Lord Nelson-class battleship
 Lord Nelson
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Lord Nelson class |
| Operators |  Royal Navy |
| Preceded by | Swiftsure class |
| Succeeded by | HMS Dreadnought |
| Built | 1905–1908 |
| In service | 1908–1926 |
| In commission | 1908–1919 |
| Planned | 3 |
| Completed | 2 |
| Cancelled | 1 |
| Scrapped | 2 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Pre-dreadnought battleship |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 443 ft 6 in (135.2 m) ( o/a ) |
| Beam | 79 ft 6 in (24.2 m) |
| Draught | 30 ft (9.1 m) (extra deep load) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 2 shafts; 2 triple-expansion steam engines |
| Speed | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
| Range | 9,180 nmi (17,000 km; 10,560 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement |
|
| Armament |
|
| Armour |
|
The Lord Nelson class consisted of a pair of
They remained there after the end of that campaign in 1916 and were assigned to the
Background and design
Pioneering naval gunnery developments by Captain Percy Scott in the early 1900s were already pushing expected battle ranges out to an unprecedented 6,000 yards (5,500 m), a distance great enough to force gunners to wait for the shells to arrive before applying corrections for the next salvo. A related problem was that the shell splashes from the more numerous smaller weapons tended to obscure the splashes from the bigger guns. Either the smaller-calibre guns would have to hold their fire to wait for the slower-firing heavies, losing the advantage of their faster rate of fire, or it would be uncertain whether a splash was due to a heavy or a light gun, making ranging and aiming unreliable. Another problem was that longer-range torpedoes were expected to soon be in service and these would discourage ships from closing to ranges where the smaller guns' faster rate of fire would become preeminent. Keeping the range open generally negated the threat from torpedoes and further reinforced the need for heavy guns of a uniform calibre.[1]
After being appointed
The
The Admiralty formally approved a 16,350-long-ton (16,610 t) design armed with four 12-inch and a dozen 9.2-inch guns on 6 August 1903, but revoked it in October when they discovered that it could not be docked at Chatham. As it was now too late to revise the design in time for the 1903–1904 Programme, the Admiralty ordered three more King Edward VII-class ships instead. Watts refined the design to ensure that it could enter the Chatham docks, which required reducing the number of 9.2-inch guns to only 10, and it was approved on 10 February 1904.[4] A planned third ship of the class was cancelled due to financial pressures arising from the purchase of the Swiftsure-class battleships.[5]
Description
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The Lord Nelson-class ships had an
The ships were powered by a pair of four-cylinder inverted vertical
Armament
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The main armament of the Lord Nelson-class ships consisted of four 45-
Their
Armour
The Lord Nelsons' armour scheme was derived from that of the King Edward VII class, although the vertical armour was generally thicker and the deck armour slightly thinner. The
The main gun turret faces and sides were 12 inches thick and their roofs were protected by 3- and 4-inch plates. Their barbettes also had 12 inches of armour on their external faces down to the main deck. Below this the forward barbette's armour reduced to 8 inches down to the middle deck while the aft barbette retained its full thickness down to the middle deck. The inner faces of the barbettes were 3 or 4 inches thick for the forward barbette and 3 inches thick for the aft barbette. The 9.2-inch gun turret faces had 8-inch armour plating, their sides were 7 inches (178 mm) thick and they had 2-inch thick roofs. The turrets sat on 6-inch thick armoured bases and their ammunition hoists were protected by 2-inch armoured tubes.[17]
The upper deck over the citadel was 0.75 inches (19 mm) thick and the main deck forward of the citadel to the bow had a thickness of 1.5 inches (38 mm) inches. The middle deck inside the citadel was 1 inch (25 mm) thick on the flat, but 2 inches thick where it sloped downwards to meet the bottom edge of the waterline belt. The lower deck was 4 inches thick where it sloped upwards to meet the bases of the main-gun barbettes, but was otherwise 1 inch thick forward of the citadel. Aft it ranged in thickness from 2 inches on the flat and 3 inches on the slope to protect the steering gear.[17] The forward conning tower was protected by 12 inches of armour on its sides and it had a 3-inch roof. The aft conning tower had 3-inch armour plates all around. The Lord Nelsons were the first British ships fitted with unpierced watertight bulkheads for all main compartments with access gained by using lifts. In service the inconvenience of this feature for the crew, especially in the engine and boiler rooms, led to its abandonment in the next generation of battleships.[18]
Naval historian R. A. Burt assessed the greatest weaknesses of their armour scheme as the waterline belt being submerged at deep load and the reduction in the thickness of the barbette armour below the upper deck. He believed that this made the ships' magazines vulnerable to plunging fire from long range.[19]
Modifications
