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HMS Colossus (1910)
Encyclopedia
HMS Colossus of the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
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...
was the nameship of her 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...
of dreadnought
HMS Dreadnought (1906)
HMS Dreadnought was a battleship of the British Royal Navy that revolutionised naval power. Her entry into service in 1906 represented such a marked advance in naval technology that her name came to be associated with an entire generation of battleships, the "dreadnoughts", as well as the class of...
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...
s.
She was launched on 9 April 1910 and commissioned in 1911. Although very similar to Neptune
HMS Neptune (1909)
HMS Neptune was a Royal Navy dreadnought battleship, intended to be the lead ship of three Neptune-class battleships, but the subsequent two ships had slightly thicker belt armour and were reclassified as the Colossus class.-Design:...
she was not part of Neptunes class as Colossus and her sister-ship, Hercules
HMS Hercules (1910)
HMS Hercules was a Colossus-class battleship built by Palmers, launched on 10 May 1910, and commissioned on 31 July 1911 at Portsmouth. She was a 20,000-ton dreadnought, mounting ten 12 inch guns in five twin gun turrets, sixteen 4 inch , four 3 pounders, and three 21 inch ...
, had greater armour. She joined 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 Home Fleet
British Home Fleet
The Home Fleet was a fleet of the Royal Navy which operated in the United Kingdom's territorial waters from 1902 with intervals until 1967.-Pre–First World War:...
.
When the First World War
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...
began in August 1914 Colossus became the flagship
Flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...
of the 1st Battle Squadron. While commanded by Captain Dudley Pound
Dudley Pound
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Alfred Dudley Pickman Rogers Pound GCB OM GCVO RN was a British naval officer who served as First Sea Lord, professional head of the Royal Navy from June 1939 to September 1943.- Early life :...
she fought with distinction 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...
in 1916 while acting as the flagship of Rear-Admiral Ernest Gaunt
Ernest Gaunt
Admiral Sir Ernest Frederick Augustus Gaunt KBE , a native of Australia, was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief of the Western Approaches.-Naval career:...
. During the battle, Colossus took two hits which caused minor damage and six casualties. When the war came to a close, Colossus became a training ship until 1920 when, under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty
Washington Naval Treaty
The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was an attempt to cap and limit, and "prevent 'further' costly escalation" of the naval arms race that had begun after World War I between various International powers, each of which had significant naval fleets. The treaty was...
, she was stricken and eventually broken up in 1928. Her sister-ship was scrapped in 1921.
Origin
In 1908 the Lords of the Admiralty became alarmed at information reaching them which suggested that Germany, seen as the most likely opponent in any future naval conflict, was building dreadnoughts in secret in a bid to exceed the number operated by the Royal Navy. Agitation to accelerate the British dreadnought building programme was led by Admiral Fisher, the First Sea Lord at the time. There was considerable opposition to the proposal, led by Winston ChurchillWinston 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...
who was at that time President of the Board of Trade. This opposition was ultimately overruled, and Colossus and her sister ship HMS Hercules
HMS Hercules (1910)
HMS Hercules was a Colossus-class battleship built by Palmers, launched on 10 May 1910, and commissioned on 31 July 1911 at Portsmouth. She was a 20,000-ton dreadnought, mounting ten 12 inch guns in five twin gun turrets, sixteen 4 inch , four 3 pounders, and three 21 inch ...
were approved for construction in the 1909 programme. She was launched on April 9, 1910 and completed and commissioned in July 1911.
Armament
The main armament was ten 12-inch Mark XI 50-calibre guns, arranged in five twin turrets. More correctly referred to as hooded-barbettes, the term "turret" had by this time entered common usage. "A" turret was positioned on the forecastle on the centre line. "P" and "Q" turrets were arranged en echelon on the main deck with "P" on the port side being forward of "Q" on the starboard. The wing turrets had a theoretical arc of bearing on the side on which they were positioned of some 170 degrees, that is to say from five degrees off the bow to five degrees off the stern. They also has a limited arc of fire on their opposite beam if the other midship turret were to be disabled. "Y" turret was situated on the quarterdeckQuarterdeck
The quarterdeck is that part of a warship designated by the commanding officer for official and ceremonial functions. In port, the quarterdeck is the most important place on the ship, and is the central control point for all its major activities. Underway, its importance diminishes as control of...
at main deck level, and "X" was immediately forward of and superfiring over "Y" at quarterdeck level. The arcs of fire of "A", "X" and "Y" were all some 270 degrees. The weight of the shell fired was 850 kg, and the maximum rate of fire per gun was two rounds per minute, although allowing for spotting of shell fall one round per minute was the anticipated battle rate.
