HMS Cornwallis (1901)
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.jpg) The HMS Cornwallis |
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| Overview | |
| Type | Ship of the line |
| Shipyard | |
| Keel laying | July 19, 1899 |
| Launch | July 13, 1901 |
| Namesake | Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis |
| Commissioning | February 9, 1904 |
| Whereabouts | sunk on January 9, 1917 after being hit by a torpedo |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
13,270 ts, max. 15,200 ts |
| length |
131.8 m overall, (432 ft) |
| width |
23.0 m (75.5 ft) |
| Draft |
7.8 m (25.75 ft) |
| crew |
720 men |
| drive |
24 Belleville boilers , |
| speed |
19 kn |
| Range |
7000 nm at 10 kn |
| Armament |
• 4 × 305 mm L / 40 Mk.IX guns |
| Armored bulkheads |
up to 280 mm |
| Armored deck |
up to 51 mm |
| Belt armor |
up to 178 mm |
| Artillery towers |
up to 254 mm |
| Barbeds |
up to 280 mm |
| Casemates |
152 mm |
| Command tower |
356 mm |
The HMS Cornwallis was one of the six Duncan class ships of the line of the British Royal Navy , unofficially called "The Admirals". She came into service in 1904 for the Mediterranean fleet and changed several times within the various fleet units until 1914. During the First World War , she and her sister ships initially served with the Grand Fleet to support the Northern Patrol , but switched to the Canal Fleet in November 1914 . At the beginning of 1915 she was seconded to the Dardanelles , where she took part in all major naval actions in the battle for Gallipoli . After the fighting there it was used to secure convoys in the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. On January 9, 1917, she was torpedoed by the German submarine U 32 in the Mediterranean Sea east of Malta . Only 15 men lost their lives in the sinking.
Building history
The Cornwallis and their five sister ships of the Duncan class were ordered as a reaction to the large building programs of the French and Russian navies and should in particular be able to fight the fast ships of the Russian program. They were therefore a smaller, lighter armored, and faster version of the previous Formidable class . The Russian ships of the Pereswet class were not as heavily armed as originally expected, so that the ships of the Duncan class turned out to be very superior in their ratio of speed, firepower and armor. The ships of the Duncan class had the same armament as the preceding ships of the Formidable or London class with a slightly lower displacement. As their main armament, they used the 12-inch 305 mm L / 40 Mk.IX naval cannon in two twin turrets. Twelve 6-inch 152 mm L / 45 Mk.VII guns were set up in casemates as medium artillery . The type of armor and its distribution were very similar to that of the London class, with a reduction in the size of the barbeds of the main artillery and of belted armor. The engine system performed 3000 psi more than on the previous ships. For the first time, 4-cylinder triple expansion engines were installed on British ships of the line. In addition, the ships received an improved hull shape to increase speed. The ships had good sea characteristics, were easy to steer at all speeds and had good consumption values. They were the fastest ships of the line in the Royal Navy with a design speed of 19 knots and an operational speed of 18 knots. Only the two Swiftsure- class light ships of the line , Swiftsure and Triumph , and the later turbine battleships were faster. The Cornwallis was the fastest ship in the class in the tests at 19.56 knots. In the fleet operation, her sister ship Albemarle was later considered the fastest ship.
The fifth Cornwallis was started at Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding and Engineering in Leamouth , London , on July 19, 1899, just a few days after the Duncan, which was also to be built there, as the third ship of the class and ran on July 13, 1901 as the fifth ship of the class four Months after the Duncan launched. The Thames Ironworks was the only shipyard that built two Duncan- class ships . The Cornwallis cost £ 1,096,052 and was not completed until February 1904 as the last ship of the class due to strikes.
At the end of 1906, like all other ships of the line, she was technically obsolete with the appearance of the Dreadnought . Nevertheless, she had important tasks to do well into the world war.
Mission history
Due to the strike delay, the Cornwallis came into service on February 9, 1904 as the last ship of the class. The five sister ships had been commissioned by the Royal Navy between February and November 1903.
Service in Peace
The Cornwallis spent her first active service with the British Mediterranean Fleet, where she replaced the Renown 2nd class liner . On September 17, 1904, she had a collision with the Greek Brigantine Angelica without suffering any significant damage. In February 1905 she moved to the Channel Fleet , where in June 1906 she joined her five sister ships Exmouth as the flagship of the fleet chief, Admiral Arthur Wilson , Albemarle as the flagship of the Liner Division, Russel , Duncan and Montagu and four liners of the Majestic class , five Canopus- class ships and the two Swiftsure- class ships . On January 14, 1907, the Cornwallis then switched to the Atlantic Fleet , where it was overtaken in Gibraltar from January to May 1908 and was used as the flagship of the 2nd Admiral from August 25, 1909. In August 1909 the Cornwallis moved back to the Mediterranean fleet in Malta . With the reorganization of the British fleet on May 1, 1912, the battleship squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet became the 4th battle squadron of the Home Fleet , which was moved from Malta to Gibraltar. In March 1914, the Cornwallis then moved to home waters to reduce the crew to one tribe as a unit of the 6th Battle Squadron of the 2nd Fleet.
