Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt
Encyclopedia
Sir Eustace Henry William Tennyson-d'Eyncourt, 1st Baronet, KCB
, FRS (1 April 1868 – 1 February 1951) was a British naval architect and engineer. As Director of Naval Construction
for the Royal Navy
, 1912-24, he was responsible for the design and construction of some of the most famous British warships. On 20 February 1915 Winston Churchill
appointed Tennyson-d'Eyncourt Chairman of the Landships Committee
at the Admiralty, which was responsible for the design and production of the first military tank.
Tennyson-D'Eyncourt was related to:
with the ship's sides sloping inboard at an angle of 10 degrees from the vertical, while outboard of this external bulges extended over the full length of the machinery spaces. This resulted in a hull structure of great strength, and the sloping sides increased the possible range of impact of shells and thus gave greater resistance to penetration.
The aesthetic side of naval architecture has seldom been given much attention, though it is as much of an art as the architecture of buildings; but in general appearance (in terms of harmonious proportion as regards length, beam, and freeboard, as well as the size of the superstructure and funnels in relation to the hull), the opinion has been expressed that Tennyson D'Eyncourt created some of the most elegant and eye-pleasing warships ever designed, the prime example being the battlecruiser Hood..
, Patrol boats, Minesweepers
, Sloop
s, Gunboat
s for China Station
, Merchant ship conversions into seaplane carrier
which had been created by Winston Churchill
to oversee the design and production of man's first military tank (armor), see also the Mark VIII (tank)
.
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
, FRS (1 April 1868 – 1 February 1951) was a British naval architect and engineer. As Director of Naval Construction
Director of Naval Construction
The Director of Naval Construction was a senior British civil servant post in the Admiralty, that part of the British Civil Service that oversaw the Royal Navy. The post existed from 1860 to 1966....
for 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...
, 1912-24, he was responsible for the design and construction of some of the most famous British warships. On 20 February 1915 Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
appointed Tennyson-d'Eyncourt Chairman of the Landships Committee
Landships Committee
The Landships Committee was a small British war cabinet committee established in February 1915 to deal with the design and construction of what would turn out to be tanks during the First World War...
at the Admiralty, which was responsible for the design and production of the first military tank.
Tennyson-D'Eyncourt was related to:
- The politician Charles Tennyson d'EyncourtCharles Tennyson d'EyncourtCharles Tennyson d'Eyncourt , born Charles Tennyson, was a British politician, landowner and Member of Parliament for Stamford from 1831 to 1832 and for Lambeth from 1832 to 1852...
(d. 1861), uncle of the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, and also to - Admiral Edwin Tennyson d’Eyncourt.
Design characteristics
In his battlecruisers, 'large light cruisers' and the Hawkins class cruisers Tennyson-D'Eyncourt evolved a novel hull form: in cross-section the hull was a rhomboidRhomboid
Traditionally, in two-dimensional geometry, a rhomboid is a parallelogram in which adjacent sides are of unequal lengths and angles are oblique.A parallelogram with sides of equal length is a rhombus but not a rhomboid....
with the ship's sides sloping inboard at an angle of 10 degrees from the vertical, while outboard of this external bulges extended over the full length of the machinery spaces. This resulted in a hull structure of great strength, and the sloping sides increased the possible range of impact of shells and thus gave greater resistance to penetration.
The aesthetic side of naval architecture has seldom been given much attention, though it is as much of an art as the architecture of buildings; but in general appearance (in terms of harmonious proportion as regards length, beam, and freeboard, as well as the size of the superstructure and funnels in relation to the hull), the opinion has been expressed that Tennyson D'Eyncourt created some of the most elegant and eye-pleasing warships ever designed, the prime example being the battlecruiser Hood..
Ship designs
(Tennyson-D'Eyncourt was not necessarily the principal designer of all these vessels but had ultimate responsibility for them)Battleships and Battlecruisers
- Brazilian battleship, later HMS AgincourtHMS Agincourt (1913)HMS Agincourt was a dreadnought built in the early 1910s. The ship was originally ordered by Brazil, but the collapse of the rubber boom plus a lessening of the rivalry with Argentina led to her resale while still under construction to the Ottoman Empire who renamed her as Sultan Osman I...
- Turkish battleship, later HMS ErinHMS ErinHMS Erin was a dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy which was originally built in response to an order placed by the Ottoman government with the British Vickers company. She was intended, when accepted for service in the Ottoman Navy, to be named Reshadieh...
- Chilean battleships Almirante Latorre, later HMS Canada and Almirante Cochrane, later HMS EagleHMS Eagle (1918)HMS Eagle was an early aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy. Ordered by Chile as the Almirante Cochrane, she was laid down before World War I. In early 1918 she was purchased by Britain for conversion to an aircraft carrier; this work was finished in 1924...
(aircraft Carrier) - Royal Sovereign class battleshipRoyal Sovereign class battleshipThe Royal Sovereign class was a class of pre-dreadnought battleships of the British Royal Navy. The class comprised seven ships built to the same design: HMS Royal Sovereign, , HMS Ramilles, HMS Repulse, HMS Resolution, HMS Revenge, and HMS Royal Oak, and a half-sister built to a modified design: ....
- Renown class battlecruiserRenown class battlecruiserThe Renown class consisted of a pair of battlecruisers built during the First World War for the Royal Navy. They were originally laid down as improved versions of the s. Their construction was suspended on the outbreak of war on the grounds they would not be ready in a timely manner...
