HMS Monarch (1911) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

HMS Monarch was an Orion-class

Orion class battleship

The Orion class battleships were four super-dreadnoughts — the first ships of that type — of the Royal Navy. The lead ship, , was launched in 1910. They were the first Royal Navy dreadnoughts to have all their main guns in the centreline, although the U.S. South Carolina class had this advanced...

battleship

Battleship

A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

of the 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...

. She served in the 2nd Battle Squadron

2nd Battle Squadron (United Kingdom)

The British Royal Navy 2nd Battle Squadron was a naval squadron consisting of battleships. The 2nd Battle Squadron was initially part of the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet. After World War I the Grand Fleet was reverted back to its original name, the Atlantic Fleet...

of the Grand Fleet in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, and fought at 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...

, 31 May 1916, suffering no damage.

As a result of the Washington Naval Convention she was decommissioned in 1921 and was used as an experimental and target ship. She was sunk by Revenge in 1925.

Following the Colossus class

Colossus class battleship (1910)

The Colossus class of two battleships - Colossus and Hercules of the British Royal Navy were among the first battleships following the original of 1906. Originally intended to be part of the Neptune class, the two ships had thicker armour and other differences from , and so Neptune is...

Britain's next class of Battleship were the Orion class

Orion class battleship

. Beaten to a world's first by the American South Carolina class commissioned in 1910, these were the first battleships in the Royal Navy to feature an all-big-gun armament on the centre line.

With the possibility of war looming the cost saving used of the Dreadnought types were dispensed with resulting in a far better and larger ship, the Orion Class

Orion class battleship

also saw the introduction of the new 13.5" gun, to achieve greater hitting power on the later variants of the Dreadnought the barrels of the 12" guns had been lengthened to increase the muzzle velocity and hence the range and hitting power, this was an unsatisfactory gun with poor accuracy and wear levels. With the 13.5" gun a return to lower muzzle velocities was made, instead the hitting power was raised by the heavier shell fired by the bigger gun, an altogether better weapon.

Design and description

Compared to the Colossus class

Colossus class battleship (1910)

battleships the Orion class design came across as sleeker and more refined then earlier ships, outwardly similar to the following King George the 5th class the two could be told apart by the Orion's fore mast being placed behind the forward funnel, this resulted in the fire control top at the mast head being heavily affected by smoke, heat and gasses from the funnel.

One other feature of the ships was dictated by the size of the dry-docks available at the time, the size of the ships was the maximum that could fit into these drydocks and something had to give, the bilge keels were omitted, initially the ships rolled heavily and if reports in the tabloids of the times had to be believed the class would capsize in any sea. In truth the rolling whilst undesirable was not this severe and the class were fitted with bilge keels but the size and design was a compromise between effect and dock size.

Another problem facing the designers was were to place the mast, place it in front of the funnel and the spotting top would be clear of smoke and heat with a head wind but another problem then appeared, where to put the derrick needed to hoist the boats. The Orion class

Orion class battleship

would seem to have bowed to the seamanship problem and placed the mast aft of the fore funnel to allow the fitting of a large derrick for hoisting the ships boats, this did cause problems with smoke and heat in the spotting top. To partially alleviate this the fore funnel was smaller in diameter than the aft funnel and only vented six boilers and the remaining twelve vented via the aft funnel.

General characteristics

Monarch was 177.08 metres (580 ft 9 in) long overall. She had a maximum beam of 26.8 metres (88 ft 6 in) and had a draft of 8.4 metres (27 ft 6 in). She had a displacement of 22,200 tonnes at normal load and 25,870 tonnes at full load.

Building data

Ordered under the 1909 naval estimates, Monarch was built at a cost of £ 1,888,736 by W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth and Company Ltd, at their Walker Shipyard, Newcastle on the Tyne. Was laid down on the 1st. April 1910, launched on the 30th March 1911 and commissioned in February 1912

Propulsion

The machinery arrangement for the Orion class

Orion class battleship

was very similar to that of the earlier Colossus class

Colossus class battleship (1910)

with quadruple propellers being driven by Parsons direct drive steam turbines. The machinery spaces were split into three with the inboard shafts leading to the centre engine room and the outer shafts the port and starboard wing engine rooms. The two inboard shafts were driven by the high pressure ahead and astern turbines with the ahead turbines having an extra stage for cruising, this was separated from the main turbine by a bypass valve.

