before, and two shortly after, the declaration of war. Four torpedo- tubes were carried in lieu of three in the previous ships, and after the battle of Jutland a considerable amount of additional protec- tion was added over the magazines a course which was practically adopted in all British ships at that time as a precautionary measure. Only in one case was any portion of a shell found to have pene- trated below the protective deck; but with the ever-increasing range at which actions were fought, and the increasing penetration of improved shell, the danger of the decks being inadequate had to be considered. Special interest is attached to this class, as the " Iron Duke " was the fleet flagship during the whole time of Adml. Jelli- coe's appointment as commander-in-chief, and she was in action at Jutland with her sister ships.
FIG. i.
The " Marlborough," it should be specially noted, was the only British battleship of the post-" Dreadnought " type struck by a torpedo during the whole war, and the value of the longitudinal pro- tective bulkhead and of the subdivision and arrangements adopted was clearly shown, as the ship was able to remain in the line, no vital damage being done. She was afterwards safely docked in the Tyne and repaired. This is specially interesting, as many of the older ships, some with centre-line bulkheads and with other arrange- ments not so good for dealing with under-water damage, were sunk in the Dardanelles and elsewhere by enemy torpedoes.
FIG. 2.
The next type to note is the " Queen Elizabeth " class of the 1912-3 programme (see figs. 2 and 3). Three of these vessels, after taking a little more than two years to build, were completed in Jan., March and Oct. 1915. The other two were completed in Feb. 1916. A very considerable departure was made in the " Queen Elizabeth " from any previous " Dreadnoughts," the 15-in. gun taking the place of the 13'5-in., and the designed speed being increased by 4 knots over previous " Dreadnoughts," whilst the secondary armament was similar to that of the " Iron Dukes," consisting of 6-in. guns. Their very great increase of speed involved more than doubling the H.P. of the " Iron Duke " to give the 25 knots desired, and the great increase in the weight of the 15-in. guns and mountings over the 13-5-in. meant accepting only four turrets with eight 15-in. guns, as against five turrets with 10 13-5-in. guns in the previous ships, and even so the armament was consid- erably heavier. The further great departure from previous practice in battleships was the adoption of oil only as the fuel. This necessi- tated special arrangements of the oil bunkers, many of which were 30 ft. in height, and required special construction to withstand the head of oil. The armour and protection were fully maintained as compared with previous ships, but all these additions involved increasing the displacement to 27,500 tons.
In the battle of Jutland the Fifth Battle Squadron, consisting of four vessels of this class, were heavily engaged for several hours, and although they inflicted and sustained heavy punishment, espe- cially in the case of " Warspite," all the vessels gave a splendid account of themselves and were not seriously damaged or put out of action. After the battle of Jutland additional protection was added to the magazines. The oil fuel proved a complete success in
the stress of war conditions, it being found easier to keep up a high sustained speed, with the smaller complement carried.
It should be noted that Sir Philip Watts was responsible as Director of Naval Construction for the design of the " Iron Duke" and " Queen Elizabeth " classes, thus completing a series of 27 battleships of the " Dreadnought " type designed and built during his tenure of office at the Admiralty in addition to the large num- ber of battle cruisers, light cruisers, destroyers and other vessels built during that period truly a great record.
Following the " Queen Elizabeths " came the " Royal Sov- ereign " class of the 1913-4 programme (see figs. 4 and 5). These were the first capital ships built by the Admiralty to Sir Eustace d'Eyncourt's designs, he having succeeded Sir P. Watts in Aug. 1912. These vessels were to have the same armament as the " Queen Elizabeth," but as there was some question about the supply of oil fuel when the design was discussed, it was decided to revert to coal, ana also to accept the slower speed of 21 knots, which would make them more homogeneous with other " Dreadnoughts." Subse- quently, when the vessels were in process of construction and the great advantages of the use of oil fuel with other types of warships became apparent, it was decided to change from coal to oil, so enab- ling increased power, giving a speed of about 23 knots, to be obtained. When fully laden with about 4,000 tons of oil, the " Revenge " attained 22 knots, which was equal to about 23 knots in the designed load condition. A somewhat different disposition of deck and side armour was also adopted by which the thick protective deck at the
centre of the ship was brought up to the level of the main deck;
this portion of the protective deck being thus well above the level
of the deep load line, and giving more protected freeboard in the
damaged condition than on any of our earlier battleships. This
was an important feature, as a somewhat reduced metacentric
height was decided upon for these ships with a view to making them
steadier gun-platforms than some of the ships with more initial sta-
bility. The vessels were provided with good under-water protec-
tion, which was later reinforced by adding outside bulge protec-
tion. This was done to " Ramillies " before her launch and to the
other vessels of the class after they had been in commission some
time. The addition of " bulges " was suggested first by Sir E.
d'Eyncourt originally for the Edgar " class, for which this form of
protection was added in 1914 after experiments had been made.
The results proved the efficiency of the bulges.
The three battleships taken over by Great Britain from foreign Governments were of different types. H.M.S. "Agincourt" (see fig. 6) was commenced in Sept. 1911 for the Brazilian Government, from designs got out under Mr. Perrett at Elswick, but modified by Sir E. d'Eyncourt in Rio Janeiro, where he was then representing the Armstrong firm, before his appointment at the Admiralty. The Brazilian authorities, after much discussion, decided upon 14 12-in. guns, twin-mounted in seven turrets. This involved a ship with a length of 632 ft. between perpendiculars and 670 ft. over all. The main armour was somewhat lighter than that of British " Dread- noughts " and in other respects, such as fuelling facilities, the ship hardly came up to the British standard. However, she was well reported on, and the 14 big guns were liked by the gunnery officers, who preferred a large number of guns for their salvoes. Certain alterations had to be made to fit her for the British service, but in the main she was left as designed.
It should be mentioned that in 1914 the " Agincourt " was trans- ferred by Brazil to Turkey and she was on the point of leaving the Tyne for Constantinople when, on the declaration of war, she was taken over by the British Government.
The design of the " Erin " was settled by three firms, Armstrong's, Vickers and John Brown, in consultation with the Turkish authori- ties, for whom the vessel was built, being commenced in 1911. In general characteristics she more nearly followed the " King George V." class than any other British ship, except that the secondary armament consisted of 6-in. guns, as in the " Iron Duke " class. This vessel also was taken over by the British Government in Aug. 1914, and certain modifications made to fit her for the British service. In respect of quantity of fuel carried, the " Erin " was below the standard adopted for vessels designed for the British navy.
