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184-807: The Renown class consisted of two battlecruisers built during the First World War for the Royal Navy . They were originally laid down as improved versions of the Revenge -class battleships, but their construction was suspended on the outbreak of war on the grounds they would not be ready in a timely manner. Admiral Lord Fisher , upon becoming First Sea Lord , gained approval to restart their construction as battlecruisers that could be built and enter service quickly. The Director of Naval Construction (DNC), Eustace Tennyson-D'Eyncourt , quickly produced an entirely new design to meet Admiral Lord Fisher's requirements and

368-664: A Fairey III floatplane for reconnaissance purposes. The flying-off platform was also removed. After Repulse completed her 1926 refit she remained in commission, aside from a brief refit in July–September 1927, with the BCS of the Atlantic Fleet until she was paid off in June 1932 prior to beginning her reconstruction in April 1933. Most of the existing layers of high-tensile steel that constituted

552-538: A beam of 90 feet 1.75 inches (27.5 m), and a draught of 30 feet 2 inches (9.2 m) at deep load . They displaced 27,320 long tons (27,760 t) at standard load and 32,220 long tons (32,740 t) at deep load. While 90 feet (27.4 m) longer than their predecessor, Tiger , they displaced 2,780 long tons (2,820 t) less than the older ship at deep load. The ships proved to be good sea boats, but had to be reinforced while under construction with additional stiffening and pillars under

736-434: A muzzle velocity of 2,575 ft/s (785 m/s); this provided a maximum range of 23,734 yd (21,702 m) with armour-piercing shells. The ships were designed with seventeen 45-calibre BL 4-inch Mark IX guns , fitted in five triple and two single mounts. These were manually powered and quite cumbersome in use as they required a crew of thirty-two men to load and train the triple gun mounts. The gun's rate of fire

920-450: A 1.5-inch cast steel roof. As designed the high-tensile-steel decks ranged from 0.75 to 1.5 inches (19 to 38 mm) in thickness. After the Battle of Jutland in 1916, while the ships were still completing, an extra inch of high-tensile steel was added on the main deck over the magazines . Despite these additions, the ships were still felt to be too vulnerable to plunging fire and each ship

1104-846: A battlecruiser, causing some to refer to her as a fast battleship. However, her protection was markedly less than that of the British battleships built immediately after World War I, the Nelson class . The navies of Japan and the United States, not being affected immediately by the war, had time to develop new heavy 16-inch (410 mm) guns for their latest designs and to refine their battlecruiser designs in light of combat experience in Europe. The Imperial Japanese Navy began four Amagi -class battlecruisers. These vessels would have been of unprecedented size and power, as fast and well armoured as Hood whilst carrying

1288-414: A battleship would score any hits, as the heavy guns relied on primitive aiming techniques. The secondary batteries of 6-inch quick-firing guns, firing more plentiful shells, were more likely to hit the enemy. As naval expert Fred T. Jane wrote in June 1902, Is there anything outside of 2,000 yards that the big gun in its hundreds of tons of medieval castle can affect, that its weight in 6-inch guns without

1472-534: A classification for the World War I–era capital ships that remained in the fleet; while Japan's battlecruisers remained in service, they had been significantly reconstructed and were re-rated as full-fledged fast battleships. Battlecruisers were put into action again during World War II , and only one survived to the end. There was also renewed interest in large "cruiser-killer" type warships, but few were ever begun, as construction of battleships and battlecruisers

1656-607: A cruiser capable of 25.5 knots (47.2 km/h; 29.3 mph), also with 12-inch guns and no intermediate armament, armoured like Minotaur , the most recent armoured cruiser, and also capable of using existing docks. Under the Selborne plan of 1902, the Royal Navy intended to start three new battleships and four armoured cruisers each year. However, in late 1904 it became clear that the 1905–1906 programme would have to be considerably smaller, because of lower than expected tax revenue and

1840-471: A decrease in draught to 28 feet 6 inches (8.7 m), 1 foot 6 inches (45.7 cm) less than the older ships. They would, however, have been 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph) slower than the Revenge -class ships as they were to be provided with only 31,000 shaft horsepower (23,000 kW) rather than the 40,000 shp (30,000 kW) of their predecessors. Work on all four ships

2024-467: A distance of 3,800 yards (3,500 m). The gun's rate of fire was approximately 96–98 rounds per minute. Only one mount was initially available, however, and it, along with its director, was fitted on the starboard side. Renown had her midships triple 4-inch mount removed to make room for an aircraft catapult that was not fitted until 1933. The port Mark V 2-pounder mount was finally fitted, albeit without its director, that same year. The ship now carried

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2208-913: A faster, more lightly armoured battleship. As early as 1901, there is confusion in Fisher's writing about whether he saw the battleship or the cruiser as the model for future developments. This did not stop him from commissioning designs from naval architect W. H. Gard for an armoured cruiser with the heaviest possible armament for use with the fleet. The design Gard submitted was for a ship between 14,000–15,000 long tons (14,000–15,000 t), capable of 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph), armed with four 9.2-inch and twelve 7.5-inch (190 mm) guns in twin gun turrets and protected with six inches of armour along her belt and 9.2-inch turrets, 4 inches (102 mm) on her 7.5-inch turrets, 10 inches on her conning tower and up to 2.5 inches (64 mm) on her decks. However, mainstream British naval thinking between 1902 and 1904

2392-434: A few battleships for more fast armoured cruisers? In such a case, neither side wanting battleships is presumptive evidence that they are not of much value. Fisher's views were very controversial within the Royal Navy, and even given his position as First Sea Lord, he was not in a position to insist on his own approach. Thus he assembled a "Committee on Designs", consisting of a mixture of civilian and naval experts, to determine

2576-497: A few years earlier. Seydlitz was Germany's last battlecruiser completed before World War I. The next step in battlecruiser design came from Japan. The Imperial Japanese Navy had been planning the Kongō -class ships from 1909, and was determined that, since the Japanese economy could support relatively few ships, each would be more powerful than its likely competitors. Initially the class

2760-578: A hydrodynamic effect known as squat , which causes a local pressure reduction under the vessel. This in effect causes a ship to 'vertically sink 'down' leading to a reduction in under keel clearance . Large ships experience a draft increase to heel effect where the ship's beam angles on one side during an alteration of course (sometimes known as turning effect). Draft is a significant factor limiting navigable waterways, especially for large vessels. This includes many shallow coastal waters and reefs, but also some major shipping lanes, therefore restriction on

2944-463: A light cruiser. The design was generally regarded as a failure (nicknamed in the Fleet Outrageous , Uproarious and Spurious ), though the later conversion of the ships to aircraft carriers was very successful. Fisher also speculated about a new mammoth, but lightly built battlecruiser, that would carry 20-inch (508 mm) guns, which he termed HMS  Incomparable ; this never got beyond

3128-499: A main battery of ten 16-inch guns, the most powerful armament ever proposed for a battlecruiser. They were, for all intents and purposes, fast battleships—the only differences between them and the Tosa -class battleships which were to precede them were 1 inch (25 mm) less side armour and a .25 knots (0.46 km/h; 0.29 mph) increase in speed. The United States Navy, which had worked on its battlecruiser designs since 1913 and watched

3312-522: A more thorough reconstruction between 1937 and 1939. Her deck armour was increased, new turbines and boilers were fitted, an aircraft hangar and catapult added and she was completely rearmed aside from the main guns which had their elevation increased to +30 degrees. The bridge structure was also removed and a large bridge similar to that used in the King George V -class battleships installed in its place. While conversions of this kind generally added weight to

3496-529: A muzzle velocity of 2,387 ft/s (728 m/s) at a rate of ten to fifteen rounds per minute. The guns had a maximum ceiling of 31,000 ft (9,400 m), but an effective range of much less. The reconstruction only added 3,500 long tons (3,600 t) to the ship's displacement and three inches to her draught. Repulse was recommissioned on 1 January 1921 and joined the Battlecruiser Squadron. In November 1923, Hood , accompanied by Repulse and

3680-494: A muzzle velocity of about 2,350 ft/s (720 m/s). Its rate of fire was 12 rounds per minute. They had a maximum effective ceiling of 41,000 ft (12,000 m). The guns were controlled by four dual-purpose Mark IV directors, two mounted on the rear of the bridge structure and the remaining two on the aft superstructure. They fed tracking data to a HACS Mark IV analog computer for high-angle targets and an Admiralty Fire Control Clock Mark VII for low-angle targets. Each gun

3864-411: A new class of battlecruisers capable of the very high speed of 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph). Churchill argued that their construction would interfere with other construction programmes, absorb too many resources, and still could not be finished in time. Fisher countered by arguing he could keep the building time to a minimum, as he had done with Dreadnought , by using as much material ordered for

