Among the most controversial warships ever built were the "large light cruisers" constructed for Britain's Royal Navy during World War I. Armed with 15" guns, the 735-foot ships were based on hulls so fragile they required considerable stiffening to absorb the recoil of the great guns. With the speed and broadside of 2/3 of a battlecruiser, they had only 3" belt armor and 1" deck.To understand the peculiarities of the type, one has to appreciate their origin. In 1914 Adm. Jackie Fisher was recalled to the Admiralty for a second go at the post of First Sea Lord. True to form, Fisher instituted a crash warship building program, including a quartet of lightly armored, ultra-fast battlecruisers armed with 15" guns, and with light draft to operate in shoal waters. The reason was a contemplated offensive in which a British invasion force would penetrate the Baltic and land troops in East Prussia, joining up with the Russian ally. The first two battlecruisers became the Repulse and Renown, each armed with three twin turrets. But Fisher also approved three ships of even longer dimensions, armed only with two 15" turrets in the case of the first pair (Courageous and Glorious) and two single 18" turrets in the case of the last one (Furious). Designed as battlecruisers, they were classified as "Large Light Cruisers" in Fisher's budget request, neatly sidestepping a Cabinet freeze on funds for new capital ship construction.
The Baltic offensive was put on hold in favor of the ill-starred Gallipoli campaign in early 1915, but the big ships continued on an accelerated construction schedule, mustering into the Royal Navy starting in late 1916, by which time Fisher had departed for good. The Navy did not know what to do with his ships, initially classed as battlecruisers. They were so thinly protected and so over-engined and over-gunned they were floating caricatures of the battlecruiser concept. Following the battlecruiser bloodbath at Jutland (three British battlecruisers exploded in action), no British commander wanted to expose these great frail hulls to concentrated shellfire. So they were assigned to a cruiser squadron in which they would be the lead ships, and grudgingly accepted in the Fleet. With Jutland's lessons in mind, the enthusiasm for them may be gauged from the euphemisms attributed to them in the service: instead of Courageous, Glorious, and Furious they were nicknamed the Outrageous, Uproarious, and Spurious!
Laid down in early 1915, the initial pair of ships was hustled to completion in 18 months. The first commissioned, Glorious joined the Grand Fleet in November 1916, becoming flagship of the Third Light Cruiser Squadron. Sister ship Courageous was welcomed to the squadron in March 1917, her completion delayed by structural damage sustained during her trials while steaming at full power into a head sea in weather. The entire forecastle area was buckled and leaking. Cracking and leaks were detected in fuel and feedwater tanks. 130 tons of stiffening was added to her hull while the damage was repaired, and Glorious received the same strengthening in dockyard in 1918.
Specifications for the Courageous and Glorious as battlecruisers:
Dimensions: 735' x 81' x 24'3" (786'9" OA). Displacement: 19,180 tons standard; 22,560 tons deep laden. Armament (as built): (4) 15"/42 cal Mk I, (18) 4"/44 Mk IX, (2) 3" QF, and (2) 3-pdr guns; (2) 21" torpedo tubes. Aircraft: (2) Sopwith Camels as battlecruiser. Armor: KC type throughout. Belt: 3"/2"; 10" conning tower, 7" barbettes, 9" turret faces, 4¼" turret roofs; 1½"/½" deck. Conning tower: 8". Fuel capacity: 3,250 tons oil. Propulsion: 18 Yarrow small tube boilers; (2) Parsons turbine engines developing 91,195 SHP, geared to quad screw. Maximum speed: 30+ kts. Endurance: 5,860 nm @ 16 kts. Crew: 829. Schematic
Metric specifications:
Dimensions: 240m OA x 24.7m x 7.38m. Displacement: 19,180 tons standard; 22,560 tons deep laden. Armament (as built): (4) 381 mm/42 cal Mk I, (18) 102 mm/44 Mk IX, (2) 76 mm QF, and (2) 3-pdr guns; (2) 534 mm torpedo tubes. Aircraft: (2) Sopwith Camels as battlecruiser (as aircraft carrier, 48). Armor: KC type throughout. Belt: 76/51 mm; 254 mm conning tower, 178 mm barbettes, 229 mm turret faces, 108 mm turret roofs; 38/12.7 mm deck. Fuel capacity: 3,250 tons oil. Propulsion: 18 Yarrow small tube boilers; (4) Parsons turbine engines developing 67 MW, geared to quad screw. Maximum speed: 57 km/hr. Endurance: 10,850 km @ 29.6 km/hr. Crew: 829. Schematic
Despite their too-light construction, the large light cruisers did pose a few points of technical interest. They were built with advanced anti-torpedo protection features including integral blisters along the sides and longitudinal torpedo bulkheads intended to force explosive gases from mine or torpedo hits, up outside the hull (left, or click here for full-size section plan of hull). Even with his obsession about saving weight, Fisher agreed to double the ships' specified torpedo bulkhead width to 1.5" (38.1 mm) -- still far from adequate.
