Sir Eustace Tennyson-d'Eyncourt, 1st Baronet

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Sir Eustace Henry William Tennyson-d'Eyncourt, 1st Baronet, BT, KCB, LL.D, D.SC, FRS (1 April 1868 – 1 February 1951) was a British naval architect and engineer. As Director of Naval Construction for the Royal Navy, 1912-24, he was responsible for the design and construction of some of the most famous British warships and was also involved with tanks (Landships). Tennyson-D'Eyncourt was related to:

• The politician Charles Tennyson d'Eyncourt (d. 1861), uncle of the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, and also to
• Admiral Edwin Tennyson d’Eyncourt.

Contents 1 Design characteristics 2 Ship designs 2.1 Battleships and Battlecruisers 2.2 Cruisers 2.3 "large light cruisers", later aircraft carriers 2.4 Destroyers 2.5 Submarines 2.6 Other types 2.7 Tanks 3 Writings 4 References

[edit] Design characteristics

In his battlecruisers, 'large light cruisers' and the Hawkins class cruisers Tennyson-D'Eyncourt evolved a novel hull form: in cross-section the hull was a rhomboid with the ship's sides sloping inboard at an angle of 10 degrees from the vertical, while outboard of this external bulges extended over the full length of the machinery spaces. This resulted in a hull structure of great strength, and the sloping sides increased the possible range of impact of shells and thus gave greater resistance to penetration.

The aesthetic side of naval architecture has seldom been given much attention, though it is as much of an art as the architecture of buildings; but in general appearance (in terms of harmonious proportion as regards length, beam, and freeboard, as well as the size of the superstructure and funnels in relation to the hull), the opinion has been expressed that Tennyson D'Eyncourt created some of the most elegant and eye-pleasing warships ever designed, the prime example being the battlecruiser Hood.^[1].

[edit] Ship designs

(Tennyson-D'Eyncourt was not necessarily the principal designer of all these vessels but had ultimate responsibility for them)

[edit] Battleships and Battlecruisers

• Brazilian battleship, later HMS Agincourt
• Turkish battleship, later HMS Erin
• Chilean battleships Almirante Latorre, later HMS Canada and Almirante Cochrane, later HMS Eagle (aircraft Carrier)
• Royal Sovereign class battleship
• Renown class battlecruiser
• HMS Hood battlecruiser
• several very large capital ship designs, both battleships and battlecruisers, rendered inadmissible under the Washington Naval Treaty
• HMS Nelson battleship

[edit] Cruisers

• GRC Katsonis
  • HMS Chester
• Arethusa class (1912)
• C class cruisers (1912-17)
  • Caroline class
  • Calliope class
  • HMS Champion
  • Cambrian class
  • Centaur class
  • Caledon class
  • Ceres class
  • Carlisle class
• Hawkins class large cruisers (1915)
• Danae class cruisers (1916-18)
  • HMS Danae
  • HMS Dragon
  • HMS Diomede
• HMS Enterprise (Emerald class cruiser)) (1917-18)
• HMS Kent (County class cruiser) (1923-24)

[edit] "large light cruisers", later aircraft carriers

• HMS Courageous
• HMS Furious

[edit] Destroyers

• R and S class destroyers
• V and W class destroyers
• Scott class flotilla leaders

[edit] Submarines

• "J" class
• "K" class

[edit] Other types

Monitors, Patrol boats, Minesweepers, Sloops, Gunboats for China Station, Merchant ship conversions into seaplane carriers

[edit] Tanks

Tennyson-D'Eyncourt was chairman of the Landships Committee which had been set up by Winston Churchill to oversee their design and production, see also the Mark VIII (tank).

[edit] Writings

Tennyson-D'Eyncourt summarized his World War I work in an article 'Naval Construction During the War', published in Engineering, 11 April 1919, pp. 482-490. He also published an autobiography entitled A Shipbuilder's Yarn (London: Hutchinson, c. 1940).

Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by New creation	Baronet (of Carter's Corner Farm)	Succeeded by Eustace Gervais Tennyson-d'Eyncourt

[edit] References

1. ^ Oscar Parkes, British Battleships

• Leigh Rayment's Baronetage Page