HMS Barham (04)

Barham underway at low speed, mid-1930s
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Barham
Namesake:	Admiral Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham
Builder:	John Brown & Company, Clydebank
Cost:	£2,470,113
Yard number:	424
Laid down:	24 February 1913
Launched:	31 December 1914
Commissioned:	19 October 1915
Identification:	Pennant number: 04
Fate:	Sunk by U-331, 25 November 1941
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type:	Queen Elizabeth-class battleship
Displacement:	32,590 long tons (33,110 t) 33,260 long tons (33,790 t) (Deep load)
Length:	643 ft 9 in (196.2 m)
Beam:	90 ft 7 in (27.6 m)
Draught:	33 ft (10.1 m)
Installed power:	56,000 shp (42,000 kW) 24 Yarrow boilers
Propulsion:	4 Shafts 2 Steam turbine sets
Speed:	24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph)
Range:	5,000 nmi (9,260 km; 5,750 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	1,016 (1916)
Armament:	4 × twin 15-inch (381 mm) guns 14 × single 6-inch (152 mm) guns 2 × single 3-inch (76 mm) 20 cwt AA guns 4 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour:	Waterline belt: 13 in (330 mm) Deck: 1–3 in (25–76 mm) Barbettes: 7–10 in (178–254 mm) Gun turrets: 11–13 in (279–330 mm) Conning tower: 13 in (330 mm)

HMS Barham was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship built for the Royal Navy during the early 1910s. Often used as a flagship, she participated in the Battle of Jutland during the First World War as part of the Grand Fleet. Other than that battle, and the inconclusive Action of 19 August 1916, her service during the war generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea.

During the 1920s and 1930s, the ship was assigned to the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Home Fleets. Barham played a minor role in quelling the 1929 Palestine riots and the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine. The ship was in the Mediterranean when the Second World War began in September 1939 and accidentally collided with and sank one of her escorting destroyers on her voyage home three months later. She participated in the Battle of Dakar in mid-1940 where she damaged a Vichy French battleship and was slightly damaged in return. Barham was then transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet where she covered multiple Malta Convoys. She helped to sink an Italian heavy cruiser and a destroyer during the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941 and was damaged by German aircraft two months later during the evacuation of Crete. Barham was sunk off the Egyptian coast the following November by the German submarine U-331 with the loss of 862 crewmen, approximately two-thirds of her crew.