The outer shafts were driven by the ahead and astern low pressure turbines, when cruising the out board turbines would be shut down, the ship relying on the inboard shafts alone. The Babcock and Wilcox boilers of greater power remained in three groups of six, although coal fired oil spraying equipment was fitted for quickly raising steam. The normal power for the Conqueror was 27,000 SHP giving 21 knots but on trials she developed 33,198 SHP for 22.13 knots.

Armament

The main battery consisted of ten 13.5” guns arranged in five twin turrets all mounted on the centre-line and enabled this class to fire a ten gun broadside without any risk of structural damage to the ship, problems still existed with the open sighting hoods of the lower turrets ( A & Y) in that to prevent muzzle blast of the two upper turrets ( B & X) entering the lower turrets via the sighting hoods, firing of the upper turrets was prevented from right ahead to 30 degrees on either bow for A turret and 30 degrees either side of right astern for X turret. The mid-ships turret was designated ‘Q’.

The 13.5” gun and was designated the Mark V L, the L indicating it fired the lighter of the 13.5” shells, later classes had the Mk VH guns which fired the heavier shells, the guns were just over 52 feet long and the barrel alone weighed more than 70 tons each with a working pressure of 18 tons per square inch, construction was of wire winding, so good were these weapons that they were still in use during World War II as shore guns at Dover. Although just 1.5” larger than the earlier 12” gun it fired a shell weighing 1,266.5 lbs against the 859 lbs of the earlier gun, although of lower velocity than the 12 C50 gun the 13.5 C45 weapon’s heavier shell maintained it’s in-flight velocity and so had greater hitting and penetrative power, the new gun was also very accurate and possessed very good wear rates – up to 450 rounds per gun, tests also showed that the gun had a very good safety margin so that the following King George 5th class ships could fire an even heavier I,410lb shell, although this lowered the wear rate to 220 rounds per gun.

Using a charge of 293 lbs of cordite ranges of just short of 24,000 yards were achieved at 20 degrees elevation, although this was of little real use, the gun range finders had been designed with closer ranges in mind and so could only work up to 16 degrees elevation. Used as a railway gun and using an elevation of 40 degrees the range was then 49,000 yards using 400 lbs of propellant what this did to the wear rate is unknown.

Secondary battery

The Secondary battery on the Monarch were rather weak, comprising sixteen 4" C50 Mk7 installed in 14 casemate mounts and two open mounts. They fired a 31lb shell to 11,500 yards and a good crew could achieve a rate of fire of 8 Rounds Per Minute but normally this would be 6 Rounds Per Minute. This weapon lacked the stopping power to prevent a determined attacking torpedo boat.

Four 3 pounder signalling guns were also added to the Monarch

Projectile details

The ship carried three types and weights of shell.

Common Percussion Capped - Weighed 1,250 lbs - Bursting Charge of 117lbs
Armour Piercing Capped - Weighed 1,266.5 lbs - Bursting Charge of 30 to 40lbs
High explosive - Weighed 1,250 lbs - Bursting Charge of 176.5lbs

At 10,000 yards the Armour Piercing Capped shell could penetrate just over 12” of Krupps cemented armour plate.

Five Mk2 turrets were fitted to the Monarch, these were very similar to those fitted on the earlier 12” Dreadnought designs and each weighed about 600 tons. In case of failure of the magazine hoists, 8 ready use shells were stowed within the gun houses and could be loaded using manually powered davits, a further six rounds were stowed in the handling room under the gun with the cordite charges stowed in the turret trunk (The rotating section of the turret reaching down from the handling room down to the magazines and holding the hoists.)

Fire control was effected by a nine foot six inch Co-incidence type rangefinder in the fire control tower high in the ship, this data was fed into a Dreyer table (invented and developed by Frederic Charles Dreyer) this was an early mechanical computer into which was fed range and bearing of the target, wind own course and speed targets course and speed, temperature and wind direction and adjustments for Coriolis effect, this produced a firing solution which was fed electrically to the guns were the gun layers would follow the pointers, when the guns were load the interceptor switches would be closed and gun ready lamps would light in the fire control tower, when all guns were ready they would be fired electrically by the gunnery officer.

