HMS Indefatigable (1909)

HMS Indefatigable
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Indefatigable
Ordered:	1908–09 Naval Programme
Builder:	Devonport Dockyard
Laid down:	23 February 1909
Launched:	28 October 1909
Commissioned:	24 February 1911
Fate:	Sunk during the Battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916
General characteristics
Class and type:	Indefatigable-class battlecruiser
Displacement:	18,500 long tons (18,800 t) 22,130 long tons (22,485 t) at deep load
Length:	590 ft (179.8 m)
Beam:	80 ft (24.4 m)
Draught:	29 ft 9 in (9.07 m) (deep load)
Installed power:	43,000 shp (32,000 kW)
Propulsion:	4 shafts, 2 Parsons direct-drive steam turbine sets 31 Babcock & Wilcox coal-fired boilers
Speed:	25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph)
Range:	6,690 nmi (12,390 km; 7,700 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement:	800
Armament:	4 × 2 – BL 12-inch Mk X guns 16 × 1 – BL 4-inch Mk VII guns 2 × 1 – submerged 17.72-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour:	Belt: 4–6 in (102–152 mm) Decks: 1.5–2.5 in (38–64 mm) Barbettes: 7 in (178 mm) Gun turrets: 7 in (178 mm) Conning tower: 4–10 in (102–254 mm) Torpedo bulkheads: 2.5 in (64 mm)

HMS Indefatigable was a battlecruiser of the Royal Navy and the lead ship of her class. Her keel was laid down in 1909 and she was commissioned in 1911. She was an enlarged version of the earlier Invincible class with a revised protection scheme and additional length amidships to allow her two middle turrets to fire on either broadside.

When the First World War began, Indefatigable was serving with the 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron (BCS) in the Mediterranean, where she unsuccessfully pursued the battlecruiser Goeben and the light cruiser Breslau of the German Imperial Navy as they fled towards the Ottoman Empire. The ship bombarded Ottoman fortifications defending the Dardanelles on 3 November 1914, then, following a refit in Malta, returned to the United Kingdom in February where she rejoined the 2nd BCS.

Indefatigable was sunk on 31 May 1916 during the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle of the war. Part of Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty's Battlecruiser Fleet, she was hit several times in the first minutes of the "Run to the South", the opening phase of the battlecruiser action. Shells from the German battlecruiser Von der Tann caused an explosion ripping a hole in her hull, and a second explosion hurled large pieces of the ship 200 feet (60 m) in the air. Only two of the crew of 1,019 survived.

...
Wikipedia