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4048-758: A new design. Fisher finally received approval for this project on 28 December 1914 and they became the Renown class . With six 15-inch guns but only 6-inch armour they were a further step forward from Tiger in firepower and speed, but returned to the level of protection of the first British battlecruisers. At the same time, Fisher resorted to subterfuge to obtain another three fast, lightly armoured ships that could use several spare 15-inch (381 mm) gun turrets left over from battleship construction. These ships were essentially light battlecruisers, and Fisher occasionally referred to them as such, but officially they were classified as large light cruisers . This unusual designation

4232-598: A number of Danae -class cruisers of the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron , set out on a world cruise from west to east via the Panama Canal . They returned home ten months later in September 1924. Shortly after her return the ship's pair of 3-inch AA guns and her two single four-inch gun mounts were removed and replaced with four QF four-inch Mark V AA guns. The Battlecruiser Squadron visited Lisbon in February 1925 to participate in

4416-590: A pair of QF 3 inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft guns on single high-angle mountings. These were mounted on the shelter deck abreast the rear funnel. The gun had a maximum depression of 10° and a maximum elevation of 90°. It fired a 12.5-pound (5.7 kg) shell at a muzzle velocity of 2,500 ft/s (760 m/s) at a rate of fire of 12–14 rounds per minute. They had a maximum effective ceiling of 23,500 ft (7,200 m). Both ships carried ten torpedoes and mounted two 21-inch (533 mm) submerged torpedo tubes fitted just forward of "A" barbette . The main guns of

4600-701: A particular naval threat; the Russian navy had largely been sunk or captured in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, while the French were in no hurry to adopt the new dreadnought -type design. Britain also boasted very cordial relations with two of the significant new naval powers: Japan (bolstered by the Anglo-Japanese Alliance , signed in 1902 and renewed in 1905), and the US. These changed strategic circumstances, and

4784-637: A reduced number of boilers and an increase in hull length by 26 feet (7.9 m) allowed them to reach up to 30 knots once again. They were reclassified as "fast battleships," although their armour and guns still fell short compared to surviving World War I–era battleships in the American or the British navies, with dire consequences during the Pacific War , when Hiei and Kirishima were easily crippled by US gunfire during actions off Guadalcanal, forcing their scuttling shortly afterwards. Perhaps most tellingly, Hiei

4968-646: A somewhat lighter main gun battery than contemporary battleships, installed on a longer hull with much higher engine power in order to attain greater speeds. The first battlecruisers were designed in the United Kingdom , as a development of the armoured cruiser , at the same time as the dreadnought succeeded the pre-dreadnought battleship . The goal of the design was to outrun any ship with similar armament, and chase down any ship with lesser armament; they were intended to hunt down slower, older armoured cruisers and destroy them with heavy gunfire while avoiding combat with

5152-519: A speed of 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph), but he received no support from the authorities and the engine makers refused his request. 1912 saw work begin on three more German battlecruisers of the Derfflinger class , the first German battlecruisers to mount 12-inch guns. These ships, like Tiger and the Kongō s, had their guns arranged in superfiring turrets for greater efficiency. Their armour and speed

5336-707: A speed of 32.58 knots (60.34 km/h; 37.49 mph). They were the fastest capital ships in existence until the arrival of Hood in 1920. They were designed to normally carry 1,000 long tons (1,016 t) of fuel oil , but had a maximum capacity of 4,289 long tons (4,358 t). At full capacity, the Renown -class ships could steam at a speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) for 4,000 nautical miles (7,410 km; 4,600 mi). The ships had two reciprocating steam-driven 200-kilowatt (270 hp) dynamos , one oil-driven 150-kilowatt (200 hp) dynamo, and one turbine-driven 200-kilowatt (270 hp) dynamo that supplied

5520-411: Is the draft in feet); in metric marking, the bottom of each draft mark is the draft in decimeters and each mark is one decimeter high, spaced at intervals of 2 decimeters. An internal draft gauge or draft indicator is used on larger ships. It consists of a pressure gauge attached to a seacock below the light-load line and calibrated to reflect the draft of the ship. Larger ships need to keep

5704-478: The Admiral Nakhimov has been inactive (in storage or refitting) since 1999. The battlecruiser was developed by the Royal Navy in the first years of the 20th century as an evolution of the armoured cruiser . The first armoured cruisers had been built in the 1870s, as an attempt to give armour protection to ships fulfilling the typical cruiser roles of patrol, trade protection and power projection. However,

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5888-467: The Invincible class . Fisher later claimed, however, that he had argued during the committee for the cancellation of the remaining battleship. The construction of the new class was begun in 1906 and completed in 1908, delayed perhaps to allow their designers to learn from any problems with Dreadnought . The ships fulfilled the design requirement quite closely. On a displacement similar to Dreadnought ,

6072-458: The Queen Elizabeth class , called Agincourt . Resistance and Agincourt were to be built in royal dockyards while Renown was awarded to Fairfield and Repulse to Palmers . The design was approved on 13 May 1914 and the improvements over the Revenge class consisted of: These changes would have done little to change the size of the ships in comparison to their predecessors other than

6256-543: The Tsukuba and Ibuki classes, carrying four 12-inch guns, as battlecruisers; nonetheless, their armament was weaker and they were slower than any battlecruiser. The next British battlecruiser, Tiger , was intended initially as the fourth ship in the Lion class, but was substantially redesigned. She retained the eight 13.5-inch guns of her predecessors, but they were positioned like those of Kongō for better fields of fire. She

6440-599: The Battle of the Falkland Islands . The British battlecruisers Inflexible and Invincible did precisely the job for which they were intended when they chased down and annihilated the German East Asia Squadron , centered on the armoured cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau , along with three light cruisers, commanded by Admiral Maximilian Graf Von Spee , in the South Atlantic Ocean. Prior to

6624-829: The Battlecruiser Squadron when Hood was refitting. Both ships served during the Second World War ; they searched for the Admiral Graf Spee in 1939, participated in the Norwegian Campaign of April–June 1940 and searched for the Bismarck in 1941. Repulse was sunk on 10 December 1941 in the South China Sea off Kuantan , Pahang by Japanese aircraft. Renown spent much of 1940 and 1941 assigned to Force H at Gibraltar , escorting convoys and she fought in

6808-770: The Borodino s was halted by the First World War and all were scrapped after the end of the Russian Civil War . For most of the combatants, capital ship construction was very limited during the war. Germany finished the Derfflinger class and began work on the Mackensen class . The Mackensen s were a development of the Derfflinger class, with 13.8-inch guns and a broadly similar armour scheme, designed for 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph). In Britain, Jackie Fisher returned to

6992-716: The Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean where she supported numerous attacks on Japanese-occupied facilities in Indonesia and various island groups in the Indian Ocean. The ship returned to the Home Fleet in early 1945 and was refitted before being placed in reserve after the end of the war. Renown was sold for scrap in 1948. The battleships of the 1914 Naval Programme consisted of three improved Revenge -class ships, named Renown , Repulse and Resistance , and one further member of

7176-831: The Grand Fleet , and Vice Admiral Beatty , commander of the Battlecruiser Force, caused Churchill to gain approval from the Cabinet to build two ships on 28 December. Admiral Lord Fisher first presented his requirements for the new ships to the DNC on 18 December, before they had even been approved. He wanted a long, high, flared bow, like that on the pre-dreadnought HMS  Renown , but higher, four 15-inch guns in two twin turrets, an anti- torpedo boat armament of twenty 4-inch (102 mm) guns mounted high up and protected by gun shields only, speed of 32 knots using oil fuel, and armour on

7360-502: The Invincible class themselves were referred to as "cruiser-battleships", "dreadnought cruisers"; the term "battlecruiser" was first used by Fisher in 1908. Finally, on 24 November 1911, Admiralty Weekly Order No. 351 laid down that "All cruisers of the "Invincible" and later types are for the future to be described and classified as "battle cruisers" to distinguish them from the armoured cruisers of earlier date." Along with questions over

7544-449: The Invincible s were 40 feet (12.2 m) longer to accommodate additional boilers and more powerful turbines to propel them at 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph). Moreover, the new ships could maintain this speed for days, whereas pre-dreadnought battleships could not generally do so for more than an hour. Armed with eight 12-inch Mk X guns , compared to ten on Dreadnought , they had 6–7 inches (152–178 mm) of armour protecting

Renown-class battlecruiser - Misplaced Pages Continue

7728-515: The North Sea which culminated in a pitched fleet battle, the Battle of Jutland . British battlecruisers in particular suffered heavy losses at Jutland, where poor fire safety and ammunition handling practices left them vulnerable to catastrophic magazine explosions following hits to their main turrets from large-calibre shells. This dismal showing led to a persistent general belief that battlecruisers were too thinly armoured to function successfully. By

7912-911: The Ottoman Navy , and this was instrumental in bringing the Ottoman Empire into the war as one of the Central Powers . Goeben herself, renamed Yavuz Sultan Selim , fought engagements against the Imperial Russian Navy in the Black Sea before being knocked out of the action for the remainder of the war after the Battle of Imbros against British forces in the Aegean Sea in January 1918. The original battlecruiser concept proved successful in December 1914 at