- HMS HoodHMS Hood (51)HMS Hood was the last battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy. One of four s ordered in mid-1916, her design—although drastically revised after the Battle of Jutland and improved while she was under construction—still had serious limitations. For this reason she was the only ship of her class to be...
battlecruiser - several very large capital ship designs, both battleships and battlecruisers, rendered inadmissible under the Washington Naval Treaty
- HMS Nelson battleship
Cruisers
- GRC Katsonis
- HMS ChesterHMS Chester (1915)HMS Chester was a Town class light cruiser of the Royal Navy, and one of two ships forming the Birkenhead subtype. Along with her sister ship, HMS Birkenhead, she was originally ordered for the Greek Navy in 1914 and was to be named Lambros Katsonis...
- HMS Chester
- Arethusa class (1912)
- C class cruiserC class cruiserThe 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...
s (1912-17)- Caroline classHMS Caroline (1914)HMS Caroline was a C-class light cruiser of the British Royal Navy. Caroline was launched and commissioned in 1914. At the time of her decommissioning in 2011 she was the second-oldest ship in Royal Navy service, after HMS Victory...
- Calliope classHMS 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...
- HMS ChampionHMS Champion (1915)HMS Champion was a C-class light cruiser of the British Royal Navy.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 had experimental engine designs using geared...
- Cambrian class
- Centaur classHMS Centaur (1916)HMS Centaur was a C-class light cruiser of the British Royal Navy. She was the nameship of the Centaur group of the C-class of cruisers....
- Caledon classHMS Caledon (D53)HMS Caledon was a C-class light cruiser of the British Royal Navy. She was the nameship of the Caledon group of the C-class of cruisers....
- Ceres classHMS Ceres (D59)HMS Ceres was a C-class light cruiser of the British Royal Navy. She was the name ship of the Ceres group of the C-class of cruisers.-Construction and early years:...
- Carlisle classHMS Carlisle (D67)HMS Carlisle was a C-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy, named after the English City of Carlisle. She was the name ship of the Carlisle group of the C-class of cruisers...
- Caroline class
- Hawkins class large cruisersHawkins class cruiserThe Hawkins class was a class of five heavy cruisers of the Royal Navy designed in 1915 and constructed throughout the First World War. All ships were named after Elizabethan sea captains...
(1915) - Danae class cruiserDanae class cruiserThe Danae or D-class was a class of light cruiser built for the Royal Navy at the end of World War I and that survived to see service in World War II.-Design:...
s (1916-18)- HMS Danae
- HMS DragonHMS Dragon (D46)HMS Dragon, also known in Polish service as ORP Dragon , was a D- or Danae-class cruiser built for the Royal Navy. She was launched in Glasgow, in December 1917, and scuttled in July 1944 off the Normandy beaches as part of the Arromanches Breakwater.-Pre World War II:One of the fastest-built ships...
- HMS Diomede
- HMS EnterpriseHMS Enterprise (D52)HMS Enterprise was one of two Emerald-class light cruisers of the Royal Navy. She was built by John Brown Shipbuilding & Engineering Company Ltd., with the keel being laid down on 28 June 1918. She was launched on 23 December 1919, and commissioned 7 April 1926...
(Emerald class cruiserEmerald class cruiserThe Emerald or E class was a class of two light cruisers built for the Royal Navy. Following the Cavendish Class, three ships of a new class were ordered in March 1918, towards the end of World War I, designed to emphasise high speed at the cost of other qualities, for use against rumoured new high...
)) (1917-18) - HMS KentHMS Kent (54)HMS Kent was a heavy cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the late 1920s. She was the lead ship of the Kent subclass. After completion the ship was sent to the China Station where she remained until the beginning of the Second World War, aside from a major refit in 1937–38...
(County class cruiserCounty class cruiserThe County class was a class of heavy cruisers built for the British Royal Navy in the years between the First and Second World Wars. They were the first post-war cruiser construction for the Royal Navy and were designed within the limits of the Washington Naval Conference of 1922...
) (1923-24)
Destroyers
- R and S class destroyers
- V and W class destroyerV and W class destroyerThe V and W class was an amalgam of six similar classes of destroyer built for the Royal Navy under the War Emergency Programme of the First World War and generally treated as one class...
s - Scott class flotilla leader
Other types
MonitorsMonitor (warship)
A monitor was a class of relatively small warship which was neither fast nor strongly armoured but carried disproportionately large guns. They were used by some navies from the 1860s until the end of World War II, and saw their final use by the United States Navy during the Vietnam War.The monitors...
, Patrol boats, Minesweepers
Minesweeper (ship)
A minesweeper is a small naval warship designed to counter the threat posed by naval mines. Minesweepers generally detect then neutralize mines in advance of other naval operations.-History:...
, Sloop
Sloop
A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....
s, Gunboat
Gunboat
A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.-History:...
s for China Station
China Station
The China Station was a historical formation of the British Royal Navy. It was formally the units and establishments responsible to the Commander-in-Chief, China....
, Merchant ship conversions into seaplane carrier
Tanks/Armor
Tennyson-D'Eyncourt was chairman of the Landships CommitteeLandships Committee
The Landships Committee was a small British war cabinet committee established in February 1915 to deal with the design and construction of what would turn out to be tanks during the First World War...
which had been created by Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
to oversee the design and production of man's first military tank (armor), see also the Mark VIII (tank)
Mark VIII (tank)
The Tank Mark VIII or Liberty was an Anglo-American tank design of the First World War. Initially intended to be a collaborative effort to equip France, the UK and the US with a single tank design, it did not come to fruition before the end of the war and only a few were produced.-Early...
.