In the engine room, the big cruisers were among the first to utilize geared turbines. Many of the early applications of turbine engines proved frustrating, for the engine spindles were connected directly to the propeller shafts. While the engines ran most efficiently at high speeds, screws turning at such speeds would churn the water to froth and be unable to gain traction and thrust -- a phenomenon known as cavitation. Turbines run at slower speeds were less fuel-efficient than those run at high revolutions. The solution was to add reduction gears between the turbine spindle and the shaft, allowing the turbines to be run at their ideal speed and the screws to turn at their most efficient speed. This system was little used in WWI warships because the world had insufficient capacity to cut precision gears of the size required, in quantity. As installed in the Courageous and Glorious, gears leveraged the rotary power of two turbines to drive four screws at speed. With maintenance, these were the same engines that saw all three of the "large lights" through the opening of WWII, when they were important units of the British fleet. Between the two world wars, machining capacity improved. Geared turbine and turbo-electric drive became the propulsion systems of preference for capital ships. Improved performance and fuel efficiency resulted.
Another experiment of interest was the cruisers' unique triple 4" mount. As originally designed, there were 6 of these disposed about the weather deck of each cruiser. It was not a successful design. Its selling points had been weight savings (no casemates in the hull) and rate of fire. The latter claim was not borne out in practice, as the guns' loading trays tended to jam, putting all 3 barrels simultaneously out of commission. Despite several attempted fixes, these guns were never satisfactory and were removed during the ships' conversion to carriers.
After commissioning, the unwanted sisters were shuffled from duty to duty. Courageous was outfitted as a minelayer: you can see the mine tracks on the deck in the photo of her aft turret and a distant photo of her as minelayer here. Then, for no apparent reason, without her ever having laid a single mine, the project was canceled and she became a cruiser again. In this capacity she fought in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight, Nov. 17, 1917, a minor action with German patrol vessels in the Bight. Glorious and Renown also were in it with her; none sustained damage or casualties. Together with Glorious, Courageous escorted matériel convoys from Norway which recently had been disrupted by German forces. Both ships were equipped with aircraft: 2 Sopwith pups launched from tracks mounted on the turrets. This was the first acqaintance that led to a long marriage. When they became aircraft carriers, their careers really took off. But it was only their half-sister Furious (below) that was outfitted as a carrier from the first; she "wrote the book."
