Lord Nelson-class battleship

Profile drawing of Lord Nelson-class battleship HMS Agamemnon
Class overview
Name	Lord Nelson
Builders	Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, William Beardmore and Company
Preceded by	Swiftsure class
Succeeded by	HMS Dreadnought
Cost	Lord Nelson: £1,651,339 Agamemnon: £1,652,347
Built	1905–08
In commission	1908–19
Planned	2
Completed	2
Lost	0
Retired	2
General characteristics
Class and type	Lord Nelson-class predreadnought battleship
Displacement	Lord Nelson: 15,358 long tons (15,604 t) normal; 16,090 long tons (16,350 t) load; 17,820 long tons (18,110 t) deep Agamemnon: 15,925 long tons (16,181 t) load; 17,683 long tons (17,967 t) deep
Length	443 ft 6 in (135.18 m)
Beam	79 ft 6 in (24.23 m)
Draught	26 ft 0 in (8 m)
Installed power	16,750 indicated horsepower (12,490 kW)
Propulsion	2 shafts; 4-cylinder inverted vertical triple expansion steam engines 15 coal-fired water-tube boilers (Babcock and Wilcox in Lord Nelson; Yarrow in Agamemnon) with oil sprayers
Speed	18 knots (33 km/h)
Range	5,390 nmi (9,980 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h) with coal only 9,180 nmi (17,000 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h) with oil added Lord Nelson 900 long tons (910 t) coal normal, 2,170 long tons (2,200 t) coal maximum; 1,090 long tons (1,110 t) oil maximum Agamemnon 900 tons coal normal, 2,193 long tons (2,228 t) coal maximum; 1,048 long tons (1,065 t) oil maximum
Complement	ca. 750 in peacetime ca. 800 in wartime
Armament	2 × 2 - BL 12-inch (304.8 mm) 45-caliber Mark X guns 4 × 2, 2 × 1 - BL 9.2-inch (233.7 mm) Mark XI guns 24 × 1 - QF 12-pounder 18 cwt guns 2 × 1 - 3-pounder guns 5 x 18-inch (450-mm) torpedo tubes (submerged)
Armour	Belt: 12 inches (305 mm) to 8 inches (203 mm) Upper belt: 8 inches (203 mm) Bulkheads: 8 inches (203 mm) Citadel: 8 inches (203 mm) Barbettes: 12 inches (305 mm) 12-inch (305-mm) gun houses (turrets): 12 inches (305 mm) 9.2-inch (234-mm) gun houses (turrets): 8 inches (203 mm) to 7 inches (178 mm) Conning tower: 12 inches (305 mm) Deck: 4 inches (102 mm) to 1 inch (25.4 mm)
Notes	Agamemnon served as a radio-controlled target ship 1923-1926

The Lord Nelson class was a class of two predreadnought battleships built by the Royal Navy between 1905 and 1908. They were the last British predreadnoughts. Both Lord Nelson and Agamemnon were serving in the Channel Fleet when World War I began in 1914. They were both transferred to the Mediterranean Sea in early 1915 to participate in the Dardanelles Campaign. They remained there, assigned to the Eastern Mediterranean Squadron, which was later redesignated the Aegean Squadron to prevent the German battlecruiser Goeben and her consort Breslau from breaking out into the Mediterranean. Both ships returned to the United Kingdom in 1919. Lord Nelson was placed into reserve upon her arrival and sold for scrap in June 1920, but Agamemnon was converted into a radio-controlled target ship before being sold for scrap in 1927, the last surviving British predreadnought.

Technical characteristics

The Lord Nelson-class battleships were designed and built at a time when the direction of future battleship construction was controversial. On the one hand, naval combat during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 suggested that engagement ranges would increase to the point that intermediate and secondary batteries would become far less important and perhaps even ineffective, and that smaller-caliber guns would be useless in combat between capital ships; on the other hand, the lower rate of fire of battleship main batteries raised questions about the prudence of building all-big gun battleships, for fear that they might be overwhelmed by the higher rate of fire of intermediate-caliber guns in the shorter-range engagements that might occur in fog or bad weather or at night. In the end, the all-big-gun battleships, which became known as dreadnoughts after the first such ship, HMS Dreadnought, were vindicated, but this was by no means clear when the Lord Nelsons were designed in 1904 or even by the time they were laid down in 1905.