The secondary armament consisted of sixteen 4-inch (102mm) Mark VII guns in single mountings. In order to maximise the effect of these guns in their primary role of defence against torpedo attack by small craft ten were carried in the forward superstructure, it being assumed that most torpedo attacks would be launched from forward of the beam. The remaining six were carried in the after superstructure. In 1917 three of these guns were removed, and a 4-inch anti-aircraft gun and a 3-inch anti-aircraft gun were added.
Four 3-pounder (57mm) guns were also carried high in the superstructure.
In common with the majority of battleships of the period, Colossus was equipped with torpedo tubes. They were contained within the hull and discharged underwater, being positioned one on either beam and one aimed directly astern. The weapons carried were 21-inch (533mm) Hardcastle torpedoes, with a maximum speed of 45 knots (88.2 km/h) and an effective range of some 7,000 yards.
Armour
The armour protection in this ship was greater than that of the preceding three classes, all of which had had thinner armour than HMS DreadnoughtHMS Dreadnought (1906)
HMS Dreadnought was a battleship of the British Royal Navy that revolutionised naval power. Her entry into service in 1906 represented such a marked advance in naval technology that her name came to be associated with an entire generation of battleships, the "dreadnoughts", as well as the class of...
. The main belt, which ran from a position on the forecastle to the quarterdeck at the level of the main armament muzzles, was eleven inches thick. The upper belt was the same overall length, being eight inches thick amidships over the machinery spaces and magazines, tapering down to two and a half inches forward and two inches aft.
Over the length of the citadel the upper deck was 1.5 inches thick, while the lower deck was 1.75 inches. Aft of "X" turret the lower deck thickness was three inches, and this deck was increased to four inches over the extreme stern as a protection for the rudder and screws.
The forward bulkhead, which was positioned immediately before "A" turret, was ten inches at the top, tapering to five inches below armoured deck level. The after bulkhead, immediately astern of "Y" turret was eight inches tapering to four.
The turret faces were eleven inches thick, tapering to seven inches on the sides. The turret roofs were four inches thick. The armour of the barbettes varied from eleven inches to four inches, varying according to the degree of protection afforded by surrounding armour: the other barbette, the adjacent side armour and overlying deck armour.
The conning tower was protected by eleven inch armour, and its communication tube by five inch thickness.
The total weight of armour in the ship was 5,474 tons, of which the armoured belt accounted for 1,610 tons.
Machinery
Power was provided by ParsonsParsons Marine Steam Turbine Company
Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company was a British engineering company based in Wallsend, North England, on the River Tyne.-History:The company was founded by Charles Algernon Parsons in 1897 with £500,000 of capital, and specialised in building the steam turbine engines that he had invented for...
high pressure steam turbine
Steam turbine
A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....
s, driving four shafts. There were eighteen boilers, manufactured by Babcock and Wilcox
Babcock and Wilcox
The Babcock & Wilcox Company is a U.S.-based company that provides design, engineering, manufacturing, construction and facilities management services to nuclear, renewable, fossil power, industrial and government customers worldwide. B&W's boilers supply more than 300,000 megawatts of installed...
. The boiler working pressure was 235-240 pounds per square inch. Each boiler was heated by three single-orifice burners of standard Admiralty type; each burner could consume 300 lb (136.1 kg) of oil per hour. Maximum claimed horse power was 25,000. Up to 2,900 tons of coal and 900 tons of oil could be carried as fuel; a full load gave a radius of 6680 nautical miles (12,371.4 km) at 10 knots (19.6 km/h) or 4050 nautical miles (7,500.6 km) at 18.5 knots (36.3 km/h). Trial performance figures, which were normally run under best possible conditions and would not have been normally attainable in service, show a maximum speed of 22.6 knots (44.3 km/h), 8-hour speed at full power of 21.5 knots (42.1 km/h), and 30-hour speed at 18 hp of 19.6 knots (38.4 km/h).