8096-493: The Renown -class ships could be controlled from either of the two fire-control directors . The primary director was mounted above the conning tower in an armoured hood and the other was in the fore-top on the foremast. Data from a rangefinder in the armoured hood was input into a Mk IV* Dreyer Fire Control Table located in the Transmitting Station (TS) where it was converted into range and deflection data for use by

8280-538: The Suez Canal , the limiting factor for Suezmax ships is draft. Some supertankers are able to transit the Suez Canal when unladen or partially laden, but not when fully laden. Canals are not the only draft-limited shipping lanes. A Malaccamax ship, is the deepest draft able to transit the very busy but relatively shallow Strait of Malacca . The Strait only allows ships to have 0.4 m (1.31 ft) more draft than

8464-566: The Vasco da Gama celebrations before continuing on the Mediterranean for exercises. A squash court was added on the starboard side between the funnels for the Prince of Wales' tour of Africa and South America that lasted from March to October. Upon her return she was refitted from November 1925 to July 1926 and had a HACP added to her fore-top. Renown finished her reconstruction in September 1926 and she

8648-423: The bridge . The armour protection of the Renown -class ships was similar to that of Indefatigable ; her waterline belt of Krupp cemented armour measured 6 inches (152 mm) thick amidships. It ran from the midpoint of "A" barbette to the midpoint of "Y" barbette, a length of 462 feet (140.8 m), and was 9 feet (2.7 m) high. Strakes of three-inch armour aft and four-inch armour forward continued

8832-482: The cordite handling, the battle was mostly inconclusive, though both the British flagship Lion and Seydlitz were severely damaged. Lion lost speed, causing her to fall behind the rest of the battleline, and Beatty was unable to effectively command his ships for the remainder of the engagement. A British signalling error allowed the German battlecruisers to withdraw, as most of Beatty's squadron mistakenly concentrated on

9016-403: The hull , propellers , or other reference point". That is, the draft or draught is the maximum depth of any part of the vessel, including appendages such as rudders, propellers and drop keels if deployed. The related term air draft is the maximum height of any part of the vessel above the water. Draft determines the minimum depth of water a ship or boat can safely navigate in relation to

9200-609: The quick-firing guns of enemy battleships and cruisers alike. In 1896–97 France and Russia, who were regarded as likely allies in the event of war, started to build large, fast armoured cruisers taking advantage of this. In the event of a war between Britain and France or Russia, or both, these cruisers threatened to cause serious difficulties for the British Empire 's worldwide trade. Britain, which had concluded in 1892 that it needed twice as many cruisers as any potential enemy to adequately protect its empire's sea lanes, responded to

9384-409: The slipway or converted to aircraft carriers. In Japan, Amagi and Akagi were selected for conversion. Amagi was damaged beyond repair by the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake and was broken up for scrap ; the hull of one of the proposed Tosa -class battleships, Kaga , was converted in her stead. The United States Navy also converted two battlecruiser hulls into aircraft carriers in the wake of

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9568-511: The torpedo , armour had lost some of its validity; and second, because of its greater speed, the battlecruiser could control the range at which it engaged an enemy. Between the launching of the Invincible s to just after the outbreak of the First World War, the battlecruiser played a junior role in the developing dreadnought arms race, as it was never wholeheartedly adopted as the key weapon in British imperial defence, as Fisher had presumably desired. The biggest factor for this lack of acceptance

9752-421: The under keel clearance available. The more heavily a vessel is loaded, the deeper it sinks into the water, and the greater its draft (also referred to as its displacement). After construction, the shipyard creates a table showing how much water the vessel displaces based on its draft and the density of the water (salt or fresh). The draft can also be used to determine the weight of cargo on board by calculating

9936-666: The Admiralty decided on a larger operation to destroy the minesweepers and their escorting light cruisers . Based on intelligence reports the Admiralty decided on 17 November 1917 to allocate two light cruiser squadrons, the 1st Cruiser Squadron covered by the reinforced 1st BCS (less Renown ) and, more distantly, the battleships of the 1st Battle Squadron to the operation. The German ships, four light cruisers of II Scouting Force, eight destroyers , three divisions of minesweepers, eight sperrbrecher s (cork-filled trawlers , used to detonate mines without sinking) and two trawlers to mark

10120-454: The Admiralty. While initially envisaged as a battleship, senior sea officers felt that Britain had enough battleships, but that new battlecruisers might be required to combat German ships being built (the British overestimated German progress on the Mackensen class as well as their likely capabilities). A battlecruiser design with eight 15-inch guns, 8 inches of armour and capable of 32 knots

10304-835: The Atlantic to search for the Bismarck . Force H escorted another convoy to Malta in July and Renown returned home for repairs the next month. The ship was transferred to the Home Fleet in November when her repairs were complete. She provided cover for the inbound and outbound convoys to the Soviet Union in early March 1942. She became flagship of Force W which was formed to escort carriers carrying fighters to be flown-off for Malta in April–May. Renown rejoined Home Fleet once those missions were completed, but

10488-563: The Battle of Tsushima in 1905 about the armoured cruiser's ability to survive in a battle line against enemy capital ships due to their superior speed. These assumptions had been made without taking into account the Russian Baltic Fleet 's inefficiency and tactical ineptitude. By the time the term "battlecruiser" had been given to the Invincible s, the idea of their parity with battleships had been fixed in many people's minds. Not everyone

10672-567: The Bight and turned the tide of the battle, ultimately sinking three German light cruisers and killing their commander, Rear Admiral Leberecht Maass . The German battlecruiser Goeben perhaps made the most impact early in the war. Stationed in the Mediterranean, she and the escorting light cruiser SMS  Breslau evaded British and French ships on the outbreak of war , and steamed to Constantinople ( Istanbul ) with two British battlecruisers in hot pursuit. The two German ships were handed over to

10856-618: The British response to the Amagi and Lexington types: four 48,000-long-ton (49,000 t) G3 battlecruisers . Royal Navy documents of the period often described any battleship with a speed of over about 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph) as a battlecruiser, regardless of the amount of protective armour, although the G3 was considered by most to be a well-balanced fast battleship. The Washington Naval Treaty meant that none of these designs came to fruition. Ships that had been started were either broken up on

11040-543: The Mark I (N) standard with their elevation increased to 30°. Twenty dual-purpose QF 4.5-inch Mark III guns in twin BD Mark II mountings replaced all of the 4-inch guns. Six of the gun turrets, three on each side, were abreast the forward funnel while the remaining four were mounted on abreast the main mast. The BD Mark II mounts had elevation limits of −5° to +80°. The Mark III gun fired a 55-pound (25 kg) high explosive shell at

11224-570: The North Sea, but was transferred to Force K in the South Atlantic to help search for the heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee . The ship joined Force H at the Cape of Good Hope in November to prevent Admiral Graf Spee from breaking into the South Atlantic. She was unsuccessful in this, but sank the blockade runner SS Watussi on 2 December. She remained in the South Atlantic even after Admiral Graf Spee

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11408-422: The Royal Navy had decided to use 12-inch guns for its next generation of battleships because of their superior performance at long range, Fisher began to argue that big-gun cruisers could replace battleships altogether. The continuing improvement of the torpedo meant that submarines and destroyers would be able to destroy battleships; this in Fisher's view heralded the end of the battleship or at least compromised

11592-445: The Scandinavian convoy and most of its escorts. For the rest of the war the two ships patrolled the North Sea uneventfully. Both ships were present at the surrender of the High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow on 21 November 1918. Repulse began a major refit at Portsmouth on 17 December 1918 intended to drastically improve her armour protection. Her existing 6-inch armour belt was replaced by 9-inch (229 mm) armour plates made surplus by

11776-461: The Suez Canal. Capesize , Ultra Large Crude Carriers and a few Chinamax carriers, are some of the ships that have too deep a draft when laden, for either the Strait of Malacca or the Suez Canal. A small draft allows pleasure boats to navigate through shallower water. This makes it possible for these boats to access smaller ports, to travel along rivers and even to 'beach' the boat. A large draft may increase ultimate stability in, depending on

11960-433: The United States, Great Britain and Japan were scrapped or converted into aircraft carriers under the terms of the treaty. Improvements in armour design and propulsion created the 1930s "fast battleship" with the speed of a battlecruiser and armour of a battleship, making the battlecruiser in the traditional sense effectively an obsolete concept. Thus from the 1930s on, only the Royal Navy continued to use "battlecruiser" as

12144-580: The Washington Naval Treaty, although HMS Tiger later became a victim of the London Naval Conference 1930 and was scrapped. Because their high speed made them valuable surface units in spite of their weaknesses, most of these ships were significantly updated before World War II. Renown and Repulse were modernized significantly in the 1920s and 1930s. Between 1934 and 1936, Repulse was partially modernized and had her bridge modified, an aircraft hangar , catapult and new gunnery equipment added and her anti-aircraft armament increased. Renown underwent

