Drake-class cruiser
HMS Good Hope | |
Class overview | |
---|---|
Name: | Drake |
Preceded by: | Cressy class |
Succeeded by: | Monmouth class |
Completed: | 4 |
General characteristics | |
Type: | armoured cruiser |
Displacement: | 14,150 tons |
Length: | 533.5 ft (162.6 m) overall |
Beam: | 71.3 ft (21.7 m) |
Draught: | 26 ft (7.9 m) |
Propulsion: | 4-cylinder triple-extension steam engines, two shafts, 43 Belleville boilers, 30,000 hp |
Speed: | 23 knots (24.11 knots, Drake on trials) |
Complement: | 900 |
Armament: |
2 × BL 9.2-inch (233.7 mm) Mk X guns (2 x 1) |
Armour: |
6 in (152 mm) belt 12 in (304.8 mm) conning tower 6 in (152 mm) turret 2½ in (63.5 mm) deck |
The Drake-class was a four-ship class of armoured cruisers built around 1900 for the Royal Navy.
Design
The class were enlarged versions of the Cressy class.
History
The ships served in the First World War with only two surviving it. Good Hope was sunk at the Battle of Coronel in 1914 and Drake was torpedoed in 1917. Drake was also used to ferry Russian bullion (gold) in October 1914 from Archangels. The gold (equivalent of 39 million $) was security for western loans. The transfer took place at high seas, 30 miles off the coast in the dead of night.(Translated quote form "Krig og penger" by Eivind Thon, published by Aschehoug & Co, Oslo, 1942)
Ships of the Class
- HMS Drake
- HMS Good Hope (originally to be HMS Africa)
- HMS King Alfred
- HMS Leviathan
Building Programme
The following table gives the build details and purchase cost of the members of the Drake class. Standard British practice at that time was for these costs to exclude armament and stores. The compilers of The Naval Annual revised costs quoted for British ships between the 1905 and 1906 editions. The reasons for the differences are unclear.
Ship | Builder | Engine Maker |
Date of | Cost according to | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Laid Down | Launch | Completion | (BNA 1905)[1] | (BNA 1906)[2] | |||
HMS Drake | Pembroke Dockyard | Humphrys | 24 Apr 1899 | 5 Mar 1901 | 13 Jan 1902 | £1,050,625 | £1,002,977 |
HMS Good Hope ex-Africa |
Fairfield, Govan | Fairfield | 11 Sep 1899 | 21 Feb 1901 | 8 Nov 1902 | £1,023,629 | £990,759 |
HMS King Alfred | Vickers, Barrow | Vickers | 11 Aug 1899 | 28 Oct 1901 | 22 Dec 1903 | £1,013,772 | £978,125 |
HMS Leviathan | J Brown Clydebank | J Brown | 30 Nov 1899 | 3 Jul 1901 | 16 Jun 1903 | £1,043,097 | £1,012,959 |
Notes and references
Bibliography
- Brassey, T.A. (ed)The Naval Annual 1905
- Brassey's Naval Annual, 1906
- Chesnau, Roger and Kolesnik, Eugene (Ed.) Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860–1905. Conway Maritime Press, 1979. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4
- Leyland, J. and Brassey, T.A. (ed)The Naval Annual 1906
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Drake class cruiser. |
- The Dreadnought Project Technical details of the ships.
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