The mobilization plan provided that the Cornwallis with Agamemnon , the four remaining sister ships Albemarle , Russell , Duncan and Exmouth as well as the older Vengeance as the 6th battle squadron in the Channel Fleet should monitor the English Channel and secure the transfer of the British Expeditionary Force to France .
First World War
However, there was also a plan to assign the 6th Battle Squadron to the Grand Fleet . When war broke out in August 1914, the Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet, Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, ordered the Russell and her four remaining Duncan- class sister ships ( Albemarle , Cornwallis , Duncan and Exmouth ) to reinforce the Grand Fleet's 3rd Battle Squadron to take over surveillance tasks there because of the lack of cruisers. The original planning with the 6th Battle Squadron was postponed and the Cornwallis arrived with her sisters on August 8, 1914 in Scapa Flow , was subordinated to the 3rd Battle Squadron and supported the cruisers of the fleet in the Northern Patrol
On November 2, 1914, the Russell moved with her four sister ships and the ships of the line of the King Edward VII class to reinforce the Channel Fleet because of the activities of the Imperial Navy in this direction. The ships of the King Edward VII class were withdrawn back to the Grand Fleet on November 13, but the Duncan class ships remained with the Channel Fleet and formed the 6th Battle Squadron from November 14, with the Russell as the flagship . The squadron was to attack the German submarine bases on the Belgian coast and was stationed in Portland , but was in Dover from November 14th . Due to insufficient defense against submarine attacks, the squadron went back to Portland on the 19th. The 6th Battle Squadron returned to Dover in December. The Cornwallis was seconded to Western Ireland at the end of December and stationed in Clew Bay and Killarney Bay until January 1915 .
Use on the Dardanelles
In January 1915, the Cornwallis was commanded to the Dardanelles . She left Portland on January 24th and arrived in Tenedos with the Dardanelles Squadron on February 13th .
The Cornwallis took part in all naval operations during the Battle of Gallipoli . On February 18 and 19, she was involved in the first bombardments of the forts at the entrance to the strait and opened fire on the ships of the line Albion , Triumph and Vengeance and on February 25, finally set the forts Sedd el Bahr and Kum Kale with her medium artillery incapacitated. On March 18, 1915, she took part in an attempt to force the passage, in which the French Bouvet as well as Irresistible and Ocean were lost. On April 25, 1915, she supported the landing at Morto Bay . Finally, from December 18-20, 1915, they supported the withdrawal of Allied troops from Suvla Bay, taking 500 rounds of their heavy 12-inch (305-mm) guns and 6000 rounds of their 6-inch (152-mm) ) Guns fired and was the last large ship to leave this section.
Further operations
After the evacuation of Gallipolis, the Cornwallis moved to the Suez Canal Patrol , where they arrived on January 4, 1916. She belonged to the East Indies Station and also did escort duties in the Indian Ocean until she returned to the Eastern Mediterranean in March 1916. It was overhauled in Malta from May to June.
Loss of the Cornwallis
_sinking_9_January_1917.jpg)
On January 9, 1917, the Cornwallis received a torpedo hit 60 nm east of Malta on the starboard side. The water ingress created a list of about 10 °, which could be compensated by floods. About 75 minutes after the first hit, the attacking submarine U 32 under Kurt Hartwig managed to hit another hit on starboard, whereupon the Cornwallis now in about 30 minutes at about 35 ° 6 ' N , 15 ° 11' O sank. 15 men died in the torpedo hits, the rest of the crew could be rescued because the ship of the line could be checked for a long time before it sank.
literature
- RA Burt: British Battleships 1889-1904. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 1988, ISBN 0870210610 .
- Roger Chesneau, Eugene M. Kolesnik (Eds.): Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905. Mayflower Books, New York 1979, ISBN 0831703024 .
- FJ Dittmar, JJ Colledge: British Warships 1914-1919. Ian Allen, London 1972, ISBN 0-7110-0380-7 .
- Tony Gibbons: The Complete Encyclopedia of Battleships and Battlecruisers: A Technical Directory of All the World's Capital Ships From 1860 to the Present Day. Salamander Books Ltd., London 1983.
- Randal Gray (Ed.): Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 1985, ISBN 0870219073 .
- Randolph Pears: British Battleships 1892–1957: The Great Days of the Fleets. G. Cave Associates, 1979, ISBN 978-0906223147
