HMS London (1899)
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 HMS London arriving in Valletta , Malta , 1915 |
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| Overview | |
| Type | Ship of the line |
| Shipyard | |
| Keel laying | December 8, 1898 |
| Launch | September 21, 1899 |
| Commissioning | June 7, 1902 |
| Whereabouts | Sold for demolition on June 4, 1920 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
15,366 tn.l. , Max. 15,955 tn.l. |
| length |
pp. 125.3 m (411 ft); |
| width |
22.9 m (75 ft) |
| Draft |
7.9 m (26 ft) |
| crew |
780 men (peace) |
| drive | |
| speed |
18 kn , |
| Range |
5550 nm at 10 kn |
| Armament |
|
| Fuel supply |
?? t coal |
| Belt armor |
up to 231 mm (9 in) |
| deck |
25–65 mm (1–2.5 in) |
| Armored bulkheads |
231–305 mm (9–12 in) |
| Towers |
203-254 mm (8-10 in) |
| Barbeds |
305 mm (12 in) |
| Casemates |
152 mm (6 in) |
| Command tower |
360 mm (14 in) |
The HMS London was a ship of the line of the Formidable class of the British Royal Navy , whose first service took place in the Mediterranean Fleet. From 1908 it was used in the home waters and carried out experiments with aircraft take-offs from a ship in 1912 and 1913. During the First World War , the London took part in the battles for the Dardanelles . In 1918 it was converted into a mine layer and in 1920 it was sold for demolition.
History of the ship
The HMS London was on 21 September 1899 as the fourth ship of Formidable class in Portsmouth from the pile and was made in June 1902 in service. The cost of construction amounted to 1.1 million £ . The main armament of the battleship consisted of four 12- inch (305 mm) type Mk IX guns in two twin turrets and twelve 6-inch (152 mm) type Mk VII guns in side casemates . Compared to the first three ships of her class, the London - as well as the following ships HMS Bulwark , HMS Venerable , HMS Queen and HMS Prince of Wales - had a slightly different design, above all the deck armor reduced by half an inch, which was a bit caused a shallower draft. This is why some of these ships are referred to as the "London class", but it is only a minor variant of the Formidable class. Due to the construction of the dreadnoughts , the London and her sister ships were technically obsolete as early as 1906.
Operations in peace
The HMS London put into service in Portsmouth on June 7, 1902 for the Mediterranean fleet . Before her departure, she served on August 16, 1902 as the flagship for the fleet inspection on the occasion of King Edward VII's coronation in Spithead . During service in the Mediterranean, she was regularly overhauled in Malta from 1902 to 1903 and 1906. By 1904, all eight ships of the Formidable class were added to the Mediterranean fleet . In 1901, 15 ships of the line had belonged to it, but these were no longer considered necessary because they were allied with France and from 1905 the Russian fleet had hardly any ships. In June 1906 there were only seven ships of the line in the Mediterranean as the Prince of Wales was home for an overhaul.
In March 1907 the London moved to the Nore Division of the Home Fleet and on June 2, 1908 to the Canal Fleet as the flagship of the 2nd Admiral. After an overhaul in Chatham Dockyard in 1908, it was taken out of service on April 19, 1909 for major modernization. On February 8, 1910, she was taken back into service in Chatham as the flagship of the 2nd Admiral of the Atlantic Fleet . In their battleship squadrons stationed in Gibraltar , six ships of the class served after the arrival of the London, with the Prince of Wales as flagship and the Queen , the Venerable , the Formidable and the Implacable .
Early in the morning of December 13, 1911, the London was alerted that the P&O liner SS Delhi had run aground south of Cape Spartel in fog and a strong storm .
In addition to the London under Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock , the armored cruiser Duke of Edinburgh and the French cruiser Friant also reached the scene of the accident. The Delhi had meanwhile lost all boats. The boats of the warships salvaged the more than 100 passengers, among whom the brother-in-law of the King of England, the Duke of Fife and his family were the most prominent, and the crew and brought them ashore or onto the warships. A British and a French boat capsized during the rescue maneuvers. Three French sailors drowned and were the only victims of the stranding. The HMS Implacable ran to Tangier to support and organized 50 donkeys as a means of transport for the shipwrecked. On the 14th, the Commander in Chief of the Atlantic Fleet, Vice Admiral Jellicoe , convinced himself with his flagship that the rescue work was progressing, which had meanwhile been accelerated by the use of a trouser buoy . The Delhi could not be recovered.
When the British fleet was reclassified on May 1, 1912, the London became part of the 3rd, then the new 5th battle squadron of the 2nd fleet (so-called active reserve active ships with only small regular crews) of the Home by renaming the units when the Atlantic fleet was dissolved Fleet in the Nore, and reduced the crew to a small tribe to train reservists. On May 11, 1912, she collided with the steamship Don Benite . In May she took over a ramp for the forecastle of the liner Hibernia in order to continue launch experiments with aircraft. Commander Charles Rumney Samson , the first launch of a moving ship in May 1912 by the Hibernia with a Short Improved S.27 - Double Decker had succeeded repeated this from the London reacted ramp for the first time on 4 July 1912th
War effort
Although technically obsolete, the ship played an active role in the First World War . At first, like all ships of the line of the Formidable class, it was assigned to the 5th Battle Squadron stationed in Portland and was transferred to the Dardanelles in March 1915 , where it took part in the Battle of Gallipoli . April 1915 provided fire support when the Allied troops landed. After the London was assigned to the newly created "2nd Detached Squadron Adriatic" in the Adriatic to support the new allied Italy from May to October 1915 with the liners HMS Implacable , HMS Queen and HMS Prince of Wales , she was relocated to Gibraltar for an overhaul . In October 1916 the decommissioning took place in order to gain personnel for anti-submarine units.
_as_minelayer_May_1918.jpg)
From February to April 1918, the London was converted into a mine- layer. The rear turret was completely removed, the cannons in the front turret were expanded and the middle artillery was reduced to three 6-inch guns. From May 18, 1918, the London belonged to the 1st mine-laying squadron of the Grand Fleet and took part in the laying of the so-called "Northern Barrage", an extensive mine barrier at the northern exit of the North Sea . The former liner laid more than 2,600 mines.
After its final decommissioning, the ship was sold for demolition on June 4, 1920.
literature
- RA Burt: British Battleships 1889-1904 . Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1988.
- Roger Chesneau, Eugene M. Kolesnik (Eds.): Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905 . Conway Maritime Press, London 1979, ISBN 0-85177-133-5
- Randolph Pears: British battleships 1892–1957 . Putnam 1957, ISBN 0-906223-14-8
- Owen Thetford: British Naval Aircraft Since 1912 . 6th edition, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD 1991, ISBN 1-55750-076-2 .