Agamemnon has her 12-inch (305-mm) guns replaced at Malta in May-June 1915.

The Lord Nelson class were the first battleships for which Sir Phillip Watts was responsible. Although they followed the predreadnought pattern established in the Royal Sovereign-class battleships in the early 1890s of having two twin main battery mounts, one fore and one aft, and mounted a main battery of four 12-inch (305-mm) guns, as had every predreadnought since those of the Majestic class in the mid-1890s, they otherwise were a major departure from previous British predreadnought designs; they might have marked a new era in predreadnought design had not the rise of the dreadnoughts snuffed out the predreadnought era. In order to match increases in firepower seen in foreign battleships of similar displacement, the preceding King Edward VII class had introduced a 9.2-inch (234-mm) intermediate battery into British battleships in addition to the 6-inch (152-mm) secondary battery they long had mounted, but the Lord Nelsons carried this further by mounting an all-9.2-inch (234-mm) secondary battery; they were the first British battleships not to mount 6-inch (152-mm) guns since HMS Inflexible, which joined the fleet in 1881. (The Trafalgar and Centurion classes had joined the fleet with 4.7-inch (120-mm) secondaries but had later had them replaced by 6-inch (152-mm) guns.) Also, the 9.2-inch (234-mm) battery, made up of more powerful guns than on the King Edward VII-class ships, was mounted in turrets (four double and two single) on the upper deck, rather than on the main deck in a central battery or casemates; this eliminated the problem of being unable to work the secondaries in a seaway, a problem in the many classes of British battleships with main-deck-mounted secondaries which were washed out in all but the calmest weather.

The 12-inch (305-mm) guns were a new, more powerful, 45-caliber type; they and their turrets were the same as those carried by the revolutionary Dreadnought; indeed, the completion of Lord Nelson and Agamemnon was delayed when their main battery guns and mountings were diverted to Dreadnought to expedite her completion in 1906.

In the end, the mixed-caliber heavy armament proved unsuccessful, as gunnery officers found it impossible to distinguish between 12-inch (305-mm) and 9.2-inch (234-mm) shell splashes, making fire control impractical. This finding further pushed the navies of the world to move to all-big-gun dreadnought battleship designs. Indeed, an all-big-gun design had been considered for the Lord Nelsons in January 1905, but their design was too far advanced by then to be changed, and the all-big-gun layout had to await HMS Dreadnought.

For anti-torpedo-boat defense, the Lord Nelsons retained a battery of 12-pounders. These were mounted on a large flying deck amidships, where they had good command. However, this innovative mounting scheme also was criticized because it made a good target and because falling debris due to damage might foul the 9.2-inch (234-mm) turrets below in combat. In addition, some officers believed that the all-12-pounder battery was too light to deal with larger, modern torpedo boats.

Larger gun calibers becoming common in foreign battleships, it was also recognised that greater protection was needed than had been thought to be the case in previous classes, and their main armour belt was twelve inches (305 mm) thick over the machinery spaces and magazines; the armour belt in the King Edward VII-class battleships, the immediately preceding class, was nowhere more than nine inches (229 mm) thick. The deletion of the casemate armour required for the 6-inch guns formerly mounted allowed the main belt armour to be increased at very little cost in weight. They were more heavily armored than any other British predreadnoughts, and more heavily armored in terms of area and thickness than any of the dreadnoughts prior to the Orion class of 1909. They were the first British battleships to have solid watertight bulkheads, penetrated by no doors or pipes, intended to contain flooding, with access across the bulkheads being via lifts (elevators). The solid bulkheads proved unpopular in service because of the inconvenience they imposed on the crew and were not repeated in the early British dreadnoughts, although Russian experience in the Russo-Japanese War suggested that such bulkheads were useful in keeping predreadnoughts from sinking. As further protection, each compartment in the Lord Nelsons had its own ventilation and pumping arrangements, eliminating the need for a single main drainage system as employed in previous British battleships and seen as a possible weakness during flooding.

Lord Nelson (foreground) and Agamemnon (rear) anchored at the Dardanelles in 1915.

