographs (Historical). Vol. XVII. Naval Staff, Training and Staff Duties Division. 1927.
- ISBN 0-89839-255-1.
- Newman, Brian (2020). "A's & A's: Battlecruiser Tiger". In Jordan, John (ed.). Warship 2020. Oxford, UK: Osprey. pp. 200–201. ISBN 978-1-4728-4071-4.
- Newman, Brian (2019). "Battlecruiser Tiger: The Arrangement of the Main Engines". In Jordan, John (ed.). Warship 2019. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. pp. 69–80. ISBN 978-1-4728-3595-6.
- ISBN 1-55750-075-4.
- Roberts, John (1997). Battlecruisers. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-068-1.
- Roberts, John Arthur (1978). "The Design and Construction of the Battlecruiser Tiger". In Preston, Antony (ed.). Warship II. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 2–13, 88–95. ISBN 0-85177-149-1.
- 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.
Further reading
- Hayward, Victor (1977). HMS Tiger at Bay: A Sailor's Memoir 1914–1918. London: William Kimber. ISBN 0-7183-0295-8.
- Holloway, S. M. (2006). From Trench and Turret. London: Constable. ISBN 1-84529-321-5.
- Johnston, Ian (2011). Clydebank Battlecruisers: Forgotten Photographs from John Brown's Shipyard (Hardcover). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1591141204.
- Muir, John R. (2021). Years of Endurance: Life Aboard the Battlecruiser Tiger 1914-16. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-3990-1720-6.
External links
- Media related to HMS Tiger (ship, 1913) at Wikimedia Commons
- Dreadnought Project Technical material on the weaponry and fire control for the ships
- Maritimequest HMS Tiger Photo Gallery
- Battle of Jutland Crew Lists Project – HMS Tiger Crew List