At the cessation of hostilities, both "large lights" were present at the German Surrender on Nov. 21, 1918. Peace was followed by disarmament -- the Washington Treaty mandated massive scrapping of capital ships and imposed restrictions on new construction, but allowed for considerable growth in aircraft carriers. As in other navies, the British looked at uncompleted new construction and existing ships whose hulls could reasonably be converted to carriers. The Courageous and Glorious were of no value as cruisers, and as such would certainly go to the torch to keep Britain's tonnage with Treaty limitations. Moreover, their half sister Furious had already been a raging success as pioneer carrier since 1917. So the remaining "large lights" were converted during 1924-1928 and retained in the fleet. The cost of conversion was calculated as more than £2M per ship in 1928 currency (£85M at 2005 valuations). As completed, each ship carried 48 planes, or 2 squadrons. Some of the aircraft included Swordfish, Fairey Flycatchers, Gloster Gladiators, and Hawker Hurricanes. The Swordfish was the primary aircraft on duty when was was declared in 1939. Designed in the early 1930s, the fabric-covered Swordfish had a top speed when armed of only 95 mph (153 km/h), but outlived several types intended to replace it, remaining in front-line service through the end of the war in Europe. In the hunt for the Bismarck, the Swordfish experienced seeming immunity to the battleship's fire: the German ship had advanced AA guns that tracked aircraft while the gunners squeezed off the bursts. The high-tech guns could not be set slow enough to track the Swordfish accurately. The Swordfish were also the aircraft of choice in the British attack on Taranto naval base in 1940, a highly successful strike that was carefully studied by the Japanese.
These ships were of a sufficient size to provide the foundation for carrier-based aviation in the Royal Navy with the aircraft in use at the time. Their list of their world firsts is too extensive to catalogue here. As initially configured, both ships had two flight decks: a low flying-off deck at the bow which permitted planes to taxi out and take off directly from the hangar, and the much bigger bow-to-stern deck above. The funnels were moved to the starboard side and a modest "island" of superstructure constructed around it. Both ships enjoyed a two-level hangar and two elevators to the flight deck. In a 1935-36 refit, the diminutive forward flight deck was converted to an AA gun nest and large catapults capable of launching 10,000-lb aircraft were mounted on the main flight deck.
As fate would have it, both Glorious and Courageous perished in the Second World War.
As hostilities began, Courageous was posted to the Channel Force of the Home Fleet. Little more than a month after war began, while on antisubmarine patrol off Ireland, her destroyers were called away to investigate a distress call, enabling a stalking sub to close the carrier. Courageous met her nemesis when she turned into the wind to launch her aircraft, giving U-29 a perfect angle for attack. Kapitänleutnant Otto Schuhart loosed a spread of torpedoes at his target. Stung by two missiles to the port side, the big carrier rolled over and sank in 15 minutes (left). Captain W.T. Mackaig-Jones and 518 of his crew perished in the incident. Thus Courageous became the first British warship to be sunk in WWII. By month's end, the Admiralty had withdrawn its fleet carriers from ASW patrol as an unnecessarily risky employment of such high-value ships.
The next year Glorious met an ending worthy of her name. She was assigned to oppose the Nazi invasion of Norway beginning in April 1940. Her Skua and Gladiator planes attacked German positions in concert with aircraft from the Ark Royal. Part way into her second tour in Norway, the Germans smashed through at Narvik and an emergency evacuation of Allied forces (known as Operation Alphabet) began on June 5. Glorious was fully involved, in particular receiving 18 British aircraft flown from land bases in Norway to avoid capture.
During these operations, Glorious operated without her customary destroyer screen because the destroyers were needed in the evacuation. She had her escort back as she headed for Scapa Flow, fully loaded with troops and war matériel. At her own request she was operating independently because of her extra (31.4-knot) turn of speed. The main evacuation convoy, escorted by the Ark Royal, had departed at virtually the same time and was following behind Glorious' little group. The destroyers were no help when the group ran into the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The two battlecruisers together with 4 destroyers in German Operation Juno were tasked with disrupting the Allied forces still fighting in Norway, under the fleet command of Admiral Wilhelm Marschall. In a 2-hour running fight the Germans sank the carrier and both destroyers, HMS Acasta and HMS Ardent. British casualties were 1,519 killed; there were 45 survivors. The single survivor of the Acasta had at least the comfort of knowing that a torpedo from his ship had mauled the Scharnhorst. Both German ships suffered a number of 4.7" hits from the Glorious as well. Because of their battle damage, the German ships diverted to Trondheim, Norway for repairs and did not pursue the main convoy, escorted by the Ark Royal, coming up astern of Glorious. Article Video
One keepsake of the Courageous and Glorious lived on in the wartime and postwar Royal Navy, however: their original 15" guns. After 15 years in storage, the eight pieces of ordnance were remembered in the midst of wartime emergencies, when British warships were being bombed and torpedoed right and left. The resulting ship, HMS Vanguard (above), armed with the 8 "like new" 15-inchers from the Glorious class, did not complete until 1946 owing to wartime shortages of matériel. Glorious' turrets became the Vanguard's A and B (forward) turrets, while the stern pair had been in Courageous. The classic elegance of the 1915 Mk I 15" mountings seems out of place next to the blocky, graceless geometry of the Vanguard. She served as one of Britain's ships of state in the postwar era. Like HMS Renown in the 1890s, she brought the royals around on tours of their domains, but this time it was to oversee the dissolution of the British Empire. It was in this capacity that Vanguard hosted the royal family on a goodwill trip to South Africa in 1950. It was during this trip that 20-year-old Princess Elizabeth determined to marry Prince Philip of Greece, despite the rather anxious probing of her family. Within 2 years of the wedding, Elizabeth was herself crowned Queen and Philip was Royal Consort. From all appearances the young princess' intuition was "spot on" regarding her mate. Her 1953 coronation was widely hailed as marking the end of the long-drawn privations of WWII in Britain.
