H.M.S. Bellerophon (1907)

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H.M.S. Bellerophon
Career Details
Pendant Number: 63 (April, 1918)[1]
Built By: Portsmouth Royal Dockyard
Laid Down: 6 December, 1906
Launched: 27 July, 1907
Commissioned: 20 February, 1909
Sold: 8 November, 1921
Fate: Scrapped
General Characteristics
Displacement: 18,800 tons
Length: 526 feet (o.a.) 490 feet
Beam: 82 feet 6 inches
Draught: 27 feet 2.4 inches
Propulsion: 4 Parsons single reduction steam turbines, 4 shafts, 23,000 shp
Speed: 21 knots
Range: 5,720 miles at 10 knots
Complement: 733
Armament:
  • 10 × BL 12 in /45 Mark X (30.5 cm) guns in five twin Vickers BIX mountings
  • 16 × 4in BL Mark VII (10.2 cm) guns in single mounts and casemates
  • 4 × QF 3-pdr (1.4 kg) [1.85"/50 (47 mm)] in single mounts
  • 2 × 4in BL Mark VII (10.2 cm) guns on 60° HA Mk II mountings
  • 3 × 18 in (45 cm) Whitehead torpedoes

H.M.S. Bellerophon was a dreadnought battleship of the British Royal Navy. She was the lead ship of the Bellerophon class, and the fourth Royal Navy vessel to bear the name of the mythic Greek hero. Built at the Royal Dockyard in Portsmouth and completed in 1909, Bellerophon first joined the First Division of the Home Fleet (from 1912 the First Battle Squadron of the Home Fleets), and shortly before the outbreak of the First World War in August, 1914, she joined the Fourth Battle Squadron, where she remained until 1919. She was present at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May, 1916, where she fired sixty-two 12-inch rounds and received no damage. At the end of the war she was placed in the Reserve Fleet and sold for scrap in 1921, before being taken to the breakers two years later.

Design

Due to the scaling down of coal bunkerage, she had a modest range of 5,720 miles at 10 knots. Her four Parsons single reduction steam turbines were constructed by The Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company.

During the war she was fitted with a Dreyer Table Mark I and the Vickers Director system for her main battery.

Career

Laid down the month H.M.S. Dreadnought was commissioned, Bellerophon was the name ship of the Bellerophon class and was the first to be completed. The cost of building was £1,763,491, making her the most expensive of her class. She was laid down on December 06, 1906, launched on July 27, 1907 and commissioned into the fleet in February 20, 1909. On trials she made 21.25 knots, a speed lower than that of her sisters due to inferior shp; 25,061 shp as opposed to Superb's 27,407 shp and Temeraire's 26,966 shp.

Upon completion she joined the First Division of the Home Fleet. On May 26, 1911, she was in collision with the battle cruiser Inflexible. Bellerophon received damage whilst Inflexible took bow damage which put her in the dockyard until November. In the 1913 Battle Practice the ship came 7th out of fifteen dreadnoughts and battle cruisers with a score of 550. During December she visited with the First Battle Squadron the ports of Toulon, Gibraltar, Salamis and Barcelona. Upon the commissioning of Iron Duke on 10 March, 1914 into the First Battle Squadron, Bellerophon was transferred to the Fourth Battle Squadron. While at Cromarty on 5 June, 1914, she suffered a coal gas explosion which injured four stokers.

On the journey to the fleet anchorage at Scapa Flow, Bellerophon collided with the vessel S.S. St Clair on 27 August off the Orkney Islands and sustained no major damage. In May, 1915, she headed to Devonport Royal Dockyard for a refit.

At the Battle of Jutland the vessel was under the command of Captain Edward F. Bruen in the Second Division (commanded by Rear-Admiral Alexander L. Duff) of the Fourth Battle Squadron under Vice-Admiral Sir F. C. Doveton Sturdee, Bart. The Fourth Battle Squadron deployed behind the Second Battle Squadron in line ahead in the main part of the battle, and Bellerophon fired sixty-two 12 inch rounds without being hit in return.

After the battle she sweeped with the other vessels of the Grand Fleet regularly. Between June and September, 1917 she served as the flagship of the Second-in-Command of the Fourth Battle Squadron, flying the flag of Rear-Admiral Roger J. B. Keyes and then Rear-Admiral Douglas R. L. Nicholson. Unlike her sister ships, she was not deployed to the Eastern Mediterranean in October, 1918.

Placed in reserve in 1919 at Sheerness as part of the Nore Reserve, she and her sister ship Superb were used as Gunnery School (Turret Drill) ships. On 20 September, 1919, Bellerophon was ordered to be paid off after receiving her annual refit in Devonport. On 20 May orders were given that her mechanical dough-kneaders were to be removed; a sure sign of disposal. She was sold to the Slough Trading Company on 8 November, 1921, and departed Britain for breakers in Germany on 14 September, 1922.

Captains

Dates of appointment given:

Ship's Logs

  • ADM 53/35034 through ADM 53/35053 for 1 April, 1913 to 25 September, 1919.

Alterations

Bellerophon was fitted with a director after December, 1915 but prior to the Battle of Jutland.[9]

See Also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919
  2. ↑ Evan-Thomas Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/42. f. 105.
  3. ↑ Napier Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/42. f. 440.
  4. ↑ Vaughan-Lee Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/42. f. 441.
  5. ↑ Navy List (December, 1914). p. 280.
  6. ↑ Navy List (December, 1916). p. 392k.
  7. ↑ Mitchell Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/44. f. 134. Copy courtesy of Mr. Dave Alton.
  8. ↑ "Naval Appointments" (Official Appointments and Notices). The Times. Saturday, 15 March, 1919. Issue 42049, col G, pg. 16.
  9. ↑ The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, pp. 9-11.

Bibliography


Template:Bellerophon Class (1907)

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