HMS Emperor of India

Emperor of India in October 1920
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Emperor of India
Ordered:	1911
Builder:	Vickers, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down:	31 May 1912
Launched:	27 November 1913
Commissioned:	10 November 1914
Decommissioned:	1931
Fate:	Sunk as target ship 1931, then raised and scrapped 1932
General characteristics
Type:	Iron Duke-class battleship
Displacement:	Normal: 25,000 long tons (25,400 t) (normal) Full load: 29,560 long tons (30,030 t)
Length:	622 ft 9 in (189.81 m) o/a
Beam:	90 ft (27.4 m)
Draught:	29 ft 6 in (8.99 m)
Installed power:	29,000 shp (22,000 kW)
Propulsion:	4 × Parsons turbines 18 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers
Speed:	21.25 kn (24.5 mph; 39.4 km/h)
Range:	7,800 nmi (8,976 mi; 14,446 km) at 10 kn (11.5 mph; 18.5 km/h)
Complement:	995–1,022
Armament:	10 × BL 13.5 in (343 mm)/45 cal Mk V guns 12 × 6 in (152 mm)/45 cal Mk VII guns 2 × QF 3 in (76 mm) 20 cwt AA guns 4 × 3-pounder (47 mm (1.9 in)) guns 4 × 21 in (533 mm) submerged beam torpedo tubes
Armour:	Belt: 12 in (305 mm) Deck: 2.5 in (64 mm) Barbettes: 10 in (254 mm) Turrets: 11 in (279 mm)

HMS Emperor of India was an Iron Duke-class battleship of the British Royal Navy. She was originally to have been named Delhi but was renamed before she was completed, to honour King George V, who was also Emperor of India. The ship was laid down on 31 May 1912 at the Vickers shipyard, and was launched on 27 November 1913. The finished ship was commissioned a year later in November 1914, shortly after the start of the First World War. She was armed with a main battery of ten 13.5-inch (340 mm) guns and was capable of a top speed of 21.25 knots (39.36 km/h; 24.45 mph).

Upon commissioning, Emperor of India joined the 4th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet, based at Scapa Flow. She took part in numerous sorties into the northern North Sea to enforce the blockade of Germany, along with frequent training exercises and gunnery drills. Emperor of India was in dock for a refit in late May 1916, so she was unavailable for the Battle of Jutland. The increased danger from submarines led both the Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet to pursue more cautious strategies after Jutland, which led to a less eventful war.

After the war, Emperor of India was sent to the Mediterranean Fleet, where she became involved in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War in the Black Sea in 1919–1921. She remained in the Mediterranean until 1926, when she was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet. The London Naval Treaty of 1930 mandated that Emperor of India and her three sister ships be dismantled. In 1931, she and HMS Marlborough underwent a series of weapons tests that proved to be highly beneficial for future British battleship designs. Emperor of India was ultimately sold for scrap in February 1932, and was broken up shortly thereafter.