HMS Inflexible (1907)

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Career

Ordered:	1905
Laid down:	5 February 1906
Launched:	26 June 1907
Commissioned:	20 October 1908
Fate:	Scrapped 1923
Struck:	31 March 1920
General Characteristics
Displacement:	17,290 tons standard 20,700 tons full load
Length:	530 ft (162 m) waterline 563 ft (172.8 m) overall
Beam:	78.5 ft (23.9 m)
Draught:	26.7 ft (8 m)
Propulsion:	31 Yarrow boilers, 4 Parsons steam direct drive turbines Total power output: 46,947 hp (35 MW) inner propellers: 3-bladed, 10 ft 6 in (3.2 m) diameter outer propellers: 3-bladed, 9 ft 6 in (2.9 m) diameter
Speed:	26.48 knots (48 km/h) (trials)
Range:	6330 nautical miles (11,720 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h) 2290 nautical miles (4240 km) at 23 knots (43 km/h)
Fuel capacity:	3084 tons of coal 725 tons oil
Complement:	784
Armament:	8 x 12 in (305 mm) (4x2) 16 x 4 in (102 mm) (16x1) 1 to 3 x 4 in (102 mm) AA 1 x 3 in (76.2 mm) AA 5 x 18 in (457 mm) submerged torpedo tubes
Armor:	Belt: 4 to 6 in (102 to 152 mm) Turrets: 4 to 7 in (102 to 178 mm) Deck: 1 to 2.5 in (25 to 64 mm) Conning Tower: 10 in (254 mm)
Aircraft:	none
Motto:

HMS Inflexible was the second of three Invincible-class battlecruisers built for the Royal Navy in 1906 to 1908. As such, she was one of the first ships to be designated as a battlecruiser.

She was authorized in the naval expansion program of 1905, and built at the John Brown shipyard on the Clyde, being laid down on 5 February 1906, launched on the 26 June 1907, and commissioned on 20 October 1908.

[edit] Career

Upon commissioning, Inflexible was assigned to the Nore Division of the British Home Fleet. On 26 May 1911, she was in a collision with the battleship Bellerophon, and suffered bow damage. She was under refit and repair through November, where her fore funnel was also raised by 6 feet.

On the outbreak of World War I Inflexible was flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet. Between 4 and 10 August 1914 she was engaged in the pursuit of Goeben and Breslau, before being ordered back to Britain on 19 August 1914. Between 1 and 10 October, she was on the Shetland patrol, covering a troop convoy. She was ordered to the South Atlantic on 4 November 1914 following the British defeat at the Battle of Coronel, and she arrived at the Falkland Islands on 7 December. The next day, she took part in the First Battle of the Falkland Islands, where she assisted in the destruction of the German East Asian squadron under the command of Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee, without incurring any damage to herself.

On 19 December, no longer needed in the South Atlantic, she was ordered back to the Mediterranean, where she underwent a refit at Gibraltar before becoming flagship of the Dardanelles operation on 24 January 1915. On 18 March, while she was part of the fleet that was attempting to force the Dardanelles Narrows, she was hit twice by gunfire from Turkish forts and nine crew members were killed; later the same day, she struck a mine and was forced to withdraw after taking in 2,000 tons of water. After repairs at Malta and Gibraltar, she returned to Britain, and joined the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet on 19 June 1915.

On 31 May 1916, she participated in the Battle of Jutland where she sustained no damage, unlike her sister-ship HMS Invincible which blew up after taking hits from a German ship, revealing the weakness of the battlecruiser design - its lack of adequate armor. In August 1916, she sailed for operations against the German fleet, but no contact was made. On February 1, 1918, she collided with the submarine K22 off May Island with minor damage. On 21 November, she was present at Scapa Flow for the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet.

She was paid off to the Reserve Fleet in January 1919 before being decommissioned on 31 March 1920. Chile briefly considered purchasing the ship in 1920, however the sale did not materialize. She was sold in December 1922, and scrapped in Germany in 1923.

[edit] References

John Roberts, Battlecruiser, (Chatham Publishing, London, 1997), ISBN 1-86176-006-X, ISBN 1-55750-068-1
Siegfried Breyer, Battleships and Battlecruisers 1905-1970 (Doubleday and Company; Garden City, New York, 1973) (originally published in German as Schlachtschiffe und Schlachtkreuzer 1905-1970, J.F. Lehmanns, Verlag, Munchen, 1970). Contains various line drawings of the ship as designed and as built.