List of battleships of Greece
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/RHS_Lemnos.jpg/300px-RHS_Lemnos.jpg)
In the early 20th century, the
Greek naval plans were interrupted by the outbreak of
Key
Armament | The number and type of the primary armament |
---|---|
Armor | The maximum thickness of the armored belt
|
Displacement | Ship displacement at full combat load |
Propulsion | Number of shafts, type of propulsion system, and top speed/horsepower generated |
Service | The dates work began and finished on the ship and its ultimate fate |
Laid down | The date the keel began to be assembled |
Commissioned | The date the ship was commissioned |
Salamis
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/56/Greek_battleship_Salamis_illustration.png/220px-Greek_battleship_Salamis_illustration.png)
Starting in 1911, the
Ship | Armament | Armor | Displacement | Propulsion | Service | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Laid down | Commissioned | Fate | |||||
Salamis | 8 × 14 in (360 mm) guns[3] | 9.875 in (250.8 mm)[3] | 19,500 long tons (19,800 t)[3] | 3 shafts, 3 steam turbines, 23 kn (43 km/h; 26 mph)[3] | 23 July 1913[3] | — | Work halted 31 December 1914, broken up in 1932[3] |
Vasilefs Konstantinos
Following the Ottoman purchase of a second dreadnought in December 1913, Sultân Osmân-ı Evvel, a previously Brazilian ship still under construction,[5] the Greek Navy responded with an order for a second dreadnought of its own. The new battleship was to be named Vasilefs Konstantinos and was to be built to the same design as the French Bretagne class from AC de St Nazaire Penhoet. Work began in June 1914 but ceased on the outbreak of war in August and never resumed. The Greek Navy refused the incomplete ship after the end of the war, leading to a contract dispute, which was settled in 1925. The unfinished ship was subsequently broken up for scrap.[3]
Ship | Armament | Armor | Displacement | Propulsion | Service | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Laid down | Commissioned | Fate | |||||
Vasilefs Konstantinos | 10 × 34 cm (13.4 in) guns[6] | 11 in (280 mm)[6] | 25,000 long tons (25,000 t)[6] | 4 shafts, 4 steam turbines, 20 kn (37 km/h; 23 mph)[6] | 12 June 1914[3] | — | Work halted August 1914, broken up in 1925[3] |
Kilkis and Lemnos
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/RHS_Lemnos.jpg/220px-RHS_Lemnos.jpg)
Kilkis and Lemnos were built by the United States Navy between 1904 and 1908, originally named Mississippi and Idaho. They served with the US fleet until June 1914, when they were purchased by the Greek Navy as a stop-gap measure. They were needed to counter Ottoman naval expansion while the Greeks waited on their newly ordered dreadnoughts to be completed abroad.[7] The two ships reached Greece in July 1914, just before the outbreak of World War I at the end of the month. As Greece remained neutral during the first three years of the war, the two ships saw little service. In October 1916, the French seized the Greek fleet and disarmed Kilkis and Lemnos; they were put back into service at the end of the war. Both ships saw service during the Greco–Turkish War in 1919–1922,[8] with Lemnos also participating in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War.[9]
Both ships continued to see service in the Greek fleet until the early 1930s, with Kilkis serving as the
Ship | Armament | Armor | Displacement | Propulsion | Service | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Laid down | Commissioned | Fate | |||||
Kilkis | 4 × 12 inch guns[14] | 9 in (230 mm)[14] | 14,465 long tons (14,697 t)[14] | 2 shafts, | 12 May 1904[14] | 22 July 1914[14] | Sunk by German bombers, 23 April 1941[3] |
Lemnos | 12 May 1904[14] | 22 July 1914[14] | Sunk by German bombers, 23 April 1941[3] |
See also
Footnotes
Notes
- ^ The Greek Navy had previously built a series of ironclad capital ships, including Vasilissa Olga and Vasilefs Georgios, both built in the late 1860s, and the three Hydra-class ships, built in the late 1880s and early 1890s.[1]
- ^ The Georgios Averof is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a battleship, but it is actually an armored cruiser.
Citations
- ^ Gardiner, p. 387
- ^ Sondhaus, p. 220
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Gardiner & Gray, p. 384
- ^ Gardiner & Gray, p. 43
- ^ Hough, p. 75
- ^ a b c d Gardiner & Gray, p. 198
- ^ Gardiner & Gray, p. 383
- ^ Gardiner & Gray, pp. 383–384
- ^ Naval History & Heritage Command. 28 September 2007. Archived from the originalon 10 January 2014. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
- ^ Lautenschläger, p. 64
- ^ Gardiner & Chesneau, p. 404
- ^ Lautenschläger, p. 65
- ^ Hore, p. 89
- ^ a b c d e f g h Gardiner, p. 144
References
- Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
- Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-907-3.
- Gardiner, Robert & Chesneau, Roger, eds. (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-913-8.
- Hore, Peter (2006). Battleships of World War I. London: Southwater Books. ISBN 978-1-84476-377-1.
- Hough, Richard (1967). The Great Dreadnought: The Strange Story of H.M.S. Agincourt: The Mightiest Battleship of World War I. New York: Harper & Row. OCLC 914101.
- Lautenschläger, Karl (1973). "USS Mississippi (BB-23) Greek Kilkis". Warship Profile 39. Windsor: Profile Publications. pp. 49–72. OCLC 33084563.
- Sondhaus, Lawrence (2001). Naval Warfare, 1815–1914. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-21478-0.