The Furious, commissioned 1917, was an even more extreme notion of Fisher's, a 'large light cruiser' intended to carry two experimental 18-inch (457-mm) guns in single turrets at bow and stern, on an additional 3,000 tons. Fisher has been quoted making delusional claims for the power of the 18-inch shell (3,320 lbs or 1,506 kg) and an additional 20-inch gun he had under development. As with the original battlecruisers, speed, shallow draft (the Furious drew only 21'), and hitting power would win the day. But once again, the fabric of the ship was too weak to withstand the huge stresses of firing and recoiling such a weapon. During construction, Furious had been down-gunned to carry only one 18" turret (aft) and the forward half of the ship was reconstructed with a large fly-off deck and, beneath the elevated deck, a permanent hangar for aircraft. The ship was commissioned June 26, 1917 and the gun was trialed during July. Cracks were found in the hull after test firings -- and cracks were discerned in Lord Fisher's theory, possibly even his sanity. While his return to the Admiralty in 1914 had certainly infused the old place with his enthusiasm and sense of urgency, by mid-1915 he suffered from overwork and native crotchetiness. A feud with Churchill over Gallipoli, but more deeply based in differences in personal style, festered. As with Fisher's previous service-wide feud with Adm. Lord Charles Beresford, the feud was not contained in the offices of the Admiralty but rippled throughout the Service. Fish's native pugnacity and exaggerated sense of his own importance led him to make some gross missteps which permitted the Government to retire him on May 16, 1915. They did so without delay and without even a note of thanks for the admiral's long service to the nation.
Though only a poor gunship, Furious proved a raging success as an aircraft carrier, with the requisite speed and size. One of the first demonstrations of her affinity was the series of landings performed by Squadron Cmdr. Edwin Dunning, the first of which (Aug. 2, 1917) constituted the first ever aircraft landing on a moving ship. Unfortunately, Cmdr. Dunning was killed when his plane stalled on attempting a third repeat of his feat only 5 days later. Nonetheless, the Furious was proving to be just the thing to land on at sea. Before her time, the Royal Navy's seaplane carriers had been converted Channel ferries with small canvas hangars and large cranes. Float planes were dropped gently overboard by crane and then took off from the water; on landing, they taxied up to the ship, which then lifted them aboard for servicing. Having a 90' x 300' flight deck on which to land and a well-equipped hangar, conveniently accessible by electric elevators, marked a significant advance in naval aviation. In many ways, Furious set the pattern for things to come.
