HMS Champion was a C-class

C class cruiser

The C class was a group of twenty-eight light cruisers of the Royal Navy, and were built in a sequence of seven classes known as the Caroline , Calliope , Cambrian , Centaur , Caledon , Ceres and Carlisle classes...

 light cruiser

Light cruiser

A light cruiser is a type of small- or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck...

 of the British Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

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Eight light cruisers were ordered for the Royal Navy in the 1913 budget. The six ships of the Caroline class used conventional direct drive turbine engines but two, Champion and Calliope

HMS Calliope (1914)

HMS Calliope was a British C class light cruiser of the Royal Navy under construction at the outbreak of World War I. Both Calliope and her sister ship Champion were based on HMS Caroline. They were effectively test ships for the use of geared turbines which resulted in the one less funnel. They...

 had experimental engine designs using geared reduction to match optimum working speeds of turbines and propellers. This followed experimental designs ordered in 1911 using geared high pressure turbines for the destroyers Badger and Beaver

HMS Beaver (1911)

HMS Beaver was an Acheron-class destroyer of the Royal Navy that served during the First World War and was sold for breaking in 1921. She was the ninth Royal Navy ship to be named Beaver, after the mammal of the same name.-Construction:...

 and in 1912 using gearing for both high pressure and low pressure turbines in destroyers Leonidas

HMS Leonidas (1913)

HMS Leonidas was a Laforey class torpedo boat destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 30 October 1913. She served in World War I with the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla and as a convoy escort in World War I and was broken up in 1922...

 and Lucifer. Champion and Calliope trialled different designs.

Champion had two propellor shafts, the port being driven from the sternmost engine room and starboard from forward. Gearing increased overall engine efficiency, allowing a reduction in boiler and turbine size for a given force provided by the propellers, so the initial design reduced the boiler room size and nominal developed power from 40,000 shp to 37,500 shp. However, during construction modifications were made to again increase boiler capacity and add cruising turbines which returned to the nominal power output of the Caroline class ungeared ships. Maximum Propeller speed was a nominal 340 rpm. Trials comparing Champion to Caroline showed that at actual developed power of 41,000 shp in both ships, Champion achieved a speed of 29.5 knots using 470 tons of fuel per day, while Caroline achieved 29 knots using 550 tons of fuel per day. The ship could achieve 28 knots operating at the lower power of 31,000 shp.

Career

Champion was laid down on 9 March 1914, launched 29 May 1915 and commissioned into the navy on 20 December 1915. She was assigned to the Grand Fleet upon completion, as the Leader of the 13 Destroyer Flotilla. With a number of her sisters, Champion took part in the Battle of Jutland

Battle of Jutland

The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet during the First World War. The battle was fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916 in the North Sea near Jutland, Denmark. It was the largest naval battle and the only...

 on 31 May to 1 June 1916. She survived the battle and the war, but was considered obsolete before the outbreak of the Second World War. Champion was used as a test bed for the Royal Navy's first Remote Power Control

Servomechanism

thumb|right|200px|Industrial servomotorThe grey/green cylinder is the [[Brush |brush-type]] [[DC motor]]. The black section at the bottom contains the [[Epicyclic gearing|planetary]] [[Reduction drive|reduction gear]], and the black object on top of the motor is the optical [[rotary encoder]] for...

 (RPC) gunnery systems, in 1928. She was sold for scrap on 28 July 1934 to Metal Industries, of Rosyth

Rosyth

Rosyth is a town located on the Firth of Forth, three miles south of the centre of Dunfermline. According to an estimate taken in 2008, the town has a population of 12,790....

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