12328-495: The Washington Treaty: USS  Lexington and USS  Saratoga , although this was only considered marginally preferable to scrapping the hulls outright (the remaining four: Constellation , Ranger , Constitution and United States were scrapped). In Britain, Fisher's "large light cruisers," were converted to carriers. Furious had already been partially converted during the war and Glorious and Courageous were similarly converted. In total, nine battlecruisers survived

12512-451: The approach to both battleship and armoured cruiser construction in the future. While the stated purpose of the committee was to investigate and report on future requirements of ships, Fisher and his associates had already made key decisions. The terms of reference for the committee were for a battleship capable of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) with 12-inch guns and no intermediate calibres, capable of docking in existing drydocks ; and

12696-476: The armoured cruiser in its current form had come to the logical end of its development and the Invincible s were so far ahead of any enemy armoured cruiser in firepower and speed that it proved difficult to justify building more or bigger cruisers. This lead was extended by the surprise both Dreadnought and Invincible produced by having been built in secret; this prompted most other navies to delay their building programmes and radically revise their designs. This

12880-526: The barbette. The propellant charges being hoisted upwards were ignited, and the fireball flashed up into the turret and down into the magazine , setting fire to charges removed from their brass cartridge cases. The gun crew tried to escape into the next turret, which allowed the flash to spread into that turret as well, killing the crews of both turrets. Seydlitz was saved from near-certain destruction only by emergency flooding of her after magazines, which had been effected by Wilhelm Heidkamp . This near-disaster

13064-437: The battle, Seydlitz barely making it home, for they had been the focus of British fire for much of the battle. In the years immediately after World War I, Britain, Japan and the US all began design work on a new generation of ever more powerful battleships and battlecruisers. The new burst of shipbuilding that each nation's navy desired was politically controversial and potentially economically crippling. This nascent arms race

13248-533: The battle, the Australian battlecruiser Australia had unsuccessfully searched for the German ships in the Pacific. During the Battle of Dogger Bank in 1915, the aftermost barbette of the German flagship Seydlitz was struck by a British 13.5-inch shell from HMS Lion . The shell did not penetrate the barbette, but it dislodged a piece of the barbette armour that allowed the flame from the shell's detonation to enter

13432-415: The battlecruiser and battleship concepts into what would eventually become the fast battleship. The 'X4' design combined the full armour and armament of Dreadnought with the 25-knot speed of Invincible . The additional cost could not be justified given the existing British lead and the new Liberal government's need for economy; the slower and cheaper Bellerophon , a relatively close copy of Dreadnought ,

13616-518: The battlecruiser and the modern fast battleship became blurred; indeed, the Japanese Kongō s were formally redesignated as battleships after their very comprehensive reconstruction in the 1930s. Hood , launched in 1918, was the last World War I battlecruiser to be completed. Owing to lessons from Jutland, the ship was modified during construction; the thickness of her belt armour was increased by an average of 50 percent and extended substantially, she

13800-537: The battlecruisers, and then German battleships before the arrival of the battleships of the British Grand Fleet . The result was a disaster for the Royal Navy's battlecruiser squadrons: Invincible , Queen Mary , and Indefatigable exploded with the loss of all but a handful of their crews. The exact reason why the ships' magazines detonated is not known, but the abundance of exposed cordite charges stored in their turrets, ammunition hoists and working chambers in

13984-539: The battleship Ramillies . The bulge covered her hull from the submerged torpedo room to "Y" magazine and the inner compartments of which were filled with crushing tubes. The bulges added 12 feet 8 inches (3.9 m) to her beam and 1 foot 4 inches (0.4 m) to her draught. The refit added about 4,500 long tons (4,600 t) to her displacement and raised her metacentric height to 6.4 feet (2.0 m) at deep load. Three 30-foot rangefinders were also added as well as eight torpedo tubes in twin mounts on

14168-510: The battleships as possible, including their 15-inch (381 mm) gun turrets . Churchill was unmoved, however, until the experiences of Battle of Heligoland Bight in August and the Battle of the Falkland Islands in December, seemed to demonstrate that high speed and heavy gun power was a potent combination and vindicated Fisher's long-held belief on the viability of the battlecruiser. These actions, plus pressure from Admiral Jellicoe , commander of

14352-422: The belt towards the ends of the ship, although neither reached the bow or the stern. The strakes were enclosed by transverse bulkheads of the same thickness. For much of the length of the main belt there was an upper belt of high-tensile steel, 1.5 inches (38 mm) thick, intended as splinter protection. The gun turrets were 9 inches (229 mm) thick on the face and front sides, 7 inches (178 mm) thick on

14536-497: The bottom. The ship's deck armour was heavily reinforced adjacent to its machinery spaces and magazines. Two longitudinal bulkheads were added between the upper and main decks that ran from the base of the conning tower to the end of the boiler rooms. The bulges were reworked and based on those used in the Queen Elizabeth -class battleships, although crushing tubes were only used abreast the magazines. The rear triple 4-inch gun mount

14720-411: The bridge and will be shared with the pilot . The draft of a ship can be affected by multiple factors, besides the variations caused by changes in displacement: When measured to the lowest projecting portion of the vessel, it is called the "draft, extreme"; when measured at the bow, it is called "draft, forward"; and when measured at the stern, the "draft, aft"; the average of the draft, forward, and

14904-502: The builders agreed to deliver the ships in 15 months. They did not quite meet that ambitious goal, but they were delivered a few months after the Battle of Jutland in 1916. They were the world's fastest capital ships upon their commissioning. Repulse was the only ship of her class to see combat in the First World War when she participated in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in 1917. Both ships were reconstructed twice between

15088-400: The castle could not affect equally well? And inside 2,000, what, in these days of gyros, is there that the torpedo cannot effect with far more certainty? In 1904, Admiral John "Jacky" Fisher became First Sea Lord , the senior officer of the Royal Navy. He had for some time thought about the development of a new fast armoured ship. He was very fond of the "second-class battleship" Renown ,

15272-441: The catapult itself. Electric cranes were mounted above each hangar to handle the aircraft. The four 4-inch AA guns were moved, one pair abreast the rear funnel at the level of the hangar roof and the other pair abreast the fore funnel on the forecastle deck. Four prototype QF 4-inch Mark XV dual-purpose guns were added in twin-gun Mark XVIII mounts abreast the mainmast. Two octuple Mark VI 2-pounder mounts were fitted on extensions of

15456-496: The common ring main at 220 volts . The Renown -class ships mounted six 42- calibre BL 15-inch Mk I guns in three twin hydraulically powered gun turrets, designated "A", "B", and "Y" from front to rear. The guns could be depressed to −3° and elevated to 20°; they could be loaded at any angle up to 20°, although loading at high angles tended to slow the gun's return to battery (firing position). The ships carried 120 shells per gun. They fired 1,910-pound (866 kg) projectiles at

15640-426: The completion of the ships the machinery from HMS Tiger was duplicated with the addition of three extra boilers to provide the required power needed for the additional speed. Each ship had two paired sets of Brown-Curtis direct-drive steam turbines , housed in separate engine-rooms. Each set comprised high-pressure ahead and astern turbines driving an outboard shaft and low-pressure ahead and astern turbines, housed in

15824-598: The concept stage. It is often held that the Renown and Courageous classes were designed for Fisher's plan to land troops (possibly Russian) on the German Baltic coast. Specifically, they were designed with a reduced draught , which might be important in the shallow Baltic. This is not clear-cut evidence that the ships were designed for the Baltic: it was considered that earlier ships had too much draught and not enough freeboard under operational conditions. Roberts argues that

16008-448: The conning-tower platform abreast the fore funnel. Above these a pair of quadruple Mark II* mountings for the 0.5-inch Vickers Mark III machine gun were added. These mounts could depress to −10° and elevate to a maximum of 70°. The machine guns fired a 1.326-ounce (37.6 g) bullet at a muzzle velocity of 2,520 ft/s (770 m/s). This gave the gun a maximum range of about 5,000 yd (4,600 m), although its effective range

16192-411: The conversion of the battleship Almirante Cochrane (originally ordered by Chile and purchased after the war began) to the aircraft carrier Eagle . The old armour was fitted between the main and upper decks, above the new armour belt. Additional high-tensile plating was added to the decks over the magazines. The ship's anti-torpedo bulge was deepened and reworked along the lines of that installed on

16376-587: The convoy bringing most of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division to Britain in mid-December 1939 and was reassigned to the Home Fleet. The ship supported Allied operations during the Norwegian Campaign in April–June 1940. Accompanied by Renown and the 1st Cruiser Squadron, Repulse attempted to intercept the Gneisenau as it sailed from Trondheim to Germany in July. Until May 1941 the ship escorted convoys and unsuccessfully searched for German ships. On 22 May Repulse

16560-482: The crippled armoured cruiser Blücher , sinking her with great loss of life. The British blamed their failure to win a decisive victory on their poor gunnery and attempted to increase their rate of fire by stockpiling unprotected cordite charges in their ammunition hoists and barbettes. At the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916, both British and German battlecruisers were employed as fleet units. The British battlecruisers became engaged with both their German counterparts,

