Colossus-class battleship (1910)

File:HMS Colossus (Colossus class dreadnought).jpg HMS Colossus
Class overview
Name	Colossus
Preceded by	Neptune class
Succeeded by	Orion class
Completed	two
General characteristics
Type	Battleship
Displacement	Normal: 19,680 tons Fully laden: 22,700 tons
Length	546 ft (166 m)
Beam	85 ft (26 m)
Propulsion	Parsons direct drive steam turbines, 25.000 shp on four shafts
Speed	21 knots (39 km/h)
Complement	755
Armament	10 × BL 12 inch / 50 cal Mk XII guns (5×2) 16 × BL 4 inch Mk VII guns (16×1) 3 × 21-inch (533 mm) submerged torpedo tubes
Armour	Belt: 11 in (280 mm) Bulkheads: 10 in (250 mm) Barbettes: 11 in (280 mm) Turret: 11 in (280 mm) Deck: 4 in (100 mm)

The Colossus class of two battleships - "Colossus" and "Hercules" of the British Royal Navy were among the first battleships following the original HMS Dreadnought of 1906. Originally intended to be part of the Neptune class, the two ships had thicker armour and other differences from Neptune, and so Neptune is traditionally left as its own class. They were the last 12-inch (305 mm) gunned dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy, and were followed by the first "super-dreadnoughts", the Orion class battleships with 13.5-inch (343 mm) guns.

Design

In designing this class, their Lordships of the Admiralty finally took note of the vulnerability of British capital ships in view of the general move to 12-inch (305 mm) guns by the German navy. Thus the main belt reverted to the 11-inch (280 mm) thickness of Dreadnought, with the unfortunate corollary of necessitating a reduction in internal protection to compensate. The design was also influenced by the American Delaware-class battleship's ability to mount a ten-gun broadside. To save 50 tons of topweight, the mainmast was suppressed. Besides the weight, the mainmast was considered to be of limited value. Meanwhile Dreadnought's major flaw of positioning the foremast just behind the fore funnel was inexplicably repeated. In the Colossus class, this situation was aggravated by the far greater power of the boiler installation served by the funnel.

Machinery was for the first time divided into three compartments instead of two. This was thought to provide resistance to flooding to balance the loss of screening bulkheads. Machinery was otherwise identical to that fitted previously, except apparently the new internal arrangements allowed the center engine room to operate independently during cruising conditions to conserve fuel.

Main armament remained the same as Neptune, except the stagger of the wing turrets was reduced to conserve deck space, allowing the forward superstructure to be lengthened and the layout of the secondary armament to be improved.

References

• "HMS Colossus 1910-4-9". Clydebuilt warships. Retrieved 2007-02-04.