Indefatigable class battlecruiser
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 HMS Indefatigable (1909) |
|
| General Characteristics |  |
|---|---|
| Displacement: | 19,100 tons (22,800 tons fully loaded) |
| Length: | 590 feet (179.8 m) |
| Beam: | 80 feet (24.4 m) |
| Draught: | 27 feet (8.2 m) |
| Propulsion: | Parsons turbines, 33,000 ihp, four screws |
| Speed: | 25.8 knots |
| Range: | 6,300 miles at 10 knots |
| Complement: | 820–1,200 |
| Armament: | Eight 12 inch guns; sixteen 4 inch guns, four 3-pounder guns, two 18 inch torpedo tubes. From 1915: two 3 inch AA guns. |
The Indefatigable class battlecruisers were a series of three battlecruisers which served in the Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy during the First World War.
They were the successors to the Invincible class battlecruisers.
The Indefatigable was ordered as the lone battlecruiser of the 1908-9 programme. The other two ships were ordered at the conclusion of the 1909 Imperial Conference, in attempt to secure the naval defence of the Pacific colonies while the Royal Navy concentrated in home waters to meet the German threat. This class was considerably smaller and cheaper than the current, Lion class design, but sufficed for trade protection duties. Both ships were paid for by their respective Dominions. Initially three fleet units were to be assembled, each based around an Indefatigable class ship. Eventually, only one fleet unit was formed, the Australian squadron in 1913. New Zealand was retained in European waters as a wholly RN unit.
Two, the Indefatigable and New Zealand, served with the Royal Navy, notably forming part of the Battlecruiser Squadron at the battle of Jutland in 1916. The third, HMAS Australia, served with the Royal Australian Navy and spent most of World War I in the North Sea as part of the British Grand Fleet.
[edit] Ships in class
- HMS Indefatigable
- Builder:
- Laid down: 23 February 1909
- Launched: 28 October 1909
- Commissioned: February 1911
- Operations: Pursuit of Goeben and Breslau, Battle of Jutland
- Fate: Destroyed and sunk by magazine explosions caused by hits from SMS Von der Tann on 31 May 1916 at Jutland
- HMS New Zealand
- Builder: Fairfield Shipping and Engineering in Scotland
- Laid down: June 1910
- Launched: 1 July 1911]]
- Commissioned: November 1912
- Operations: Heligoland Bight, Dogger Bank, and Jutland
- Fate: Decommissioned in 1922 and scrapped
- HMS Australia
- Builder: John Brown and Company, Clydebank
- Laid down: 26 June 1910
- Launched: 25 October 1911
- Commissioned: 21 June 1913
- Operations: Pursuit of Goeben and Breslau, Battle of Jutland
- Fate: Decommissioned 12 December 1921 and scuttled near Sydney
[edit] See also
- List of battleship classes
- List of battlecruisers of the Royal Navy
- Lists of ship launches in: 1909, 1911
- Lists of ship commissionings in: 1911, 1912, 1913
- Lists of ship decommissionings in: 1921, 1922
- Lists of shipwrecks in: 1916, 1924
| Indefatigable-class battlecruiser |
| Indefatigable | New Zealand | Australia |
| Preceded by: Invincible class - Followed by: Lion class |
List of battlecruisers of the Royal Navy |
