HMS Audacious (1912)
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|---|---|
 HMS Audacious |
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| Overview | |
| Type | Battleship |
| units | 4th |
| Shipyard | |
| Keel laying | February 1911 |
| Launch | September 14, 1912 |
| delivery | October 1913 |
| period of service |
1913-1914 |
| Whereabouts | Sank October 27, 1914 after being hit by a mine |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement | |
| length |
pp: 169.2 m |
| width |
27.1 m |
| Draft |
8.7 m |
| crew |
759-782 men |
| drive |
|
| speed |
21.7 kn |
| Range |
4,060 nm at 18.1 kn |
| Armament |
|
| Fuel supply |
900 ts coal (max. 3150 ts) |
| Armor | |
| Belt armor |
203-305 mm |
| Side armor |
64-152 mm |
| Armored bulkheads |
25-203 mm |
| 3 deck armor |
25-102 mm |
| Command towers |
76-279 mm |
| Towers |
102-279 mm |
| Barbeds |
229-254 mm |
The HMS Audacious ( audacious : daring) was a British battleship and the third of four ships in the first King George V class . The Audacious was a typical example of the dreadnought battleships of its time. Sister ships were the King George V , Centurion and Ajax .
The Audacious ran on October 27, 1914 at 8:45 a.m. off the Northern Irish coast near Lough Swilly on a mine laid by the German auxiliary cruiser C and began to sink. The crew was completely rescued by the passenger ship Olympic , a sister ship of the Titanic , which sailed across the minefield to rescue it and remained undamaged. Although intensive leak prevention measures were taken, the Audacious ran more and more full of water and sank around 9 p.m. At the end of the sinking there were two powerful explosions, which were probably caused by slipping ammunition and exploding cordite when capsizing. A chipped piece of armor hit the light cruiser Liverpool 730 meters away, killing a crew member. This was the only loss of life during the sinking.
Although photos of American passengers on the Olympic who had photographed the incident circulated in the US press shortly after the sinking, the British Admiralty tried to keep the loss of the Audacious a secret. The enemy should not be aware of the weakening of the British Grand Fleet in order to avoid attacks by the German deep-sea fleet . A month after the event, the relevant media reported that the ship had been the victim of a German offensive mine, but that it could still be stranded. Still, the deception was short-lived. During the war, the German public became aware of the Audacious's demise .
literature
- Siegfried Breyer: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905–1970. With an introduction: The historical development of the capital ship. Pawlak, Herrsching 1988, ISBN 3-88199-474-2 .
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ The naval war. In: Danzer's Army-Zeitung , No. 48/1914 (XIXth volume), December 3, 1914, p. 5. (Online at ANNO ). .
- ↑ Cf. Bruno Weyer (Ed.): Taschenbuch der Kriegsflotten XVII (1916). Munich 1916, p. 171.