Career
Colossus began trials on 28 February 1911, and these continued until July of the same year. She took on board a full crew on 31 July and was commissioned at Devonport on 8 August in the second division of the home fleet. This division was renamed the Second Battle Squadron (2BS) on 1 May 1912.She took part in the Parliamentary review of the Fleet in July 1912, and exercised with the Home Fleet in October and November. She visited Cherbourg with part of the fleet in March 1913. In December she was transferred to form part of the First Battle Squadron (1BS). On 29 July 1914 she sailed for 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...
as the possibility of war loomed.
During the First World War she remained based at Scapa flow until 1918, except for a brief period from 22 October to 3 November 1914 when she was stationed at Lough Swilly
Lough Swilly
Lough Swilly in Ireland is a glacial fjord or sea inlet lying between the western side of the Inishowen Peninsula and the Fanad Peninsula, in County Donegal. Along with Carlingford Lough and Killary Harbour it is one of three known glacial fjords in Ireland....
.
In November 1915 she was made flagship of 1BS, relieving HMS St Vincent. On 31 May 1916 she was present at the only major battleship engagement of 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...
, 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...
. In this engagement she led a battle squadron comprising HMS Neptune
HMS Neptune (1909)
HMS Neptune was a Royal Navy dreadnought battleship, intended to be the lead ship of three Neptune-class battleships, but the subsequent two ships had slightly thicker belt armour and were reclassified as the Colossus class.-Design:...
, HMS Collingwood
HMS Collingwood (1908)
HMS Collingwood was a dreadnought battleship of the British Royal Navy. Her design was essentially similar to the design of the previous ships, the . The Admiralty perceived in the planned building of German dreadnoughts a potential threat to the naval security of Great Britain, and saw the need...
and HMS St Vincent. After the Grand Fleet had deployed, Colossus was seventeenth in line, and her look-out sighted the head of the German High Seas Fleet
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...
at 17.51. She opened fire at 18.30, when the range had closed, but without discernible effect. At 19.00 she fired at an armoured cruiser, believed to be SMS Wiesbaden
SMS Wiesbaden
SMS Wiesbaden was the lead ship of the Wiesbaden-class of light cruisers of the German Imperial Navy in World War I, the other being the Frankfurt-Specifications:...
, at a range of under 10,000 yards. This cruiser later sank, having been fired on by several ships. From 19.00 to 19.20 she was, together with HMS Collingwood, in action with the First Scouting Group, which comprised the German battle cruiser force. Several hits were reported on SMS Derfflinger
SMS Derfflinger
SMS Derfflinger"SMS" stands for "Seiner Majestät Schiff", or "His Majesty's Ship" in German. was a battlecruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine built just before the outbreak of World War I. She was the lead vessel of her class of three ships; her sister ships were and...
. At 19.16 Colossus was damaged by heavy shellfire on the forward superstructure. There was no serious damage and the fighting efficiency of the ship was not affected. Six men were injured. Other than the ships of the Fifth Battle Squadron - HMS Warspite
HMS Warspite
Nine ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Warspite: was a 29-gun galleon, sometimes known as Warspight. She was launched in 1596 and sold in 1649. was a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line launched in 1666. She was renamed in 1721, rebuilt three times and broken up in 1771. was a 74-gun...
, HMS Malaya, HMS Barham
HMS Barham
Three warships of the Royal Navy have been given the name HMS Barham in honour of Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham. A fourth was planned but never completed:...
and HMS Valiant
HMS Valiant
Six vessels of the British Royal Navy have been named HMS Valiant.* Valiant, launched in 1759 at Chatham, was a Third rate ship of the line of 74 guns.* Valiant, launched in 1807, was a Repulse Class Third rate....
- Colossus was the only British battleship hit by gunfire at Jutland.
From June to September 1917 she was under refit, and moved with the Grand fleet when the main base was transferred to 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....
in April 1918. She was present at the surrender of the German fleet on 21 November 1918.
On the dispersal of the Grand Fleet after the war she became flagship of Vice-Admiral, reserve fleet, at Devonport. On 30 June 1921 she was put on the disposal list as being surplus to requirement, but was rescued to become a boys' training ship, in a militarily non-effective state. On 23 July 1923 she was reduced to a training hulk; she was sold to Charlestown Shipbreaking Industries in August 1928 and broken up from 5 September that year.