HMS Marshal Soult
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 HMS Marshal Soult |
|
| Career (United Kingdom) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Marshal Soult |
| Builder: | Palmers, Newcastle |
| Launched: | 24 August 1915 |
| Commissioned: | August 1915 |
| Fate: | Sold July 10, 1946 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Marshal Ney class |
| Displacement: | 6,670 tons (6,900 tons full load) |
| Length: | 355 feet (108.2 m) |
| Beam: | 90 feet (27.4 m) |
| Draught: | 10.5 feet (3.2 m) |
| Propulsion: | Vickers diesel engines, 2 shafts, 1,500 hp |
| Speed: | 9 knots (as designed), 6 knots (actual) |
| Complement: | 187 |
| Armament: |
(As Built) 2×15-inch 42 calibre Mk I guns, 2×12 pounder 50 calibre QF Mk I, 1×3 pounder (47mm) AA . |
| Armour: | 4 inch belt armour, 8 inch barbette armour, 13 inch turret armour |
HMS Marshal Soult was a Royal Navy Marshal Ney class monitor constructed in the opening years of the First World War. Laid down as HMS M14, she was named for the French general of the Napoleonic Wars Marshal Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult.
Designed for inshore operations along the sandbank strewn Belgian coastline, HMS Marshal Soult was equipped with two massive 15" naval guns. Originally, these guns were to have been stripped from one of the battlecruisers HMS Renown and HMS Repulse after they were redesigned. However the guns were not ready, and guns intended for the battleship HMS Ramillies were used in lieu. The diesel engines used by the ships were a constant source of technical difficulty, restricting their use.
HMS Marshal Soult performed numerous bombardment operations against German positions in Flanders, including during the First Ostend Raid in April 1918. In October 1918, she became a tender to the Gunnery School HMS Excellent at Portsmouth and in March 1919 undertook a similar role at Devonport before paying off in March 1921. Recommissioned in 1924, she moved to Chatham in April 1926 as a training ship.
Her armament was removed in March 1940 and was later fitted to the new Roberts class monitor HMS Abercrombie, which was completed in 1943. She served throughout the Second World War as a depot ship for trawlers at Portsmouth until being sold on July 10, 1946 and scrapped at Troon.
[edit] References
- Dittmar, F. J. & Colledge, J. J., "British Warships 1914-1919", (Ian Allen, London, 1972), ISBN 0-7110-0380-7
- Gray, Randal (ed), "Conway's All The Worlds Fighting Ships, 1906-1921", (Conway Maritime Press, London, 1985), ISBN 0-85177-245-5
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