Armoured cruiser HMS Antrim

The Armoured cruiser HMS Antrim belonged to five other ships of the Devonshire class and was mainly used in coastal defense by the Royal Navy.

 

Launching and design:

The Devonshire-class ships were built on the experience of the Monmouth class. However, since this class was too weakly armed, the Devonshire-class ships should carry larger guns and also strengthen the middle artillery. In addition, the side armor was reinforced and moved a little further down.

With the exception of an additional chimney, now four and not three, the Devonshire-class ships hardly differed externally from those in the Monmouth class.

In order to test some new propulsion systems, different systems with a mixture of cylindrical boilers and water tube boilers were installed in all six ships. However, this meant that on the one hand the coal consumption was significantly higher than the value of other ships, on the other hand, the results were unsatisfactory. Other ships that were built at the same time later showed significantly better values ​​in the speed and wear of the drive system.

The launch of the HMS Antrim took place on October 8, 1903, the commissioning on June 23, 1905.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

History of HMS Antrim:

After the commissioning of the ship was first assigned to the 1st Cruiser Squadron, in March 1907 then the 2nd Cruiser Squadron.

From September 8, 1908 until the year 1909, the Antrim was involved in the tour of British stations in Africa and South America. Among others Cape Verde, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town and finally Rio de Janeiro were called. After the trip, it was assigned to the 3rd Cruiser Squadron of Home Fleet in Gibraltar.

 

 

 

Use in the war:

With the outbreak of the First World War, the HMS Antrim was used to secure the British East Coast.

In December 1914, the ship was involved in the search for German warships, which shelled British coastal cities. However, the search was canceled inconclusively.

After the fall of HMS Hampshire in June 1916, the Antrim was sent to the White Sea to take over the security there. At the end of the year, it was transferred to the Pacific to secure North America and West Indies Station. This task existed until the end of the war.

 

 

 

Whereabouts:

After the war, the HMS Antrim was ordered back to Britain and assigned there in Nore the reserve.

After being equipped for radio-transmission testing and submarine hunting, the ship was returned to active service in March 1920 and served for two years to test new technologies and later train soldiers.

After it was finally decommissioned, it was sold on December 19, 1922 to the company Hughes Bolckow, who scrapped the ship in March 1923 in Blyth.

 

 

 

Ship data:

Name:	HMS Antrim
Country:	Great Britain
Ship Type:	Armoured cruiser
Class:	Devonshire-Class
Boatyard:	John Brown, Clydebank
Building-costs:	around £ 850,000
Launched:	October 8, 1903
Commissioning:	June 23, 1905
Whereabouts:	Sold on 19 December 1922 and scrapped in Blyth in March 1923
Length:	144,42 meters
Width:	20,89 meters
Draft:	Max. 7,32 meters
Displacement:	Max. 10.850 tons
Crew:	655 man
Drive:	17 Yarrow water pipe and 6 cylindrical steam boilers 2 four-cylinder triple expansion machines
Power:	21.000 PSi
Maximum speed:	22 kn
Armament:	4 × 191 mm Mk.I guns 6 × 152 mm Mk.VII guns 6 × 102 mm Mk.V guns 2 × 12-pdr 76 mm rapid-fire guns 18 × 47-mm 3 pounder guns 2 x 45,7 cm torpedo tubes under water
Armor:	Belt armor 51-152 mm Casemates 152 mm Deck 51 mm Command tower 305 mm Barbettes 127 to 152 mm

 

 

 

 

 

You can find the right literature here:

 

British Battleships of World War One

This new edition of a classic work on British battleships is the most sought after book on the subject. Containing many new photographs from the author's exhaustive collection this superb reference book presents the complete technical history of British capital ship design and construction during the dreadnought era. Beginning with Dreadnought, all of the fifty dreadnoughts, 'super-dreadnoughts' and battlecruisers that served the Royal Navy during this era are described and superbly illustrated with photographs and line drawings.

