HMS Dominion was 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...

. Like all ships of the class (apart from the lead ship of the class) she was named after an important part of the British Empire

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

, namely the Dominion of Canada. She has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Dominion.

Technical characteristics

HMS Dominion was ordered under the 1902 Naval Estimates. She was laid down at Vickers

Vickers

Vickers was a famous name in British engineering that existed through many companies from 1828 until 1999.-Early history:Vickers was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by the miller Edward Vickers and his father-in-law George Naylor in 1828. Naylor was a partner in the foundry Naylor &...

' yards at Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...

 on 23 May 1902 and launched on 25 August 1903. She began trials in May 1905 and was completed in July 1905.

Although Dominion and her seven sister ships of the King Edward VII class were a direct descendant of the Majestic class

Majestic class battleship

The Majestic class was a class of pre-dreadnought battleships, built under the Spencer Programme of 8 December 1893, that sought to counter the growing naval strength of France and the Russian Empire...

, they were also the first class to make a significant departure from the Majestic design, displacing about 1,000 tons more and mounting for the first time an intermediate battery of four 9.2-inch (234-mm) guns in addition to the standard outfit of 6-inch (152-mm) guns. The 9.2-inch was a quick-firing gun like the 6-inch, and its heavier shell made it a formidable weapon by the standards of the day when Dominion and her sisters were designed; it was adopted out of concerns that British battleships were undergunned for their displacement and were becoming outgunned by foreign battleships that had begun to mount 8-inch (203-mm) intermediate batteries. The four 9.2-inch were mounted in single turrets abreast the foremast and mainmast, and Dominion thus could bring two of them to bear on either broadside. Even then, Dominion and her sisters were criticised for not having, a uniform secondary battery of 9.2-inch guns, something considered but rejected because of the length of time it would have taken to design the ships with such a radical revision of the secondary armament layout. In the end, it proved impossible to distinguish 12-inch and 9.2-inch shell splashes from one another, making fire control impractical for ships mounting both calibres, although Dominion had fire-control platforms on her fore- and mainmasts rather than the fighting tops of earlier classes.

Like all British battleships since the Majestic class, the King Edward VII-class ships had four 12-inch (305-mm) guns in two twin turrets (one forward and one aft); the first five King Edwards, including Dominion, mounted the Mark IX 12-inch. Mounting of the 6-inch guns in casemate

Casemate

A casemate, sometimes rendered casement, is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired. originally a vaulted chamber in a fortress.-Origin of the term:...

s was abandoned in Dominion and her sister ships, the 6-inch instead being placed in a central battery amidships protected by 7-inch (178-mm) armoured walls. Otherwise, Dominion's armour was much as in the London class

Formidable class battleship

The Royal Navy's Formidable class battleships was an eight-ship class of pre-dreadnoughts designed by Sir William White and built in the late 1890s...

 battleships, although there were various differences in detail from the Londons.

Dominion and her sisters were the first British battleships with balanced rudders since the 1870s and were very maneuverable, with a tactical diameter of 340 yards (311 m) at 15 knots (27.75 km/h). However, they were difficult to keep on a straight course, and this characteristic led to them being nicknamed "the Wobbly Eight" during their 1914-1916 service in the Grand Fleet. They had a slightly faster roll than previous British battleship classes, but were good gun platforms, although very wet in bad weather.

Primarily powered by coal, Dominion had oil sprayers installed during her construction, as did all of her sisters except , the first time this had been done in British battleships. These allowed steam pressure to be rapidly increased, improving Dominion's acceleration. The eight ships between them were given four different boiler installations for comparative purposes; Dominion's outfit of 16 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...

 boilers allowed her to exceed her designed speed on trials, during which she exceeded 18.3 knots (33.9 km/h).

Dominion was a powerful ship when she was designed, and completely fulfilled the goals set for her at that time. However, she was unlucky in that the years of her design and construction were ones of revolutionary advancement in naval guns, fire control, armor, and propulsion. She joined the fleet in mid-1905, but quickly was made obsolete by the commissioning of the revolutionary battleship at the end of 1906 and the large numbers of the new dreadnought

Dreadnought

The dreadnought was the predominant type of 20th-century battleship. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her were referred to as "dreadnoughts", and earlier battleships became known as pre-dreadnoughts...

 battleships that commissioned in succeeding years. By 1914, Dominion and her King Edward VII-class sisters were, like all predreadnoughts, so outclassed that they spent much of their 1914-1916 Grand Fleet service steaming at the heads of divisions of the far more valuable dreadnoughts, protecting the dreadnoughts from naval mines by being the first battleships to either sight or strike them.

Early career

HMS Dominion commissioned on 15 August 1905 at Portsmouth Dockyard for service in the Atlantic Fleet

British Atlantic Fleet

The Atlantic Fleet was a major fleet formation of the Royal Navy.There have been two main formations in the Royal Navy officially called the Atlantic Fleet. The first was created in 1909 and lasted until 1914...

. She ran aground in the Gulf of St. Lawrence on 16 August 1906, suffering severe damage to her hull plating and some flooding. She arrived at Bermuda

Bermuda

Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...

 in September 1906; when these were completed in January 1907, she moved to Chatham Dockyard

Chatham Dockyard

Chatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...

 for completion of her repairs beginning in February 1907. While out of service at Chatham, she transferred to the Channel Fleet

Channel Fleet

The Channel Fleet was the Royal Navy formation of warships that defended the waters of the English Channel from 1690 to 1909.-History:The Channel Fleet dates back at least to 1690 when its role was to defend England against the French threat under the leadership of Edward Russell, 1st Earl of...

 in March 1907.

