H.M.S. Prince of Wales (1904)
HMS Prince of Wales leaving port at Portsmouth in 1912 -- a fine figure of a predreadnought man-o'-war: trim, grey, sleekly efficient as she heads out to sea. Barely visible in this small photo, a detail is busy working on the ship's forward funnel cap while underway.
Prince of Wales was one of the two-ship Queen class, which joined the fleet in 1904. These were the penultimate project of Sir William White, the Director of Naval Construction responsible for naval ships from 1888 to 1905. As such they were the final elaboration of the Majestic design, and virtually identical to the 4-ship London class commissioned in 1902-3, iself a repeat of the preceding Formidable class. The ships featured all-round loading and hydraulically operated turrets with electric ammo lifts; lifts for the 6" guns were also electric. As an instructive comparison, the Queen, built by Harland & Wolff at Belfast, was equipped entirely with Babcock & Wilcox boilers, while the Greenock Foundry-built Prince of Wales had all Bellevilles. The Prince was about half a knot faster, and burned half a ton less coal per hour at speed than the Queen.
Both ships fought in the Dardanelles and Adriatic. Late in the War Queen became a depot ship at Taranto, supporting maintenance of the Otranto Barrage anti-submarine barrier. Her great guns were removed and given to the Italians to help repel the German/Austrian offensive of 1917, so vividly described by Ernest Hemingway in A Farewell to Arms. Prince of Wales was withdrawn from the theatre in early 1917 and placed in reserve, then sold for scrapping in 1919. She was grounded on the grid at Milford Haven, Wales, where the iron transat liner and cable ship Great Eastern had been dismembered not many years before.
Schematic of the Queen class shows the classic British pre-dreadnought look of this Majestic derivative. The kidney-shaped platforms at the fore crosstrees were fire-control and spotting tops, manufactured of stiff canvas and isinglass at this early stage. These were the seed from which the mighty fire-control platforms at the mastheads of WWII battleships were to evolve. The Mikasa, built by Vickers for Japan in 1899-1902, is a near duplicate of the London class, of which the Queens were a repeat.
Specifications for the Queen class:
Dimensions: 430'OA x 75' x 29' (131m x 22.86m x 8.84m) Displacement: 15,000 tons. Armament: (4) 12"/40 Mk IX (2x2) (30.5 cm), (12) 6"/45 Mk VII (15.24 cm), (16) 12-pdr, (2) 12-pdr, and (6) 3-pdr guns; 2 Maxim MG; (4) submerged 18" torpedo tubes (450mm). Armor (KC type): 9"/6"/2" belt; 12" conn and barbettes; 10"/8" turrets; 12" aft bulkhead; 6" casemates; 3" deck. Fuel capacity: 900 tons std, 2,100 tons max. Propulsion: (20) coal-fired boilers: Belleville in Prince of Wales, B&W in Queen. (2) 3-cyl vertical triple expansion engines developing 15,000 HP, shafted to twin screw. Maximum speed: 18 kts. Other: 2 torpedo launches carried. 6 searchlights. Trials speed: Prince of Wales: 18.6 kts. Queen: 18.2 kts. Crew: 750 (as flagship, 789). Cost: An even £1M apiece at 1904 values. Ships in class: Queen · Prince of Wales
The Prince of Wales at dock in Portsmouth. She surely had associatiions with King Edward VII's son George, the future King and an active Navy officer. Of course the King himself had been Prince of Wales for more than 40 years, waiting out the momentous reign of his mother, Queen Victoria, of happy memory.
Elevation plan of the Queen class, a later design from the prolific quill of Sir William H. White, Britain's DNC from 1885-1905, who more than any other defined the pre-dreadnought era.
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At right is a view of HMS Formidable, name ship of a 3-ship class completed 1900-02, and nearly identical to the Queens; only the arrangement of fighting and fire-control tops on the masts appears different compared to the Prince of Wales in 1912; comparison of specifications reveals few substantive differences other than in the protection; the Formidable group had an armor belt of 216' length with a 2" thick continuation to bow and stern, whereas on the Queens the belt was extended a further 84 feet toward the bow. All the Formidables -- and the 3-ship London class (London, Bulwark, and Venerable) which came the following year -- were boilered entirely with Belleville water-tube boilers. With 37,000 sf of heating surface, all provided steam at 300 psi, reduced to a working pressure of 250 psi for the engines.
Of particular note in this photo is the excellent view of the armored conning tower at the forward extremity of the superstructure, just under the wheelhouse. The slit clearly visible here would have been the only means for visual sighting to conn the ship in battle. The lighting on this shot also brings out the peculiar opposed-axes placement of the two funnels, standard in the British fleet from the Canopus class onwards. In this view, Formidable is tied up at the provisioning docks at Portsmouth; the cranes used for hoisting supplies on board loom in the background, but do not block this very clear view of a crack pre-dreadnought in her prime. Ships in class: Formidable · Irresistible · Implacable.
As a special feature, BigBadBattleships.com offers a full system description and diagrams of a 12"/40 cal Mk IX turret/barbette ensemble as installed in Formidable. Click here for pictures and discussion of the guns, mountings, and ammo handling systems. Click here for an overview of battleship gunnery in the ironclad and pre-dreadnought eras.
Formidable was to be a sacrifice to the war gods, the first British pre-dreadnought to be sunk during the War (though HMS Audacious, a brand-new superdreadnought, hit a mine off Lough Swilly and sank in the first month of the War. So sensitive was this loss considered that news of the mishap was suppressed until after the 1918 Armistice.) Formidable was torpedoed while cruising with her squadron in the Channel, January 1, 1915, and sank off Portland Bill. Not too unusually for this early period of the War, the 5th Battle Squadron underestimated the danger posed by U-boats; contrary to orders, no antisubmarine precautions had been taken. All 4 battleships in the squadron were steaming in line ahead, without zigzagging, at a rather slow 11 knots, making them an easy mark for U-24. The loss of 547 out of Formidable's 731 crewmen made all of Britain wince; and the commanding admiral was dismissed in disgrace.
A Formidable Class Portfolio
HMS Formidable in battleship grey paint, around 1906.
The White Ensign streaming majestically at the gaff, HMS Implacable surges past the Citadel at Malta, leaving lateen-rigged country craft bobbing in her wake.
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