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The British Battleship: 1906-1946

Norman Friedman brings a new perspective to an ever-popular subject in The British Battleship: 1906-1946. With a unique ability to frame technologies within the context of politics, economics, and strategy, he offers unique insight into the development of the Royal Navy capital ships. With plans of the important classes commissioned from John Roberts and A D Baker III and a color section featuring the original Admiralty draughts, this book offers something to even the most knowledgeable enthusiast.

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British Battlecruisers 1905-1920

The brainchild of Admiral Sir John Fisher, battlecruisers combined heavy guns and high speed in the largest hulls of their era. Conceived as "super-cruisers" whose job it was to hunt down and destroy commerce raiders, their size and gun-power led to their inclusion in the battlefleet as a fast squadron of capital ships. This book traces in detail the development of Fisher's original idea into the first battlecruiser Invincible of 1908, through to the "Splendid Cats" of the Lion class, and culminating in HMS Hood in 1920, the largest warship in the world for the next twenty years. The origins of the unusual "light battlecruisers" of the Courageous type are also covered.

The well-publicized problems of British battlecruisers are examined, including the latest research throwing light on the catastrophic loss of three of the ships at the Battle of Jutland. The developmental history is backed by chapters covering machinery, armament, and armor, with a full listing of important technical data. The comprehensive collection of illustrations includes the author's superb drawings and original Admiralty plans reproduced in full color. This revised and updated edition of the classic work first published in 1997 will be welcomed by anyone with an interest in the most charismatic and controversial warships of the dreadnought era.

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British Battlecruiser vs German Battlecruiser: 1914–16 (Duel)

Battles at Dogger Bank and Jutland revealed critical firepower, armor, and speed differences in Royal Navy and Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy) Battlecruiser designs.

Fast-moving and formidably armed, the battlecruisers of the British and German navies first encountered one another in 1915 at Dogger Bank and in the following year clashed near Jutland in the biggest battleship action of all time. In the decade before World War I Britain and Germany were locked in a naval arms race that saw the advent of first the revolutionary dreadnought, the powerful, fast-moving battleship that rendered earlier designs obsolete, and then an entirely new kind of vessel - the battlecruiser. The brainchild of the visionary British admiral John 'Jacky' Fisher, the battlecruiser was designed to operate at long range in 'flying squadrons', using its superior speed and powerful armament to hunt, outmanoeuvre and destroy any opponent. The penalty paid to reach higher speeds was a relative lack of armour, but Fisher believed that 'speed equals protection'. By 1914 the British had ten battlecruisers in service and they proved their worth when two battlecruisers, Invincible and Inflexible, sank the German armoured cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau off the Falklands in December 1914.

Based on a divergent design philosophy that emphasised protection over firepower, the Germans' battlecruisers numbered six by January 1915, when the rival battlecruisers first clashed at Dogger Bank in the North Sea. By this time the British battlecruisers had been given a new role - to locate the enemy fleet. Five British battlecruisers accompanied by other vessels intercepted and pursued a German force including three battlecruisers; although the battle was a British tactical victory with neither side losing any of its battlecruisers, the differences in the designs of the British and German ships were already apparent. The two sides responded very differently to this first clash; while the Germans improved their ammunition-handling procedures to lessen the risk of disabling explosions, the British drew the opposite lesson and stockpiled ammunition in an effort to improve their rate of fire, rendering their battlecruisers more vulnerable. The British also failed to improve the quality of their ammunition, which had often failed to penetrate the German ships' armour.

These differences were highlighted more starkly during the battle of Jutland in May 1916. Of the nine British battlecruisers committed, three were destroyed, all by their German counterparts. Five German battlecruisers were present, and of these, only one was sunk and the remainder damaged. The limitations of some of the British battlecruisers' fire-control systems, range-finders and ammunition quality were made clear; the Germans not only found the range more quickly, but spread their fire more effectively, and the German battlecruisers' superior protection meant that despite being severely mauled, all but one were able to evade the British fleet at the close of the battle. British communication was poor, with British crews relying on ship-to-ship flag and lamp signals even though wireless communication was available. Even so, both sides claimed victory and the controversy continues to this day.

Click here!

 

 

 

 

 

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