16744-507: The draft, aft is the "draft, mean", and the mean draft when in full load condition is the "draft load". These are markings and numbers located on both sides of a vessel, as close as possible to the bow and stern bow and stern , and then also, often amidships . The number and its associated marking indicate the distance from the marking to the bottom lowest fixed reference point of the vessel (e.g., its keel ). The numbers and markings were large and clear; for instance, on U.S. naval vessels,

16928-535: The duration of the war. Repulse relieved Lion as flagship of the 1st BCS. Over the course of 1917 the Admiralty became more concerned about German efforts in the North Sea to sweep paths through the British-laid minefields intended to restrict the actions of the High Seas Fleet and German submarines . A preliminary raid on German minesweeping forces on 31 October by light forces destroyed ten small ships and

17112-568: The edge over the Lion s in speed and firepower. The heavy guns were also better-positioned, being superfiring both fore and aft with no turret amidships. The armour scheme was also marginally improved over the Lion s, with nine inches of armour on the turrets and 8 inches (203 mm) on the barbettes. The first ship in the class was built in Britain, and a further three constructed in Japan. The Japanese also re-classified their powerful armoured cruisers of

17296-733: The end of January 1944 where she was flagship of the 1st Battle Squadron. In April she participated in Operation Cockpit , an airstrike against port and oil facilities on Sabang , off the island of Sumatra . The ship bombarded Japanese-occupied facilities on Car Nicobar in the Nicobar Islands and Port Blair in the Andaman Islands on 30 April – 1 May. Renown supported the airstrike against Surabaya , Java ( Operation Transom ) on 17 May as well as follow-on attack against Port Blair on 21 June. After another airstrike on 25 July on Sabang

17480-406: The end of the war, capital ship design had developed, with battleships becoming faster and battlecruisers becoming more heavily armoured, blurring the distinction between a battlecruiser and a fast battleship . The Washington Naval Treaty , which limited capital ship construction from 1922 onwards, treated battleships and battlecruisers identically, and the new generation of battlecruisers planned by

17664-460: The first capital ship to be fitted with aircraft flying-off platforms on her turrets. A Sopwith Pup successfully took off from the platform mounted on "B" turret on 1 October and repeated his achievement on 9 October from "Y" turret. Renown received her platforms in early 1918. On 12 December 1917 Renown put to sea with other elements of the fleet in an unsuccessful attempt to intercept the German 3rd Half-Flotilla of destroyers that had destroyed

17848-499: The focus on the Baltic was probably unimportant at the time the ships were designed, but was inflated later, after the disastrous Dardanelles Campaign . The final British battlecruiser design of the war was the Admiral class , which was born from a requirement for an improved version of the Queen Elizabeth battleship. The project began at the end of 1915, after Fisher's final departure from

18032-793: The following afternoon and shadowed for the rest of the day. Admiral Sir Tom Phillips decided to cancel the operation as the Japanese were now alerted. Force Z turned back during the evening, but was spotted again early on the morning of 10 December. About four hours later Japanese bombers arrived and attacked Repulse from high altitude; she was slightly damaged by one bomb hit in her port hangar. The second wave consisted of torpedo bombers which missed Repulse , but scored at least one hit on Prince of Wales . The third wave again consisted of high-altitude level bombers that missed Repulse entirely. The fourth wave of torpedo bombers managed to hit Repulse once amidships on her port side. The final wave of torpedo bombers hit Repulse with three more torpedoes and

18216-427: The forecastle deck to cure some minor structural problems forward. They had a metacentric height of 6.2 feet (1.9 m) at deep load as built as well as a complete double bottom . The original plan for these ships was to use lightweight machinery producing a total of 110,000 shaft horsepower (82,000 kW), but that would have required a considerable amount of time to complete its design. Rather than risk delaying

18400-626: The great success of the Dreadnought ensured that she rather than the Invincible became the new model capital ship. Nevertheless, battlecruiser construction played a part in the renewed naval arms race sparked by the Dreadnought . For their first few years of service, the Invincible s entirely fulfilled Fisher's vision of being able to sink any ship fast enough to catch them, and run from any ship capable of sinking them. An Invincible would also, in many circumstances, be able to take on an enemy pre-dreadnought battleship . Naval circles concurred that

18584-493: The guns. The target's data was also graphically recorded on a plotting table to assist the gunnery officer in predicting the movement of the target. The secondary armament was controlled by directors mounted on platforms on each mast. Each turret was provided with a 15-foot (4.6 m) rangefinder in an armoured housing on the turret roof. During the war the number and size of rangefinders increased. By 1918 Renown carried two 30-foot (9.1 m) rangefinders, one on "Y" turret and

18768-414: The heavy armour of SMS  Von der Tann . This class came to be widely seen as a mistake and the next generation of British battlecruisers were markedly more powerful. By 1909–1910 a sense of national crisis about rivalry with Germany outweighed cost-cutting, and a naval panic resulted in the approval of a total of eight capital ships in 1909–1910. Fisher pressed for all eight to be battlecruisers, but

18952-577: The hull and the gun turrets. ( Dreadnought ' s armour, by comparison, was 11–12 inches (279–305 mm) at its thickest.) The class had a very marked increase in speed, displacement and firepower compared to the most recent armoured cruisers but no more armour. While the Invincible s were to fill the same role as the armoured cruisers they succeeded, they were expected to do so more effectively. Specifically their roles were: Confusion about how to refer to these new battleship-size armoured cruisers set in almost immediately. Even in late 1905, before work

19136-448: The hull form, as the center of gravity can be lower. A broad beamed boat like a catamaran can provide high initial stability with a small draft, but the width of the boat increases. A term called keel depth is used for submarines , which can submerge to different depths at sea, specifying the current distance from the water surface to the bottom of the submarine's keel. It is used in navigation to avoid underwater obstacles and hitting

19320-456: The inconclusive Battle of Cape Spartivento . She was briefly assigned to the Home Fleet and provided cover to several Arctic convoys in early 1942. The ship was transferred back to Force H for Operation Torch and spent much of 1943 refitting or transporting Winston Churchill and his staff to and from various conferences with various Allied leaders. In early 1944 Renown was transferred to

19504-603: The journey. The beginning of the Second World War found Repulse assigned to the Battlecruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet . She patrolled off the Norwegian coast and in the North Sea in search of German ships and to enforce the blockade. Early in the war Repulse had her aft triple 4-inch mount replaced by an 8-barrel 2-pounder mount. In late October she was transferred to Halifax with the aircraft carrier Furious to protect convoys and search for German raiders. She escorted

19688-453: The latest developments in this class with great care, responded with the Lexington class . If completed as planned, they would have been exceptionally fast and well armed with eight 16-inch guns, but carried armour little better than the Invincible s—this after an 8,000-long-ton (8,100 t) increase in protection following Jutland. The final stage in the post-war battlecruiser race came with

19872-544: The level of the upper deck, her masts taken out and the ship's main and secondary armament was removed. A large splinter-proof tower superstructure was built, topped with a director-control tower for the main armament and two HACS Mark IV directors. The armoured hood formerly mounted above the conning tower was reinstalled on the rear superstructure. The ship's engines and boilers were replaced by Parsons geared turbine sets and eight Admiralty three-drum boilers . This saved some 2,800 long tons (2,800 t) of weight and allowed

20056-421: The main fire-control director and damaged the rangefinder on "A" turret. The German ships were faster than Renown in the heavy weather and were able to successfully disengage. The ship was repaired from 20 April to 18 May and provided cover during the evacuation from Norway in early June. Renown was transferred to Force H at Gibraltar in August and relieved Hood as flagship. In November 1940 Force H covered

20240-462: The maximum draft (the draft limit , a distance from the seabed or riverbed to the water level) is sometimes established (in particular, all ports set up draft limits). Panamax class ships—the largest ships able to transit the Panama Canal —do have a draft limit (and an "air draft" limit for passing under bridges) but are usually limited by beam , or sometimes length overall , for fitting into locks . However, ships can be longer, wider and higher in

20424-402: The more powerful but slower battleships. However, as more and more battlecruisers were built, they were increasingly used alongside the better-protected battleships. Battlecruisers served in the navies of the United Kingdom , Germany , the Ottoman Empire , Australia and Japan during World War I, most notably at the Battle of the Falkland Islands and in the several raids and skirmishes in

20608-450: The need to buy out two Chilean battleships under construction in British yards, lest they be purchased by the Russians for use against the Japanese, Britain's ally. These economic realities meant that the 1905–1906 programme consisted only of one battleship, but three armoured cruisers. The battleship became the revolutionary battleship Dreadnought , and the cruisers became the three ships of

20792-517: The new design and the contract for Repulse was transferred from Palmers to John Brown & Company because the former lacked a slipway long enough to use for the new ship. The usable material was transferred to John Brown and both builders had received enough information from the DNC's department to lay the keels of both ships on 25 January 1915, well before the altered contracts were completed on 10 March The Renown -class ships had an overall length of 794 feet 1.5 inches (242.0 m),

