HMS King Edward VII

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Career

Ordered:	1903 naval programme
Laid down:
Launched:	23 July 1903 at Devonport Dockyard
Commissioned:
Fate:	Mined off Cape Wrath on 6 January 1916
Struck:
General characteristics
Displacement:	normal 16,350 tons, full draft 17,500 tons
Length:	453 feet 6 inches (138 m)
Beam:	78 ft (23.7 m)
Draught:	26 feet 9 inches (8.2 m)
Propulsion:	Coal fired (with oil sprayers) water tube boilers, Two 4-cylinder vertical compound expansion stream engines, 2 screws, 18,000 hp
Speed:	18 knots
Range:
Complement:	777
Armament:	4 × 12 in (305 mm) guns (2 main turrets), four 9.2 inch guns (4 secondary turrets), ten 6 inch guns, 5 × 18 in (457 mm) torpedo tubes (4 broadside, one stern), fourteen 12 pounder guns, fourteen 3 pounder guns, two Maxim machine guns
Armour:	belt amidships: 9 inch barbettes: 12 inch, main turrets: 9 inch , secondary turrets: 7 inch armoured deck: 2 inch

HMS King Edward VII, named after King Edward VII, was the lead ship of the King Edward VII class of British Royal Navy battleships.

The ship was built at Devonport Dockyard and launched 23 July 1903.

King Edward VII hit a mine whilst travelling from Rosyth to Devonport around the Northern coast of Scotland for a refit. The mine had been laid by the German auxiliary cruiser SMS Moewe off Cape Wrath on 6 January 1916. The explosion occurred under the starboard engine room and attempts to tow her were abandonded because of a heavy sea and strong winds. After about five hours, the list had become so great that the crew were taken off by destroyers. The ship capsized and sank around nine hours after the explosion. At the time it was not clear whether she had hit a mine or a torpedo, the presence of the minefield being determined from German records after the war. The wreck, in 115 metres of water, was first visited by divers in April 1997.