HMS Audacious |
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | King George V |
| Preceded by: | Orion-class |
| Succeeded by: | Iron Duke-class |
| In commission: | 1912-1924 |
| Completed: | Four ordered and commissioned |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Battleship |
| Displacement: | 23,400 tonnes |
| Length: | 598 ft (182 m) |
| Beam: | 89 ft (27 m) |
| Draught: | 28 ft (8.5 m) |
| Propulsion: | 18 boilers, 4 Parsons turbines, direct drive, 4 shafts; 31,000 shp |
| Speed: | 21 knots (39 km/h) |
| Armament: |
10 × BL 13.5-inch (343 mm) Mk V guns |
| Armour: | Belt: 8 to 12 inches Decks: 1 to 4 inches Barbettes: 3 to 10 inches Turrets: 11 inch |
The King George V class battleships were a series of four Royal Navy super-dreadnought battleships built just prior to and serving in the First World War. The King George V class immediately followed the Orion class upon which they were based.
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These ships were of slightly larger displacement than the Orions; the extra tonnage allowed for some small enhancements that was incorporated into the design. The most obvious differences in appearance compared to the Orions were the repositioning of the main mast and fore-funnel and the conspicuously slab sided funnels themselves.
They used the same 13.5-inch Mark V gun, but firing a slightly heavier (1,400 lb as against 1,250 lb) shell. Their secondary armament was re-arranged to improve fire distribution ahead, which had been indicated by tactical modelling, to be the most dangerous area for torpedo boat attacks.
Armour was slightly redistributed and it was thought, improved. Underwater protection was also improved, although these changes did not save Audacious when she struck a single German mine late in 1914.
There were slight revisions to the superstructure and masts. Their powerplant was intended to give a design speed of 1 knot (2 km/h) more than the Orions. This gave them a slightly reduced overall speed, but in practice they steamed mostly in the company of slower ships anyway.
Overall, they were a successful design, although received without particular enthusiasm by the public and press. They had been substantially promoted as a great advance over the Orions. In particular, it was expected that they would carry 6 inch guns as their secondary armament. In fact it was the subsequent Iron Duke class battleships that first received 6 inch secondaries.
The ships remaining after the end of the First World War were all decommissioned in the 1920s to allow for the two Nelson class battleships under the Washington Naval Treaty.
| Name | Builder | Laid down | Launched | Completed | Operations | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HMS King George V | HM Dockyard, Portsmouth | 16 January 1911 | 9 October 1911 | November 1912 | Battle of Jutland | Decommissioned in 1919 and scrapped in 1926 |
| HMS Centurion | HM Dockyard, Devonport | 16 January 1911 | 18 November 1911 | May 1913 | Battle of Jutland, Operation Neptune | Converted to a target ship in 1927, converted to a decoy 1941/42 and sunk as a breakwater in June 1944 |
| HMS Audacious | Cammell Laird | March 1911 | 14 September 1912 | August 1913 | Struck a mine off Northern Ireland and sank on 27 October 1914 | |
| HMS Ajax | Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Greenock | 27 February 1911 | 21 March 1912 | 31 October 1913 | Battle of Jutland | Decommissioned in 1924 and sold for scrap on 9 November 1926 |
Robert Gardiner: Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships 1922–1946, Conway Maritime Press London 1980
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