HMS Neptune (1909)
|
| Career | |
|---|
| Ordered: | 1908 Naval Estimates |
| Laid down: | 19 January 1909 at Portsmouth Dockyard |
| Launched: | 30 September 1909 |
| Commissioned: | January 1911 |
| Decommissioned: |
| Fate: | Scrapped in September 1922 |
| General Characteristics |
|---|
| Displacement: | 19,900 tons (22,000 full load) |
| Length: | 546 ft (166 m) |
| Beam: | 85 ft (26 m) |
| Draught: | 27 ft (8.2 m) |
| Propulsion: | Coal fired Parsons steam turbines, 4 shafts |
| Speed: | 21 knots (39 km/h) |
| Range: |
| Complement: | 756 |
| Armament: | 10 x 12 inch (300 mm) guns in twin turrets
12 x 4 inch (100 mm) guns
3 x 18 inch (460 mm) torpedo tubes, later removed |
| Armour: | 10 inch (250 mm) waterline belt
8 inch (200 mm) upper belt
9 inch (200 mm) barbetters
11 inch (280 mm) turrets and conning tower
5 and 8 inch (200 mm) bulkheads |
| Aircraft: | None |
| Motto: |
HMS Neptune was a
Royal Navy dreadnought, intended to be the lead ship of three
Neptune-class battleships, but the subsequent two ships had thicker armour and were reclassified as the
Colossus class.
She was the first Royal Navy battleship that differed in her gun turret layout to
Dreadnought. She had the first
superfiring main armament in the Royal Navy, with the two rear turrets arranged so that one would fire over the other when shooting towards the stern. She also had two wing turrets mounted
en echelon so that all five turrets could shoot in broadside although in practice this strained the hull.
She was one of the first battleships to be built with director gun-control and was used for trials of this then-novel system. She was flagship of the Home Fleet from May
1911 until May
1912 when she was transferred to the First Battle Squadron, where she remained until June
1916. She was accidentally struck by SS
Needvaal in April
1916 but no serious damage was done. She was present at the
Battle of Jutland as part of
Admiral Jellicoe's battle fleet. She fired only 48 12 inch (300 mm) shells but is credited with scoring several hits on the German battlecruiser
Lützow.
After the war she was quickly transferred to the reserve fleet and subsequently scrapped.
See
HMS Neptune for other ships of this name.