20976-589: The new ships' nomenclature came uncertainty about their actual role due to their lack of protection. If they were primarily to act as scouts for the battle fleet and hunter-killers of enemy cruisers and commerce raiders, then the seven inches of belt armour with which they had been equipped would be adequate. If, on the other hand, they were expected to reinforce a battle line of dreadnoughts with their own heavy guns, they were too thin-skinned to be safe from an enemy's heavy guns. The Invincible s were essentially extremely large, heavily armed, fast armoured cruisers. However,

21160-464: The numbers were, historically, as a standard, 6 inches tall, with spacing of 12 inches bottom to bottom, vertically. These hull markings constitute a "banded" scale, and may be accompanied by international load line markings. The scale may use Imperial units or metric units ; the Imperial system is as stated above (markings 6 inches high, spaced at 12 inch intervals, where the bottom of each marking

21344-473: The office of First Sea Lord in October 1914. His enthusiasm for big, fast ships was unabated, and he set designers to producing a design for a battlecruiser with 15-inch guns. Because Fisher expected the next German battlecruiser to steam at 28 knots, he required the new British design to be capable of 32 knots. He planned to reorder two Revenge -class battleships , which had been approved but not yet laid down, to

21528-519: The only British ships capable of taking on the German Mackensen class; nevertheless, German shipbuilding was drastically slowed by the war, and while two Mackensen s were launched, none were ever completed. The Germans also worked briefly on a further three ships, of the Ersatz Yorck class , which were modified versions of the Mackensen s with 15-inch guns. Work on the three additional Admirals

21712-436: The other in the armoured hood above the conning tower. Fifteen-foot rangefinders were mounted on "A" and "B" turrets, the torpedo control tower abaft the mainmast, and the armoured hood. The fore-top was equipped with a 12-foot (3.7 m) rangefinder and the anti-aircraft guns were controlled by a simple 6-foot-6-inch (1.98 m) rangefinder mounted on the aft superstructure. Two 9-foot (2.7 m) rangefinders were mounted on

21896-417: The perceived threat by laying down its own large armoured cruisers. Between 1899 and 1905, it completed or laid down seven classes of this type, a total of 35 ships. This building program, in turn, prompted the French and Russians to increase their own construction. The Imperial German Navy began to build large armoured cruisers for use on their overseas stations, laying down eight between 1897 and 1906. In

22080-419: The period 1889–1896, the Royal Navy spent £7.3 million on new large cruisers. From 1897 to 1904, it spent £26.9 million. Many armoured cruisers of the new kind were just as large and expensive as the equivalent battleship. The increasing size and power of the armoured cruiser led to suggestions in British naval circles that cruisers should displace battleships entirely. The battleship's main advantage

22264-469: The propeller immersed when they are light (without cargo ), and may ballast further to reduce windage or for better directional stability or seakeeping, or to distribute load along the hull to reduce hogging and sagging stresses. To achieve this they use sailing ballast distributed among ballast tanks to stabilize the ship, following the unloading of cargo. The draft of a large ship has little direct link with its stability because stability depends mainly on

22448-695: The quest to increase their rate of fire undoubtedly contributed to their loss. Beatty's flagship Lion herself was almost lost in a similar manner, save for the heroic actions of Major Francis Harvey . The better-armoured German battlecruisers fared better, in part due to the poor performance of British fuzes (the British shells tended to explode or break up on impact with the German armour). Lützow —the only German battlecruiser lost at Jutland—had only 128 killed, for instance, despite receiving more than thirty hits. The other German battlecruisers, Moltke , Von der Tann , Seydlitz , and Derfflinger , were all heavily damaged and required extensive repairs after

22632-430: The rear side plates while their roofs were 4.25 inches (108 mm) thick. The barbettes were protected by 7 inches (178 mm) of armour above the upper deck, but it thinned to 4–5 inches (102–127 mm) below the deck. The conning tower sides were 10 inches (254 mm) thick and it had a three-inch roof. The walls of the communication tube were three inches thick. The torpedo control tower had 3-inch walls and

22816-456: The relative positions of the metacenter of the hull and the center of gravity. However, a "light" ship may have an excessively high stability which can cause uncomfortable rolling of the ship. A fully laden ship (with a large draft) can have either a high or low stability, depending on the height of the center of gravity , which is affected by the distribution of cargo. The draft of a ship can be increased by longitudinal motion in shallow water,

23000-436: The results were rarely satisfactory, as the weight of armour required for any meaningful protection usually meant that the ship became almost as slow as a battleship. As a result, navies preferred to build protected cruisers with an armoured deck protecting their engines, or simply no armour at all. In the 1890s, new Krupp steel armour meant that it was now possible to give a cruiser side armour which would protect it against

23184-495: The same casing, driving an inner shaft. Their three-bladed propellers were 13 feet 6 inches (4.11 m) in diameter. The turbines were powered by 42 Babcock & Wilcox water-tube boilers in six boiler rooms at a working pressure of 235  psi (1,620  kPa ; 17  kgf/cm ). They were designed to produce a total of 112,000 shaft horsepower (84,000 kW), but achieved more than 126,000 shp (93,958 kW) during Renown ' s trials, when she reached

23368-412: The scale of the battlecruiser Indefatigable . Within a few days, however, Fisher increased the number of guns to six and added two torpedo tubes. Minor revisions in the initial estimate were made until 26 December, and a preliminary design was completed on 30 December. During the following week the DNC's department examined the material delivered for the two battleships and decided what could be used in

23552-435: The ship capsized with the loss of 508 officers and men. The sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse contributed to the rapid fall of Singapore and Malaya to the Japanese, and demonstrated the dominance of air power over the capital ships that had been the backbone of naval power since the 1600s. Renown was recommissioned on 28 August 1939 as part of the Home Fleet. Much like her sister, she spent September patrolling in

23736-549: The ship bombarded the city. She bombarded facilities in the Nicobar Islands from 17 to 19 October. On 22 November Renown was replaced as flagship by Queen Elizabeth and the ship began a refit at Durban from December to February 1945. She was recalled to home waters in March, lest the remaining German heavy ships make a final sortie, and reached Rosyth on 15 April. She was given a brief refit when this concern proved illusory and

23920-419: The ship's horizontal armour were replaced by non-cemented armour plates 2.5–3.5 inches (64–89 mm) in thickness and the torpedo control tower was removed from the aft superstructure. A fixed catapult replaced the midships 4-inch triple mount and a hangar was built on each side of the rear funnel to house two of the ship's Fairey III aircraft. One additional aircraft could be carried on the deck and another on

24104-440: The ship. However, later testing proved that it was not deep enough to accomplish its task as it lacked the layers of empty and full compartments that were necessary to absorb the force of the explosion. Both ships spent much of the remainder of 1916 and early 1917 in the hands of dockyards having their armour upgraded and conducting routine patrols of the North Sea . They were assigned to the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron (BCS) for

24288-459: The small aircraft carrier Argus as she flew off Hurricane fighters bound for Malta from a position south of Sardinia . Later that month Force H participated in the inconclusive Battle of Cape Spartivento . Renown bombarded Genoa on 9 February 1941 with little effect. Renown and Force H escorted convoys both inside and outside the Mediterranean in March–May 1941 before being summoned into

24472-440: The swept route, were spotted at 7:30 a.m., silhouetted by the rising sun. The light battlecruiser Courageous and the light cruiser Cardiff opened fire with their forward guns seven minutes later. The Germans responded by laying an effective smoke screen . The British continued in pursuit, but lost track of most of the smaller ships in the smoke and concentrated fire on the light cruisers as opportunity permitted. Repulse

24656-601: The terms of the Washington treaty) in two substantial reconstructions (one for Hiei ). During the first of these, elevation of their main guns was increased to +40 degrees, anti-torpedo bulges and 3,800 long tons (3,900 t) of horizontal armour added, and a "pagoda" mast with additional command positions built up. This reduced the ships' speed to 25.9 knots (48.0 km/h; 29.8 mph). The second reconstruction focused on speed as they had been selected as fast escorts for aircraft carrier task forces. Completely new main engines,

24840-401: The total displacement of water, accounting for the content of the ship's bunkers , and using Archimedes' principle . The difference between the forward and aft drafts of a ship is termed its trim . In commercial ship operations, the ship will usually quote the mean draft as the vessel's draft. However, in navigational situations, the maximum draft, usually the aft draft, will be known on

25024-496: The two forward boiler rooms to be converted to 4.5-inch (110 mm) magazines and other uses. Renown ' s deck protection was somewhat upgraded by adding non-cemented armour where it had not been added earlier and protecting the new 4.5-inch magazines. As in Repulse hangars were built abreast her rear funnel and a catapult was fitted between the rear funnel and the aft superstructure. The ship's 15-inch gun turrets were modified to

