HMS Albemarle (1901)

HMS Albemarle
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Albemarle
Namesake:	George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle.
Builder:	Chatham Dockyard
Cost:	£1,078,395
Laid down:	1 January 1900
Launched:	5 March 1901
Christened:	Lady Kennedy
Completed:	November 1903
Commissioned:	12 November 1903
Decommissioned:	April 1919
Nickname(s):	The Duncan-class battleships were informally called "The Admirals"
Fate:	Sold for scrapping 19 November 1919; scrapped 1920
Notes:	Became accommodation ship in reserve 1917
General characteristics
Class and type:	Duncan-class pre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement:	13,270 to 13,745 tons load 14,900 to 15,200 tons deep
Length:	432 ft (132 m)
Beam:	75 ft 6 in (23.01 m)
Draught:	25 ft 9 in (7.85 m)
Installed power:	18,000 ihp (13,000 kW)
Propulsion:	24 Belleville water tube boilers 4-cylinder triple expansion 2 shafts
Speed:	19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph)
Range:	7,000 nmi (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement:	720
Armament:	4 × BL 12-inch (304.8 mm) 40-caliber Mk IX guns 12 × BL 6-inch (152 mm) 45-caliber Mk VII guns 10 × 12-pounder guns 6 × 3-pounder guns 2 × machine guns 4 × 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes (submerged)
Armour:	Belt: 7 in (178 mm) Bulkheads: 11–7 in (279–178 mm) Decks: 2–1 in (51–25 mm) Gun houses: 10–8 in (254–203 mm) Barbettes: 11–4 in (279–102 mm) Casemates: 6 in (152 mm) Conning tower: 12 in (305 mm)

HMS Albemarle was a pre-dreadnought Duncan-class battleship of the Royal Navy, named after George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle. She was amongst the fastest battleships of her time when she was commissioned, but she became superseded by the new dreadnoughts which began entering service from 1906. Despite this, she served with the Grand Fleet on the Northern Patrol during the early stages of World War I. She was sent to Queenstown (COBH)in April 1916 following the rising in Dublin. She was later dispatched to Murmansk in Russia for guard and icebreaking duties for most of 1916. On her return to England, she underwent a refit and was in reserve for the remainder of the war. Decommissioned in April 1919, she was scrapped in 1920.

HMS Albemarle was laid down on 1 January 1900 at Chatham Dockyard, and launched on 5 March 1901, when Lady Kennedy, wife of Admiral Sir William Kennedy, Commander-in-Chief of the Nore, performed the christening. She was completed in November 1903.

Albemarle and her five sisters of the Duncan-class were ordered in response to large French and Russian building programmes, including an emphasis on fast battleships in the Russian programme; they were designed as smaller, more lightly armored, and faster versions of the preceding Formidable class. As it turned out, the Russian ships were not as heavily armed as initially feared, and the Duncans proved to be quite superior in their balance of speed, firepower, and protection. Although they were designed before the ships of the London subclass of the Formidable class, the first two Londons were laid down before the first Duncan.

...
Wikipedia