Both ships were designed to be short because the design board responsible for the ships wanted them to be able to fit into dry docks, otherwise closed to previous battleship classes. The design requirements this imposed made them shorter than the earlier King Edward VII-class battleships and rather cramped in service, but the requirements also made the ships both flat-sided and fairly flat-bottomed; this and the mounting of the heavy 9.2-inch (234-mm) guns and their turrets had the useful side-effect of making the Lord Nelsons resistant to rolling and therefore both good seaboats and good gun platforms. However, the design also forced a compromises in the 9.2-inch (234-mm) battery. The ships' beam limitations forced abandonment of a design in which each of them would mount twelve 9.2-inch (234-mm) in six twin turrets, and instead they mounted ten of the guns in four twin and two single turrets, and limitations on the size of the 9.2-inch (234-mm) turrets themselves meant that they were cramped enough in service to impair the rate of fire of their guns.

They were the last British battleships to have reciprocating engines and the last with twin propellers, future classes having turbines and quadruple propellerss. They also were the last with inward-turning screws, which allowed greater propulsive force and slightly higher speeds and slightly less fuel consumption, but were unpopular in service because they made ships less maneuverable at low speeds or when going astern. It was decided to stop using mixed boiler types in the same ship, and both had uniform, large water-tube boilers, 15 Babcock and Wilcox in Lord Nelson and 15 Yarrow in Agamemnon. Although primarily coal-powered, they were the first British battleships designed to carry oil, earlier ships having been retrofitted to carry oil; Lord Nelson had six oil spayers and Agamemnon five, and the use of these extended their range considerably. The boiler arrangements were very successful in service, and both ships easily made their design speed of 18 knots (33.33 km/h); on trials Lord Nelson made 18.7 knots (34.6 km/h) and Agamemnon made 18.5 knots (34.25 km/h).

Agamemnon fires her 9.2-inch (234-mm) guns at Ottoman Turkish forts at Sedd el Bahr on 4 March 1915.

The Lord Nelsons were the last British battleships to have an armored ram built into their bow. They cost just over £1,600,000 each, the 2005 equivalent of about £110,000,000. The ships as completed were homely but intimidating in appearance, and looked more like French battleships than the previous British predreadnought pattern.

Operational history

Lord Nelson and Agamemnon on patrol in the Dardanelles in 1915.

Both ships commissioned in 1908 and served in the Home Fleet until World War I broke out in August 1914. After early wartime service in the Channel Fleet, both spent the rest of the war in the Mediterranean, where they were involved in attacks on Turkish forts and support of landings in the Dardanelles Campaign and later blockaded the German battlecruiser Goeben off the Dardanelles, although both were out of position and missed her when she sortied in January 1918. In November 1918 both ships were part of the first British squadron to pass through the Dardanelles after the Armistice. Agamemnon was employed as a radio-controlled target ship during the 1920s.

Ships of the class

HMS Lord Nelson

Lord Nelson was laid down by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company at Jarrow in 1905, launched in 1906, and completed in 1908. She commissioned in reserve in 1908, the last British predreadnought to join the fleet, then served in the Home Fleet (1909-1914). Her World War I service was in the Channel Fleet (1914-1915), Dardanelles Campaign (1915-1916), Eastern Mediterranean Squadron (1916-1917), and Aegean Squadron (1917-1919). She went into reserve in 1919 and was sold for scrapping in 1920.

HMS Agamemnon

Agamemnon was laid down by William Beardmore and Company at Dalmuir in 1905, launched in 1906, and completed in 1908. She served in the Home Fleet (1908-1914). Her World War I service was in the Channel Fleet (1914-1915), Dardanelles Campaign (1915-1916), Eastern Mediterranean Squadron (1916-1917), and Aegean Squadron (1917-1919). She went into reserve in 1919, then served as a radio-controlled target ship (1921-1926). The last surviving British predreadnought, she was sold for scrapping in 1927.

References

• Brown, D.K. Warrior to Dreadnought. Chatham Publishers, 1998.
• Burt, R. A. British Battleships 1889-1904. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1988. ISBN 0870210610.
• Chesneau, Roger, and Eugene M. Kolesnik, eds. Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905. New York: Mayflower Books, Inc., 1979. ISBN 0831703024.
• Gibbons, Tony. The Complete Encyclopedia of Battleships and Battlecruisers: A Technical Directory of All the World's Capital Ships From 1860 to the Present Day. London: Salamander Books Ltd., 1983.
• McBride, K. "Lord Nelson and Agamemnon". Conway's: Warship, 2005.

External links

• MaritimeQuest Lord Nelson Class Overview
• World War 1 Naval Combat
• Navypedia - Lord Nelson class battleships