Modifications to the sisters before 1920 were relatively minor. In 1909 the number of 3-pounders was reduced to four in Agamemnon and two in Lord Nelson. In 1910–1911 a rangefinder was installed of the roof of the forward turret in both ships and another was added to the spotting top in Agamemnon. The following year Lord Nelson had her spotting top modified to accommodate one as well. In 1913–1914 the ship had an additional rangefinder added to her bridge. The remaining 3-pounders were removed from the ships in 1914–1915 as were the rooftop and bridge rangefinders. A pair of 12-pounders were removed from the after superstructure in exchange for a pair of 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns on high-angle mounts. In 1916–1917, four 12-pounders were removed from the forward superstructure in Agamemnon while Lord Nelson only lost two. That ship lost two more from her aft superstructure in 1918.[20]
Early in 1919 the Admiralty decided that the Navy needed a radio-controlled target ship to properly train gunnery officers. It conducted tests to evaluate the effectiveness of 15-inch (380 mm) shells on armour plates as thick as the typical pre-dreadnought deck armour. At an equivalent range of 25,230 yards (23,070 m), the plates were completely destroyed and the Admiralty realized that 15-inch shells would do much the same to any of the surplus early dreadnoughts. It then limited all gunnery practice against the target ships to a maximum of 6-inch shells. Agamemnon was selected as the target ship in 1920 and was modified to suit her new role, including the installation of wireless equipment. She was disarmed and her 9.2-inch gun turrets were removed, but not her main-gun turrets. Most of her internal openings were plated over and much internal equipment was removed. Concerned about her stability with the loss of a lot of topweight, 1,000 long tons (1,016 t) of ballast were added low in the ship and Agamemnon was inclined to measure her stability. With a displacement of 14,185 long tons (14,413 t), the ship had a metacentric height of 8.56 feet (2.6 m).[21]
Ships
| Name | Builder[22] | Laid down[22]
|
Launched[22] | Commissioned[23] | Fate[24] | Cost (including armament)[25] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lord Nelson | Palmers, Jarrow | 18 May 1905 | 4 September 1906 | 1 December 1908 | Sold for scrap, 4 June 1920 | £1,651,339 |
| Agamemnon | Beardmore, Dalmuir | 15 May 1905 | 23 June 1906 | 25 June 1908 | Sold for scrap, 1927 | £1,652,347 |
Service history
Construction of the ships was seriously delayed when their main-gun turrets were transferred to HMS Dreadnought, then under construction, to allow her to be finished more quickly.
_9.2-inch_gun_firing_on_Sedd_el_Bahr_4_March_1915.jpg)
The sisters participated in numerous bombardments of Turkish forts and positions between their arrival in February and May during which they were slightly damaged by Turkish guns. Agamemnon was withdrawn to Malta for repairs that lasted several months while Lord Nelson was repaired locally. After the evacuation of
On 30 October 1918 the Ottoman Empire signed the Armistice of Mudros on board Agamemnon and she participated in the occupation of Constantinople the following month. Agamemnon remained there until she returned home in March 1919, while Lord Nelson spent a short time in the Black Sea before returning two months later. Both ships were reduced to reserve upon their arrival. Lord Nelson was sold for scrap in June 1920, but Agamemnon was converted into a radio-controlled target ship in 1920–1921. She was sold for scrap in her turn in early 1927, the last surviving British pre-dreadnought.[23]
Notes
- ^ "Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 18 cwt referring to the weight of the gun.
Citations
- ^ Brown, pp. 180–182
- ^ Burt, p. 312
- ^ Burt, pp. 312–313; McBride, pp. 66–67
- ^ McBride, pp. 69–71
- ^ Dodson, p. 102
- ^ Burt, pp. 319, 321
- ^ Parkes, p. 454
- ^ a b c d Burt, p. 319
- ^ Burt, pp. 319, 324–325
- ^ Friedman 2011, pp. 59–61.
- ^ Friedman 2011, pp. 72–73
- ^ Burt, pp. 319–320
- ^ Friedman 2011, pp. 112–113
- ^ Friedman 2019, p. 416
- ^ "Lord Nelson Class Battleship (1906)". www.dreadnoughtproject.org. The Dreadnought Project. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
- ^ Burt, pp. 324–325
- ^ a b Burt, p. 325; Parkes, p. 452
- ^ Burt, pp. 321, 324–325; Parkes, p. 452
- ^ Burt, p. 321
- ^ Burt, pp. 326–327
- ^ Burt, pp. 328–329
- ^ a b c Roberts, p. 40
- ^ a b c d Burt, pp. 331–332
- ^ Burt, p. 332
- ^ Parkes, p. 451
- ^ McBride, p. 72
Bibliography
- Brown, David K. (1997). Warrior to Dreadnought: Warship Development 1860–1905. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 1-84067-529-2.
- Burt, R. A. (2013). British Battleships 1889–1904 (2nd ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-065-8.
- Dodson, Aidan (2018). Before the Battlecruiser: The Big Cruiser in the World's Navies 1865-1910. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK: Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-47389216-3.
- ISBN 978-1-84832-225-7.
- Friedman, Norman (2011). Naval Weapons of World War One. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-84832-100-7.
- McBride, Keith (2005). "Lord Nelson and Agamemnon". In Jordan, John (ed.). Warship 2005. London: Conway. pp. 66–72. ISBN 1-84486-003-5.
- Parkes, Oscar (1990). British Battleships (reprint of the 1957 ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-075-4.
- Roberts, John (1979). "Great Britain (including Empire Forces)". In Gardiner, Robert (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 1–113. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
External links
