HMS Temeraire (1907)

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Career (UK)

Name:	HMS Temeraire
Ordered:	1906
Builder:	Devonport Dockyard
Laid down:	1 January 1907
Launched:	24 August 1907
Commissioned:	1 May 1909
Decommissioned:	1921
Fate:	Sold for scrap 7 December 1921
General characteristics
Class and type:	Bellerophon class battleship
Displacement:	18,800 tons
Length:	527 ft (161 m)
Beam:	82 ft 5 in (25.1 m)
Draught:	27 ft 8 in (8.4 m)
Propulsion:	4 shafts; Parsons steam turbines 18 Yarrow boilers; 23,000 hp
Speed:	21.55 knots (39.91 km/h) (trials)
Range:	5,600 nautical miles (10,370 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h) (coal only)
Complement:	733
Armament:	10 × 12 inch (305 mm) guns 11 × 4 inch (102 mm) 4 × 3-pounder (47 mm) 2 × 4 inch AA guns 2 × 3 inch AA guns 2 × 18 inch (457 mm) torpedo tubes (submerged)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Temeraire.

HMS Temeraire was a Bellerophon-class battleship in the Royal Navy built at the Royal Dockyard, Devonport.

She was ordered under the 1906 Naval Estimates at the cost of £1,641,114. Although not externally much different from predecessor HMS Dreadnought, internally she and others of the Bellerophon-class were much improved, with better sub-division of bulkheads against torpedo attack. A heavier secondary armament was believed to be capable of fighting off torpedo boat attacks.

[edit] World War I

For the majority of the war, Temeraire was a member of the 4th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet. On a sweep of the North Sea on 18 March 1915, she unsuccessfully attempted to ram U-29 which had just attacked HMS Neptune. During the summer of that year, she refitted at HM Dockyard, Devonport.

At the Battle of Jutland, Temeraire, under the command of Captain E.V. Underhill, fired 54 12 inch shells and received no damage. In October 1918, she was detached to the Eastern Mediterranean Squadron under the overall command of Vice-Admiral Gough-Calthrope.

[edit] Post war

With the end of hostilities Temeraire was converted to a cadet training ship (seagoing). With the other members of her class, she was regarded as obsolete and was decommissioned and sold for scrap in 1921.