Torpedo armament

This remained the same as the earlier Colossus class with three submerged 21 in torpedo tubes, one firing on each beam and one astern. The torpedoes used by the Orion class battleships were the Whitehead 21 in Mk2 these had a range of 4,000 yards at 35 knots or 5,500 yards at 30 knots and had a TNT warhead of about 400 lbs.

Armour

At the time of the design of Orion, the largest calibre of gun carried by battleships of other nations was twelve inches. It was believed, however, that as part of the continuing trend to increasing size in this class of warship, calibres would inevitably rise. Orion and her sisters therefore received heavier and more extensive armour than had been carried by earlier British dreadnoughts.

The main waterline belt was twelve inches thick, and extended from a point level with the centre of "A" barbette to a point level with the centre of "Y" barbette. The lower edge was three feet four inches below the waterline at normal displacement. Above this belt was an upper belt of eight inches in thickness, which ran for the same length. The belt extended further upwards than in previous dreadnoughts; the upper edge was at the level of the middle deck, giving a total belt height of twenty feet six inches. Forward of "A" barbette the belt was extended by a short length of armour of six inches in thickness tapering to four; and the after end of the belt continued as a short strake two and a half inches thick. The extreme ends of the ships sides were not armoured.

A torpedo defence screen ran from "A" barbette to "Y" barbette, and extended from the lower deck to the bottom of the ship. It was of varying thickness, from one to one and three quarter inches, and was intended to prevent mine or torpedo detonation from causing magazine explosion.

An armoured bulkhead ten inches thick ran from the after end of the armour belt around "Y" barbette, and there was a further bulkhead mid-way between this barbette and the stern composed of two and a half inch armour. Both bulkheads extended from lower deck to upper deck level. The forward bulkhead, which ran from the forward end of the main belt on either beam to the forward aspect of "A" barbette, was eight inches thick between the forecastle deck and maindeck levels, and six inches thick from maindeck to lower deck. A further bulkhead of four inches thickness was situated in the bow, one third of the distance from the stem to the forward barbette.

There were four armoured decks. The upper and main decks were of one and a half inch armour, the middle deck was one inch thick, and the lower deck was two and a half inches tapering to one inch forward, and four inches tapering to three aft. The greater thickness was over the magazines and machinery.

The faces of the main armament turrets were eleven inches thick, the turret crowns being four inches tapering to three. The barbettes were ten inches thick at their maximum, tapering to seven, five or three inches in areas where adjacent armoured structures or armoured decks afforded some protection.

The conning tower was protected by eleven inches of armour, tapering to three in less vulnerable areas.

Service History

On her commissioning in Feb 1912, Monarch was the second of the Orion class

Orion class battleship

to be completed, she was followed by the Thunderer

HMS Thunderer (1911)

HMS Thunderer was the third Orion class battleship built for the Royal Navy and was the last vessel to be constructed by Thames Iron Works. She was the last and largest warship ever built on the River Thames, and after her completion her builders declared bankruptcy.By a margin of £1000, she was...

in June and Conqueror

HMS Conqueror (1911)

HMS Conqueror was an Orion class battleship of the Royal Navy. She served in the 2nd Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet in World War I, and fought at the Battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916, suffering no damage....

in November of the same year, together they formed the second division of the 2nd Battle Squadron

2nd Battle Squadron (United Kingdom)

. Pre war their lives were typical of any other major warship in the British fleet with fleet manoeuvres and battle practice.

Early in World War I Monarch was un-successfully attacked by the German submarine

Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

U15, on the 8th of August 1914 and off the Fair Isle

Fair Isle

Fair Isle is an island in northern Scotland, lying around halfway between mainland Shetland and the Orkney islands. It is famous for its bird observatory and a traditional style of knitting.-Geography:...

channel, U15, an early gasoline engined boat, was sighted on the surface by the cruiser HMS Birmingham

HMS Birmingham (1913)

HMS Birmingham was lead ship of the Birmingham group of three ships of the "Town" class of light cruisers built by the Royal Navy. Her sister ships were and...

, after Birmingham opened fire the submarine commenced diving, the cruiser

Cruiser

A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...

then rammed the submarine which was lost with all 25 of her men, it was U15's first and last patrol.