Specifications for the Furious - as built:
Dimensions: 750' x 88' x 21' (786'6" OA length). Displacement: 22,000 tons standard. Armament (as designed): (2) 18"/35 cal, (11) 5.5", (2) 3" AA, and (4) 47 mm guns; (2) 21" torpedo tubes. Aircraft: (2) Sopwith Camels as battlecruiser. Armor: KC type throughout. Belt: 3"/2"; bulkheads 1.5"; 10" conning tower; 7" barbettes; 9" turret faces; 4¼" turret roofs; 3" deck. Fuel capacity: 3,300 tons oil. Propulsion: 18 Yarrow small-tube boilers operating at 235 psi; 4-shaft Brown-Curtiss turbine engines developing 91,195 SHP, geared to quad screw. Maximum speed: 31.5 kts. Endurance: 6,000 nm @ 20 kts. Crew: 880.
Metric specifications:
Dimensions: 230m x 24.7m x 7.38m (240m OA length). Displacement: 22,000 tons standard. Armament (as built): (1) 457 mm/35 cal. Mk I, (11) 140 mm, (2) 76 mm QF, and (4) 47 mm guns; (2) 534 mm torpedo tubes. Aircraft: (2) Sopwith Camels as battlecruiser (as aircraft carrier, 22-40). Armor: KC type throughout. Belt: 76/51 mm; torpedo bulkheads 38 mm; 254 mm conning tower, 178 mm barbettes, 229 mm turret faces, 108 mm turret roofs; 38/12.7 mm deck. Fuel capacity: 3,300 tons oil. Propulsion: 18 Yarrow small-tube boilers operating at 235 psi; 4-shaft Brown-Curtiss turbine engines developing 67 MW, geared to quad screw. Maximum speed: 58.3 km/hr. Endurance: 11,000 km @ 37 km/hr. Crew: 829.
Furious was back in the yard from Nov. 1917 until the following March, having her turret removed and a new hangar and 91-meter (300-ft) flight deck constructed over the afterdeck, leaving the control tower and funnel on their original sites. In this incarnation Furious was rated for 16 aircraft, but carried as many as 26 at times. Both our photos show her during 1918-19.In this phase, Furious had two flight decks, a flying-off deck forward and a landing deck aft, and narrow tracks around the sides of the bridge tower for planes to taxi from one flight deck to the other. Two elevators were installed, one for each hangar. The ship and her squadrons wrote history on July 19, 1918 when they unleashed the first carrier-based air strike in history -- a mission against the German zeppelin base at Tondern. Nor was this the only aerial attack launched from the feisty carrier's flying-off deck.
Note dazzle camouflage pattern. The contraption with the parallel cables abaft the funnel was the emergency backstop for landing pilots who missed the arresting wire on the deck. It was often touch and go in those early days of flight. It was objectively discovered that 300 feet was not enough in some conditions, and that centrally placed and unavoidable funnels and conning towers invited crashes.
Furious went into reserve at war's end while the Admiralty tried to make up its mind what to do with her. As described above, the terms of the Washington Treaty for Naval Disarmament presented a stark choice: keep her as a carrier or junk her. In postwar Britain, the deep indebtedness contracted to finance the war -- and the prewar arms race -- fostered a great concern for economy. In the end, it was far cheaper to upgrade an existing large carrier with a like-new power plant, than to build a new ship. So the Royal Navy converted Furious and was so pleased with progress and prospects that parliament approved the much more expensive conversion of the other 2 vessels. These units were still in their 1919 battlecruiser fit, having been mothballed for 5-6 years before reporting for carrier conversion.
The lesson of the big control tower being a big target for crashing pilots was taken to heart. Furious emerged from the yard in 1925 looking like this -- the prototypical flattop. A single flush flight deck covered the aft 70% of the hull; a navigation bridge hung off the starboard edge of the flight deck, and a flight control station (a tower in name only) occupied the port edge at the beam. No more problems with smashing into the bridge on landing! Furious retained a separate flying-off deck at the bow, enabling her planes to take off directly from the hangar. As she was the prototype modern carrier, this odd feature was adopted by her half-sisters Glorious and Courageous as well when they emerged from the yard in 1928 and 1930, respectively.
Together these three ships wrote aviation history: along with HMS Eagle, they were Royal Navy aviation in the 1920s and 30s. The Fleet Air Arm grew out of experience with these early carriers as surely as the American Navy in the 1890s grew out of experience with the ABCD ships.
