HMS Defence (1907)

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Career

Ordered:	1904-05 Naval Programme
Laid down:	25 February 1905
Launched:	24 April 1907
Commissioned:	9 February 1909
Fate:	Sunk at Battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916
Struck:
General Characteristics
Displacement:
Length:	490 ft (149.4 m) between perpendiculars 519 ft (158.2 m) overall
Beam:	74.5 ft (22.7 m)
Draft:	26 ft (7.9 m)
Propulsion:	24 Yarrow boilers 4 Cylinder Triple-expansion engines 2 shafts, 3-bladed propellers 27,000 ihp
Speed:	22.9 knots
Range:
Complement:	54 officers, 849 enlisted; 903 total
Armament:	4 × 9.2 (234 mm) (2 × 2) 10 × 7.5 in (191 mm) (10 × 1) 16 × 12 pounder (16 × 1) 5 × 18 in (457 mm) torpedo tubes, submerged
Armor:
Motto:

HMS Defence was a Minotaur-class armored cruiser of the Royal Navy, launched in 1907. She was stationed in the Mediterranean in early 1914. At the start of World War I, she was involved in the pursuit of Goeben and Breslau. She was ordered to the South Atlantic to take part in the hunt for Admiral Graf von Spee's squadron, but the squadron was destroyed on 8 December before she could reach the area.

She was the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Robert Arbuthnot, leading the First Cruiser Squadron at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916. As she ran in at high speed to attack the damaged German light cruiser Wiesbaden, she was taken under fire from the German battlecruisers. She was struck by a salvo after which blew up her after magazine; this triggered explosions on the ammunition rails leading to the broadside 7.5 inch guns. Within seconds, another salvo immediately hit forward, and she blew up in a spectacular explosion, leaving nothing but bits of floating wreckage. She sank with the loss of her entire complement of 903 men.

See HMS Defence for other ships of this name.

[edit] References

Robert Gardiner, ed., Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860 - 1905 (Conway Maritime Press, London, 1978)
R.A. Burt, Warships Illustrated Number 12, British Cruisers of World War I, (Arms and Armour Press, London, 1987)