On the 27th December 1914 Monarch rammed HMS Conqueror

HMS Conqueror (1911)

suffering moderate damage to her bow

Bow (ship)

The bow is a nautical term that refers to the forward part of the hull of a ship or boat, the point that is most forward when the vessel is underway. Both of the adjectives fore and forward mean towards the bow...

, she received temporary repairs at Scapa Flow

Scapa Flow

right|thumb|Scapa Flow viewed from its eastern endScapa Flow is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray, South Ronaldsay and Hoy. It is about...

before proceeding to Devonport

HMNB Devonport

Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...

for full repairs, she rejoined her sister-ships on the 20th January 1915, Conqueror

HMS Conqueror (1911)

was also seriously damaged in this collision. At the Battle of Jutland

Battle of Jutland

on the 31st May 1916 all four of the Orion Class ships were present under the leadership of Rear Admiral Arthur Leveson flying his flag in the Orion, his CO was Captain O. Backhouse. Monarch was commanded by Captain G.H. Borret. Monarch’s first action at Jutland came at 1833 when she sighted five German battleships, Three Koenig and two Kaiser class ships, she opened with Armour Piercing Capped shells at the leading Koenig class, she could only fire two salvoes before the Koenig ships disappeared, she then fired a further salvo at the leading Kaiser class ship, although claiming a ‘straddle’ on the leading Koenig, she actually scored one hit on the Koenig herself, this 13.5” shell hit the 6.75” casemate side armour in way of Number 1 port 5.9” gun, the shell burst on the armour blowing a hole some three by two feet in size, most of the blast went downwards blowing a ten foot square hole in the 1.5” thick armoured upper-deck, the deck was also driven down over a large area. Several charges for the 5.9” gun were ignited and burnt including ones in the hoists to Number 14 magazine, however the fires did not penetrate the magazine, the crew of the gun had a lucky escape as an earlier nearby hit had forced them to evacuate the gun due to gas from the explosion and so no injuries were incurred. The gun however whilst largely undamaged had had it’s sights and control cables destroyed. In 1914 Monarch sighted the German battle-cruiser Lutzow and opened on her with five salvoes of Armour Piercing Capped shells at a range of 17,300 yards increasing to 18,500 yards, straddles were claimed but no hits before the target was lost in smoke and spray. There were five hits on the Lutzow at this time and they could only have been fired by either the Orion or the Monarch, Lutzow was in serious trouble and was only saved from further serious damage by the actions of her escorting destroyers making smoke and shielding her from view. This was effectively the end of the battle for the Orion class as the German high seas fleet was in retreat to the south under cover of smoke and a torpedo attack by their destroyers which for a while had the British fleet turned away to the North to avoid the torpedoes. In total monarch fired 53 rounds of 13.5” shell all of which were Armour Piercing Capped shells, like the rest of her sisterships she did not use her 4” secondary batteries, and also like the rest of her sister-ships she received no damage or injuries. After the Battle of Jutland

Battle of Jutland

the German High Seas

High Seas Fleet

The High Seas Fleet was the battle fleet of the German Empire and saw action during World War I. The formation was created in February 1907, when the Home Fleet was renamed as the High Seas Fleet. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was the architect of the fleet; he envisioned a force powerful enough to...

put in very few appearances on the North sea so life for the British fleet became mainly sweeps and patrols of the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

.

The Monarch was assigned as a target ship, on the 14th June 1924 she was assigned her final role, she was decommissioned and then stripped of anything valuable including scrap metals at Portsmouth dockyard, she was then towed out by dockyard tugs into the Hurd deep and on the 21st January 1925 she was attacked by a wave of bombers scoring several hits, this was followed by the light C class cruisers Carysfort, Caledon, Caracoa and Calliope and the V&W class destroyer Vectis pounded her with 6” and 4” guns, when they were finished, the battle-cruisers Hood, and Repulse, and the five revenge class battleships, Revenge, Royal oak, Royal Sovereign, Ramilies and Resolution commenced firing with their 15” guns at her, the number of hits on Monarch are unknown but after 9 hours of shelling at 2200 she finally sank after a final hit from the Revenge approximately 50 miles south of the Scilly Isles.

External links

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