Indefatigable class battlecruiser

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HMS Indefatigable
Class overview
Name: Indefatigable
Operators: RN Ensign Royal Navy
Preceded by: Invincible class
Succeeded by: Lion class
Completed: Three
Lost: One
General characteristics
Type: battlecruiser
Displacement: 18,500 tons (22,110 tons fully loaded)
Length: 590 ft (180 m)
Beam: 80 ft (24 m)
Draught: 26.5 ft (8.1 m)
Propulsion: Parsons turbines
32 Babcock & Wilcox boilers
44,000 ihp (Indefatigable 43,000 ihp)
four shafts
Speed: 25 knots (46 km/h)
Range: 6,330 nautical miles (11,700 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h)
Complement: 800
Armament:
  • 8 × 12-inch (305 mm) /45 cal Mk X (4 × 2)
  • 16 × 4-inch (102 mm) /50 cal Mk VII
  • 4 × 3 pdrs
  • 3 × 18-inch (457 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour:
  • 4–6 in (100–150 mm) belt
  • 3–7 in (80–180 mm) barbettes
  • 10 in (250 mm) conning tower
  • 7 in (180 mm) turret
  • 1–2½ in (25–65 mm) deck


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.

Indefatigable was the chronological successor to the Invincible class dreadnought armoured cruisers. A number of options for large cruisers were considered for the 1906 programme, including the X4 of 22,500 tons with 11-inch (280 mm) armour and 25 knots (46 km/h) speed, but in the end this programme consisted only of three ships of the Dreadnought type. A number of options were considered for the 1907-8 programme, ranging from 18,100 tons to 21,400 tons, but in the end battleships were again favoured and no battlecruisers were ordered until the subsequent programme year.

The Indefatigable was ordered as the lone battlecruiser of the 1908-9 programme. Her outline design was prepared in March 1908, and the final design was approved in November 1908. This design was essentially an improved HMS Invincible, slightly increased in size, and with revised arrangements of protection and main armament.

At the time the final design of Indefatigable was approved, the Admiralty was already moving on, Fisher writing in September 1908 "I've got Sir Philip Watts into a new Indomitable that will make your mouth water when you see it", a design that was to eventually emerge as the Lion. In August 1909 the self governing dominions met at the 1909 Imperial Conference, and in discussion of Imperial defence, the Admiralty proposed the creation of indigenous fleet units, each to consist of one Invincible class battlecruiser, three light cruisers of the Bristol class, and six destroyers. These were to be based in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa in attempt to secure the naval defence of the dominions while the Royal Navy concentrated in home waters to meet the German threat. While the scheme was rejected by Canada and South Africa, Australia and New Zealand subscribed, each ordering a modified version of the Indefatigable, rather than the originally proposed Invincible class. The Australia, became a ship of the newly formed Royal Australian Navy, while the New Zealand became a ship of the Royal Navy. 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 served with the Royal Australian Navy and after operations aimed at securing the German pacific colonies and searching for the German Pacific Fleet spent the rest of World War I in the North Sea as part of the British Grand Fleet, missing Jutland as the result of a collision with her sister ship in fog.

Contents

[edit] Building Programme

The following table gives the build details and purchase cost of the members of the Indefatigable class. Whilst standard British practice at that time was for these costs to exclude armament and stores, for some reason the cost quoted in The Naval Annual for Indefatigable includes the armament.

Ship Builder Engine
builder		 Laid down Launched Completed Cost according to
BNA (1914)[1] Parkes[2]
Indefatigable Devonport Dockyard John Brown, Parsons turbines 23 February 1909 28 October 1909 April 1911 £1,536,769* £1,547,500
guns £94,200
New Zealand Fairfield, Govan Fairfield, Parsons turbines 20 June 1910 1 July 1911 November 1912 not stated £1,684,990
guns £94,200
Australia John Brown, Clydebank John Brown, Parsons turbines 23 June 1910 25 October 1911 21 June 1913 not stated not stated

* = estimated cost, including guns

[edit] Ships in class

[edit] References

  • Hythe, Viscount (ed) The Naval Annual 1914
  • Cowman, Ian "The Vision Splendid: Australian Maritime Strategy, 1911-23" from In Search of a Maritime Strategy, Australian National University, 1997.
  • Gardiner, Robert and Gray, Randal (ed) Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906 - 1921, Conway Maritime Press, London, 1982. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
  • Parkes, Oscar British Battleships, first published Seeley Service & Co, 1957, published United States Naval Institute Press, 1990. ISBN 1-55750-075-4
  • Roberts, John Battlecruisers, Chatham Publishing, London, 1997.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Brassey's Naval Annual 1914, p192-199 & p206
  2. ^ Parkes, Oscar, British Battleships, p513-517.

[edit] See also

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Indefatigable class battlecruiser
Preceded by:Invincible class · Followed by:Lion class
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