25208-557: The upper deck. Both flying-off platforms were removed. When the Grand Fleet was disbanded in April 1919 Renown was assigned to the Battlecruiser Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet . In June she was refitted in preparation for a tour of Canada , Newfoundland and the United States by Edward , the Prince of Wales , and both flying-off platforms were removed. From January to March 1920 Renown

25392-449: The validity of heavy armour protection. Nevertheless, armoured cruisers would remain vital for commerce protection. Of what use is a battle fleet to a country called (A) at war with a country called (B) possessing no battleships, but having fast armoured cruisers and clouds of fast torpedo craft? What damage would (A's) battleships do to (B)? Would (B) wish for a few battleships or for more armoured cruisers? Would not (A) willingly exchange

25576-596: The very similar Queen Mary . By 1911 Germany had built battlecruisers of her own, and the superiority of the British ships could no longer be assured. Moreover, the German Navy did not share Fisher's view of the battlecruiser. In contrast to the British focus on increasing speed and firepower, Germany progressively improved the armour and staying power of their ships to better the British battlecruisers. Von der Tann , begun in 1908 and completed in 1910, carried eight 11.1-inch guns, but with 11.1-inch (283 mm) armour she

25760-608: The vessel, Renown ' s tonnage actually decreased due to a substantially lighter power plant. Similar thorough rebuildings planned for Repulse and Hood were cancelled due to the advent of World War II . Unable to build new ships, the Imperial Japanese Navy also chose to improve its existing battlecruisers of the Kongō class (initially the Haruna , Kirishima , and Kongō —the Hiei only later as it had been disarmed under

25944-527: The viability of the armoured cruiser was already in doubt. A cruiser that could have worked with the Fleet might have been a more viable option for taking over that role. Because of the Invincible s ' size and armament, naval authorities considered them capital ships almost from their inception—an assumption that might have been inevitable. Complicating matters further was that many naval authorities, including Lord Fisher, had made overoptimistic assessments from

26128-603: The wars; the 1920s reconstruction increased their armour protection and made lesser improvements, while the 1930s reconstruction was much more thorough, especially for Renown . Repulse accompanied the battlecruiser Hood during the Special Service Squadron's round-the-world cruise in 1923–1924 and protected British interests during the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939. Renown frequently conveyed royalty on their foreign tours and served as flagship of

26312-424: Was adopted instead. The X4 concept would eventually be fulfilled in the Queen Elizabeth class and later by other navies. The next British battlecruisers were the three Indefatigable class , slightly improved Invincible s built to fundamentally the same specification, partly due to political pressure to limit costs and partly due to the secrecy surrounding German battlecruiser construction, particularly about

26496-441: Was assigned to the Battlecruiser Squadron until the ship was detached to convey Prince Albert of York to Australia between January and July 1927. Upon her return she rejoined the Atlantic Fleet. Renown became the flagship of the BCS when Hood was refitting between 1929 and 1931. Hood reassumed the role as flagship after she was recommissioned and Renown was paid off for a refit of her own. A High-Angle Control System Mark I

26680-584: Was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet when she recommissioned in April 1936. She transported 500 refugees from Palma, Majorca , to Marseilles , France, in late 1936 after the start of the Spanish Civil War . The ship was present at the Coronation Fleet Review at Spithead on 20 May 1937 for George VI . Repulse was sent to Haifa in July 1938 to maintain order during the Arab Revolt . She

26864-409: Was begun on the Invincible s, a Royal Navy memorandum refers to "large armoured ships" meaning both battleships and large cruisers. In October 1906, the Admiralty began to classify all post-Dreadnought battleships and armoured cruisers as " capital ships ", while Fisher used the term "dreadnought" to refer either to his new battleships or the battleships and armoured cruisers together. At the same time,

27048-582: Was clearly in favour of heavily armoured battleships, rather than the fast ships that Fisher favoured. The Battle of Tsushima proved the effectiveness of heavy guns over intermediate ones and the need for a uniform main caliber on a ship for fire control. Even before this, the Royal Navy had begun to consider a shift away from the mixed-calibre armament of the 1890s pre-dreadnought to an "all-big-gun" design, and preliminary designs circulated for battleships with all 12-inch or all 10-inch guns and armoured cruisers with all 9.2-inch guns. In late 1904, not long after

27232-411: Was crippled by medium-caliber gunfire from heavy and light cruisers in a close-range night engagement. There were two exceptions: Turkey's Yavuz Sultan Selim and the Royal Navy's Hood . The Turkish Navy made only minor improvements to the ship in the interwar period, which primarily focused on repairing wartime damage and the installation of new fire control systems and anti-aircraft batteries. Hood

27416-596: Was curtailed in favor of more-needed convoy escorts, aircraft carriers, and cargo ships. During (and after) the Cold War , the Soviet Kirov class of large guided missile cruisers have been the only ships termed "battlecruisers"; the class is also the only example of a nuclear-powered battlecruiser. As of 2024, Russia operates two units: the Pyotr Velikiy has remained in active service since its 1998 commissioning, while

27600-645: Was decided on. The experience of battlecruisers at the Battle of Jutland meant that the design was radically revised and transformed again into a fast battleship with armour up to 12 inches thick, but still capable of 31.5 knots (58.3 km/h; 36.2 mph). The first ship in the class, Hood , was built according to this design to counter the possible completion of any of the Mackensen-class ship. The plans for her three sisters, on which little work had been done, were revised once more later in 1916 and in 1917 to improve protection. The Admiral class would have been

27784-460: Was detached not long after and raced forward at full speed to engage the enemy ships. She opened fire at about 9:00, scoring a single hit on the light cruiser SMS  Königsberg during the battle. When the German battleships SMS  Kaiser and SMS  Kaiserin were spotted about 9:50 the British broke off their pursuit and Repulse covered their retreat, aided by a heavy fog that came down around 10:40. In September 1917 Repulse became

27968-470: Was diverted from escorting Convoy WS8B to assist in the search for the Bismarck , but she had to break off the search early on 25 May as she was running low on fuel. The ship was refitted from June to August and received eight Oerlikon 20-millimetre (0.79 in) autocannon as well as a Type 284 surface gunnery radar . Repulse escorted a troop convoy around the Cape of Good Hope from August to October and

28152-418: Was due to the way that ammunition handling was arranged and was common to both German and British battleships and battlecruisers, but the lighter protection on the latter made them more vulnerable to the turret or barbette being penetrated. The Germans learned from investigating the damaged Seydlitz and instituted measures to ensure that ammunition handling minimised any possible exposure to flash. Apart from

28336-453: Was far better protected than the Invincible s. The two Moltke s were quite similar but carried ten 11.1-inch guns of an improved design. Seydlitz , designed in 1909 and finished in 1913, was a modified Moltke ; speed increased by one knot to 26.5 knots (49.1 km/h; 30.5 mph), while her armour had a maximum thickness of 12 inches, equivalent to the Helgoland -class battleships of

28520-481: Was faster (making 29 knots (54 km/h; 33 mph) on sea trials ), and carried a heavier secondary armament. Tiger was also more heavily armoured on the whole; while the maximum thickness of armour was the same at nine inches, the height of the main armour belt was increased. Not all the desired improvements for this ship were approved, however. Her designer, Sir Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt , had wanted small-bore water-tube boilers and geared turbines to give her

28704-490: Was fitted with a director on the roof of the fore-top that replaced the high-angle rangefinder and the conning tower platform was enlarged to accommodate a pair of Mk V octuple mountings for the QF 2-pounder Mk VIII gun The Mk V mounts could depress to −10° and elevate to a maximum of 80°. The Mark VIII 2-pounder gun fired a 40-millimetre (1.6 in) .91-pound (0.41 kg) shell at a muzzle velocity of 1,920 ft/s (590 m/s) to

28888-409: Was given heavier deck armour, and the protection of her magazines was improved to guard against the ignition of ammunition. This was hoped to be capable of resisting her own weapons—the classic measure of a "balanced" battleship. Hood was the largest ship in the Royal Navy when completed; because of her great displacement, in theory she combined the firepower and armour of a battleship with the speed of

29072-405: Was in constant service with the fleet and could not be withdrawn for an extended reconstruction. She received minor improvements over the course of the 1930s, including modern fire control systems, increased numbers of anti-aircraft guns, and in March 1941, radar. Draft (ship) A ship's draft/draught is the "depth of the vessel below the waterline measured vertically to the lowest part of

29256-416: Was its 12-inch heavy guns, and heavier armour designed to protect from shells of similar size. However, for a few years after 1900 it seemed that those advantages were of little practical value. The torpedo now had a range of 2,000 yards, and it seemed unlikely that a battleship would engage within torpedo range. However, at ranges of more than 2,000 yards it became increasingly unlikely that the heavy guns of

29440-414: Was only 10 to 12 rounds per minute as the loaders kept getting in each other's way. They had a maximum depression of −10° and a maximum elevation of 30°. They fired a 31-pound (14 kg) high-explosive shell at a muzzle velocity of 2,625 ft/s (800 m/s). At maximum elevation the guns had a maximum range of 13,500 yards (12,344 m). The ships carried 200 rounds for each gun. Each ship mounted

