Formidable class battleship
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HMS Implacable |
The
Formidable class were an eight ship class of pre-dreadnoughts built in the late
1890s. They were similar in appearance and boasted the same amount of armament as the
Majestic and
Canopus classes, though the
Formidables were smaller than them, indeed they were 30 feet smaller than the
Canopus class. They, unlike the other two battleship classes, had no deck or barbette armour, but the class did have belt and turret armour, with the latter being increased from the 6-inches that the other two classes had, to 9-inches.
By the commissioning of the last two ships of the class HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Queen in 1904, they were to become completely obsolete within two years, with the launching of the Dreadnought, the first all big gun battleship. They were to become relics, consigned to menial jobs for much of the First World War.
Ships of the Class
- Bulwark - Suffered an internal explosion in November 1914 at Sheerness. Just 12 out of her 750 crew survived.
- Formidable - Torpedoed by U-24 off Portland Hill while on patrol. Tragically, 547 of her 750 crew perished.
- Implacable - Served in WWI, in which she survived to be sold for scrap in 1921.
- Irresistable - Served in WWI. She hit a mine during the Dardanelles Campaign in 1915, and subsequently sank three hours later.
- London - Served in WWI and took part in the Dardanelles Campaign. She was later converted to a minelayer.
- Prince of Wales - Served in WWI, taking part in the Dardanelles Campaign. She was scrapped in 1921.
- Queen - Served in WW1, and like other ships of the class took part in the Dardanelles Campaign in 1915. She was broken up in 1920.
- Venerable - Served in WWI, being broken up 1920.
Formidable-Class Statistics
- Displacement: 15,000 tons
- Length: 400 ft
- Beam: 75 ft
- Draught: 26 ft
- Complement: 750
- Armament:
- 4 x 12-inch guns
- 12 x 6-inch guns
- 16 x 2-pounder guns
- 4 x 18-inch submerged torpedo tubes
- Speed: 18.0 knots
- 'Propulsion'\: Water tube boilers, 2 x vertical triple expansion, 2 shafts, 15,400ihp
