HMS Indomitable (1907)
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HMS Indomitable was an Invincible-class battlecruiser, basically a smaller sized replica of the revolutionary Dreadnought. She was the first of her type of ship, a battlecruiser, and like the Dreadnought, the class effectively turned every other cruiser obsolete.
The ship had been designed concurrently with the Dreadnought, and so when all four ships commissioned into the Royal Navy, a ripple of pride swelled the Fleets of His Majesty King George V, not to mention the people of the United Kingdom at that times. It seemed Britannia really did rule the waves.
The production of these battlecruisers was ultra secret, indeed the secrecy led to the Germans countering the Invincible class with merely an armoured cruiser, what they believed would be an almost equal type of ships to counter the Invincibles. What could potentially have been a potent ship, the SMS Blucher, lacked dangerously in firepower, a decision that would later result in its sinking in 1915 at the Battle of Dogger Bank with the lost of over 700 men. Though just like Blucher, the Invincibles themselves had their own deficienies that would prove equally tragic for Invincible.
Their larger size and smaller displacement compared to Dreadnought as well as their distinct lack of armour made her vulnerable to engaging a number of larger, even smaller warships, and the likelihood was that the class would face the Germans Fleet in battle one day, and so come up against Germany's most powerful warships.
Her builders were Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd, at Govan, and she was laid down in 1906, being launched relatively quickly the following year. She was commissioned in 1908 along with Inflexible, though the nameship, Invincible was not commissioned until 1909. In 1909, Indomitable embarked His Majesty King George V on a record trip to Canada and back. In 1910, at the Review of the Combined British Fleets off Spithead, the world truly had their first glance at these truly imposing ships.
At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Indomitable, part of the British Mediterranean Fleet, was involved in the pursuit of Goeben and Breslau. Indomitable's first engagement came in November 1914. She, along with the newer battlecruiser Indefatigable and the obsolete French battleships Suffren and Verite bombarded the Turkishs forts of Sedd-al-Bahr and Kum Kale. The attack was successful, but only just. The success increased the confidence of the Admiralty of the ability of warships to attack and defeat shore batteries, though this confidence would prove not to be foresighted, for in 1915 shore batteries wrecked havoc among a number of battleships and battlecruisers during the Dardanelles Campaign in 1915.
At the Battle of Jutland, Indomitable, under the command of Captain F.W. Kennedy was part of the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron, which comprised the two other ships of the her class.
Indomitable was placed into Reserve in 1919 and subsequently paid off in 1920 and scrapped in 1922 due to the Washington Treaty. The other remaining ship of the class, Inflexible, was also paid off in 1920 and scrapped in 1922.
Class Statistics
- Displacement: 17,420 tons standard/20,135 tons full load
- Length: 567 ft (173 m)
- Beam: 78 ft (23.8 m)
- Draught: 26 ft (7.9 m)
- Armament: 8 x 12 inch (305 mm) guns, 12 x 4 inch (102 mm) guns, 5 x 18 inch (457 mm) submerged torpedo tubes
- Complement: 784
- Speed: 25.5 knots (47 km/h)
- Propulsion: Steam turbines, 31 x Yarrow boilers, 4 shafts, 41,000 hp (31 MW)