29624-444: Was only 800 yd (730 m) Repulse received two HACS directors, one Mark II on the fore-top and a Mark I* mounted on a pedestal above the rear superstructure. The two submerged torpedo tubes were removed and the vacant spaces sub-divided and turned into store-rooms. Renown began her own even more thorough reconstruction in September 1936, based on that of the battleship Warspite . Her superstructure and funnels were razed to

29808-406: Was particularly true for cruisers, because the details of the Invincible class were kept secret for longer; this meant that the last German armoured cruiser, Blücher , was armed with only 21-centimetre (8.3 in) guns, and was no match for the new battlecruisers. The Royal Navy's early superiority in capital ships led to the rejection of a 1905–1906 design that would, essentially, have fused

29992-445: Was placed in reserve in May 1945. Renown was partially disarmed in July when six of her 4.5-inch turrets were removed, as well as all of her light guns. The ship hosted a meeting between King George VI and President Truman on 3 August when the latter was en route home aboard the heavy cruiser USS  Augusta . The decision to dispose of the ship was announced on 21 January 1948 and she

30176-508: Was placed in reserve in November. Renown was recommissioned in September 1921 for a tour of India and Japan by the Prince of Wales and sailed from Portsmouth in October. The ship arrived back in Portsmouth in June 1922 and she was placed in reserve the following month. The ship began a reconstruction that same month along the lines of her sister, although changes were made based on the experiences with Repulse . Renown ' s main armour belt

30360-405: Was planned with the Invincible s as the benchmark. On learning of the British plans for Lion , and the likelihood that new U.S. Navy battleships would be armed with 14-inch (360 mm) guns, the Japanese decided to radically revise their plans and go one better. A new plan was drawn up, carrying eight 14-inch guns, and capable of 27.5 knots (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph), thus marginally having

30544-546: Was prevented by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, where the major naval powers agreed to limits on capital ship numbers. The German navy was not represented at the talks; under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles , Germany was not allowed any modern capital ships at all. Through the 1920s and 1930s only Britain and Japan retained battlecruisers, often modified and rebuilt from their original designs. The line between

30728-443: Was provided with 400 round of ammunition. Three octuple Mark VI 2-pounder mounts were fitted, two on a platform between the funnels and the third at the rear of the aft superstructure. Each was provided with a Mark III* director. Four quadruple Vickers .50-calibre Mark III mounts were also added, two each on the forward and rear superstructures. The submerged torpedo tubes were removed and eight above-water torpedo tubes added. Repulse

30912-475: Was refitted in Rosyth in 1916–1917 with additional horizontal armour, weighing approximately 504 long tons (512 t), added to the decks over the magazines and over the steering mechanism. The Renown -class ships were fitted with a shallow anti-torpedo bulge integral to the hull which was intended to explode the torpedo before it hit the hull proper and vent the underwater explosion to the surface rather than into

31096-500: Was refitted more extensively as a "royal yacht". Her aft 4-inch mounting and both 3-inch AA guns were removed so that extra accommodation and a promenade deck could be built. A large deckhouse was built on the shelter deck between the funnels. The port side housed a squash court while the starboard side was a cinema . The ship sailed in March for Australia and New Zealand with the Prince of Wales and his entourage aboard and made many stops en route. She returned to Portsmouth in October and

31280-430: Was removed and a new 9-inch belt was installed, using up the remaining plates left over from Almirante Cochrane as well as new armour, but installed about 3 feet (0.9 m) higher than on Repulse to offset any increase in draught. A strake of tapered armour was fitted underneath the main belt to deflect any shell that dived beneath the water's surface; it was 9-inches thick at top and thinned to 2 inches (51 mm) at

31464-409: Was replaced. The flying-off platform on "B" turret was reinstated and a high-angle control position (HACP) was added to the fore-top. The pair of 3-inch AA guns and her two single four-inch gun mounts were removed and replaced with four QF four-inch Mark V anti-aircraft guns. They had a maximum depression of -5° and a maximum elevation of 80°. They fired a 31-pound (14 kg) high explosive shell at

31648-457: Was required because construction of new capital ships had been placed on hold, while there were no limits on light cruiser construction. They became Courageous and her sisters Glorious and Furious , and there was a bizarre imbalance between their main guns of 15 inches (or 18 inches (457 mm) in Furious ) and their armour, which at three inches (76 mm) thickness was on the scale of

31832-621: Was scuttled on 13 December and did not return to the Home Fleet until March 1940. The ship became flagship of the Battlecruiser Squadron when Hood was paid off to refit that month. Renown also supported British forces during the Norwegian Campaign and briefly engaged the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on 9 April. Renown opened fire first, but she was hit first by two 28-centimetre (11 in) shells that only slightly damaged her. A few minutes later she hit Gneisenau with one 15-inch and two 4.5-inch shells that knocked out

32016-456: Was selected to convey the King and Queen during their May 1939 Canadian Tour and she was refitted between October 1938 and March 1939 for this role. The twin 4-inch AA guns were replaced by two more Mark V guns and two additional quadruple .50-calibre mounts were added. The King and Queen ultimately traveled aboard the liner RMS Empress of Australia while Repulse escorted them on the first half of

32200-590: Was similar to the previous Seydlitz class. In 1913, the Russian Empire also began the construction of the four-ship Borodino class , which were designed for service in the Baltic Sea . These ships were designed to carry twelve 14-inch guns, with armour up to 12 inches thick, and a speed of 26.6 knots (49.3 km/h; 30.6 mph). The heavy armour and relatively slow speed of these ships made them more similar to German designs than to British ships; construction of

32384-429: Was so convinced. Brassey ' s Naval Annual , for instance, stated that with vessels as large and expensive as the Invincible s, an admiral "will be certain to put them in the line of battle where their comparatively light protection will be a disadvantage and their high speed of no value." Those in favor of the battlecruiser countered with two points—first, since all capital ships were vulnerable to new weapons such as

32568-526: Was supposed to join them, but she was delayed when she ran aground while working up in the Caribbean. The two ships, and their escorting destroyers, arrived in Singapore on 2 December. Force Z departed on the evening of 8 December in an attempt to destroy Japanese troop convoys and protect the army's seaward flanks from any Japanese landings in their rear. They were spotted by a Japanese reconnaissance aircraft during

32752-449: Was suspended at the beginning of the First World War and the two ships to be built in the royal dockyards were cancelled on 26 August 1914, as it was believed that they could not be completed before the end of the war. Admiral Lord Fisher, once he returned to office as First Sea Lord in October, began pressuring Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty , to allow him to convert the suspended contracts for Renown and Repulse into

32936-640: Was suspended in March 1917 to enable more escorts and merchant ships to be built to deal with the new threat from U-boats to trade. They were finally cancelled in February 1919. The first combat involving battlecruisers during World War I was the Battle of Heligoland Bight in August 1914. A force of British light cruisers and destroyers entered the Heligoland Bight (the part of the North Sea closest to Hamburg ) to attack German destroyer patrols. When they met opposition from light cruisers, Vice Admiral David Beatty took his squadron of five battlecruisers into

33120-530: Was the marked change in Britain's strategic circumstances between their conception and the commissioning of the first ships. The prospective enemy for Britain had shifted from a Franco-Russian alliance with many armoured cruisers to a resurgent and increasingly belligerent Germany. Diplomatically, Britain had entered the Entente cordiale in 1904 and the Anglo-Russian Entente . Neither France nor Russia posed

33304-412: Was towed to Faslane for scrapping on 3 August. Battlecruiser The battlecruiser (also written as battle cruiser or battle-cruiser ) was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. These were similar in displacement, armament and cost to battleships , but differed in form and balance of attributes. Battlecruisers typically had thinner armour (to a varying degree) and

33488-541: Was transferred to East Indies Command . To deter Japanese aggression in the Far East in late 1941, Winston Churchill was determined to send a small group of fast capital ships, along with one modern aircraft carrier, to Singapore . Repulse was already in the Indian Ocean and was ordered to Colombo in November to rendezvous with the battleship Prince of Wales where they would form Force Z . The carrier Indomitable

33672-662: Was transferred to Force H in October 1942 to participate in Operation Torch . She returned to Britain to refit from February to June 1943. The ship brought Winston Churchill and his staff back from the Quebec Conference in September and conveyed them to the Cairo Conference in November. She rejoined the Home Fleet in December, just in time to be transferred to the Eastern Fleet a few weeks later. Renown arrived in Colombo at

33856-534: Was unable to have his way; he had to settle for six battleships and two battlecruisers of the Lion class . The Lion s carried eight 13.5-inch guns , the now-standard caliber of the British "super-dreadnought" battleships. Speed increased to 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph) and armour protection, while not as good as in German designs, was better than in previous British battlecruisers, with nine-inch (230 mm) armour belt and barbettes . The two Lion s were followed by

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