Furious survived the Second World War after playing a very active rôle in its first 5 years. Whether hunting U-boats in the frigid North Atlantic, ferrying planes to besieged Malta in 1941, or lending her squadrons to the Torch landings in North Africa, she was always in the thick of it. In 1942 she visited the U.S. for a badly needed refit, after which she joined the Operation Torch armada. Later, she flew off air strikes against the German battleship Tirpitz in its lair in the Altafjord.
However, before war's end, with more modern ships becoming available, and Furious' age and shortcomings becoming ever more obvious, she was placed in reserve in September 1944 and sold for scrapping in early 1948. She and her gallant half sisters which started off so inauspiciously, ended by playing a pioneering rôle. Features and procedures they embodied are standard on even the great carriers of today. In Britain, Fisher's "large lights" are fondly remembered to this day for their go-for-broke fighting spirit in WWII.
After 14 years as an island-less carrier, Furious got a very modest superstructure installed on her starboard beam in 1939. She fought WWII entirely in this guise.
Furious' neglected turret during its brief tour on board. The 18"/40 gun weighed in at 146.2 tons, the mounting an additional 2.8 tons. The gun itself was 62 feet long (18.9 m), contained 88 rifling grooves (cf. 60 for a 12" gun), and fired a 3,320-lb (1,506-kg) projectile up to 28,800 yards (26.3 km) at a maximum elevation of 30 degrees, using a 630-lb (286-kg) charge of MD45 cordite. To accomplish this, the gun developed a muzzle velocity of 2,270 fps and muzzle energy of 118,592 foot-tons. Complete Info on Gun
Specifications for the Courageous and Glorious as aircraft carriers:
Dimensions: 735' x 81' x 24'3" (786'9" OA). Displacement: 26,518 tons deep laden. Armament (1939): (6) 4.7" and (24) 1.5" 2-pdr QF guns (8x3), (14) .50 cal MG. Aircraft: (48) aircraft - Swordfish torpedo bombers, Hawker Hurricanes, etc. Armor: Belt: 3"/2"; 10" conning tower; 1½"/½" deck. Fuel capacity: 3,250 tons oil. Propulsion: 18 Yarrow small tube boilers; (2) Parsons turbine engines developing 91,195 SHP, geared to quad screw. Maximum speed: 30+ kts. Endurance: 5,860 nm @ 16 kts. Crew: 1200, including all Fleet Air Arm personnel.
Metric specifications:
Dimensions: 240m OA x 24.7m x 7.38m. Displacement: 26,518 tons deep laden. Armament (1939): (6) 120 mm and (24) 40 mm QF guns (8x3), and (14) .50 cal MG. Aircraft: (48) aircraft - Swordfish torpedo bombers, Hawker Hurricanes, etc. Armor: KC type throughout. Belt: 76/51 mm; 254 mm conning tower, 38/12.7 mm deck. Fuel capacity: 3,250 tons oil. Propulsion: 18 Yarrow small tube boilers; (4) Parsons turbine engines developing 67 MW, geared to quad screw. Maximum speed: 57 km/hr. Endurance: 10,850 km @ 16 kts. Crew: 1200, including all Fleet Air Arm personnel.
As a carrier Furious was dead similar, with displacement of 19,513 tons std and 22,890 tons full load. She typically carried up to 40 aircraft. Note her four-engine propulsion plant remained unchanged from her battlecruiser days. Armament: (12) 4" (4x2) 102mm guns; (48) 40mm 2-pdr AA guns (6x8) and (22) 20 mm AA guns (all single mounts). Crew: 1,218 officers and men during wartime.
Relevant Web Resources
- The Tondern Raid: First Carrier-Launched Air Strike in History - July 19, 1918
- Outline of British Naval Aviation in WWI
- British Carriers from A to Zed - from the Fleet Air Arm Website
- Operation Juno in Detail
- The Sinking of HMS Courageous
- HMS Glorious Commemorative Page - from the Fleet Air Arm Website
- The Fairey Swordfish Torpedo-Bomber (1935)
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