Her repairs were completed in May–June 1907, and she recommissioned for her Channel Fleet service. Under a fleet reorganization on 24 March 1909, the Channel Fleet became the 2nd Division, Home Fleet, and Dominion became a Home Fleet unit in that division.

Under a fleet reorganization in May 1912, Dominion and all seven of her sisters of the King Edward VII class ' onMouseout='HidePop("10890")' href="/topics/HMS_New_Zealand_(1904)">Zealandia

HMS New Zealand (1904)

HMS New Zealand was a King Edward VII class battleship of the Royal Navy. Like all ships of the class she was named after an important part of the British Empire, namely New Zealand...

) were assigned to form the 3rd Battle Squadron

3rd Battle Squadron (United Kingdom)

The British Royal Navy 3rd Battle Squadron was a naval squadron consisting of battleships and other vessels, active from at least 1914 to 1945. The 3rd Battle Squadron was initially part of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet. During the First World War, the Home Fleet was renamed the Grand Fleet...

, assigned to the First Fleet, Home Fleet, although Dominion was initially attached to 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...

 and did not join the 3rd Battle Squadron until June 1912. The squadron was detached to the Mediterranean in November 1912 because of the First Balkan War

First Balkan War

The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, pitted the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success...

 (October 1912-May 1913); it arrived at Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

 on 27 November 1912 and subsequently participated in a blockade

Blockade

A blockade is an effort to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade, and is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually...

 by an international force of Montenegro

Montenegro

Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...

 and in an occupation of Scutari

Shkodër

Shkodër , is a city located on Lake of Shkoder in northwestern Albania in the District of Shkodër, of which it is the capital. It is one of the oldest and most historic towns in Albania, as well as an important cultural and economic centre. Shkodër's estimated population is 90,000; if the...

. The squadron returned to the United Kingdom in 1913 and rejoined the Home Fleet on 27 June 1913

World War I

Upon the outbreak of World War I, the 3rd Battle Squadron was assigned to the Grand Fleet and based at 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....

. It was used to supplement the Grand Fleet's 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...

s on the Northern Patrol

Northern Patrol

The Northern Patrol was a Royal Navy operation of the First World War operating around Scotland and the North Sea.The Patrol existed to form part of the British "distant" blockade of Germany...

. On 2 November 1914, the squadron was detached to reinforce the Channel Fleet and was rebased at Portland. It returned to the Grand Fleet on 13 November 1914.

Dominion served in the Grand Fleet until April 1916, serving temporarily as 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...

, Vice Admiral

Vice Admiral

Vice admiral is a senior naval rank of a three-star flag officer, which is equivalent to lieutenant general in the other uniformed services. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral...

, 3rd Battle Squadron, in August–September 1915. During sweeps by the fleet, she and her sister ships often steamed at the heads of divisions of the far more valuable dreadnoughts, where they could protect the dreadnoughts by watching for mines or by being the first to strike them.

On 29 April 1916, the 3rd Battle Squadron was rebased at Sheerness

Sheerness

Sheerness is a town located beside the mouth of the River Medway on the northwest corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 12,000 it is the largest town on the island....

, and on 3 May 1916 it was separated from the Grand Fleet, being transferred to the Nore Command. Dominion remained there with the squadron until March 1918, being attacked unsuccessfully by a 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...

 in May 1916 and undergoing a refit at Portsmouth Dockyard in June 1917.

The units of the 3rd Battle Squadron had begun to disperse gradually in 1916, and by 1 March 1918, Dominion and battleship Dreadnought were the only ships left in the squadron. The squadron was finally dissolved in March 1918, and Dominion paid off to serve as a parent ship for the Zeebrugge Raid

Zeebrugge Raid

The Zeebrugge Raid, which took place on 23 April 1918, was an attempt by the British Royal Navy to neutralize the key Belgian port of Bruges-Zeebrugge...

 and the first Ostend Raid

First Ostend Raid

The First Ostend Raid was the first of two attacks by the Royal Navy on the German-held port of Ostend during the late spring of 1918 during the First World War...

. She served in this capacity, stationed in the Swin, until May 1918.

On 2 May 1918, Dominion paid off into the Nore Reserve

Reserve fleet

A reserve fleet is a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed, and thus partially or fully decommissioned. A reserve fleet is informally said to be "in mothballs" or "mothballed"; an equivalent expression in unofficial modern U.S....

. She was employed as an accommodation ship.

Disposal

On 29 May 1919, Dominion was placed on the disposal list at Chatham Dockyard. She was sold for scrapping on 9 May 1921 to T. W. Ward & Company Limited. On 30 September 1923 she was towed to Belfast

Belfast

Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

 to be stripped, and she arrived at Preston

City of Preston, Lancashire

The City of Preston is a city and non-metropolitan district in Lancashire, England. It is located on the north bank of the River Ribble, and was granted city status in 2002, becoming England's 50th city in the 50th year of Queen Elizabeth II's reign...

 for scrapping on 28 October 1924.

External links

• HMS Commonwealth in Jane's Fighting Ships
  Jane's Fighting Ships
  Jane's Fighting Ships is an annual reference book of information on all the world's warships arranged by nation, including information on ship's names, dimensions, armaments, silhouettes and photographs, etc...
  
  , 1919.
• Assignment of the HMS Commonwealth
• Jane's Fighting Ships of World War One
  Jane's Fighting Ships
  Jane's Fighting Ships is an annual reference book of information on all the world's warships arranged by nation, including information on ship's names, dimensions, armaments, silhouettes and photographs, etc...
  
  (1919), Jane's Publishing Company
• Careers of the King Edward VII class