Lion class battlecruiser
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| Lion-class | 
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| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 26,250 tons standard/29,680 tons full load (Lion and Princess Royal), 26,540 tons standard/31,400 tons full load (Queen Mary) |
| Length: | 700 ft (213 m), 703 ft (214 m) for Queen Mary |
| Beam: | 88.6 ft (27 m), 89 ft (27.1 m) for Queen Mary |
| Draught: | 27.5 ft (8.4 m), 28 ft (8.5 m) for Queen Mary |
| Propulsion: | Parsons geared steam turbines, 4 shafts, 42 boilers, 70,000 shp (52 MW), 75,000 shp (56 MW) for Queen Mary |
| Speed: | 27.5 knot (51 km/h) |
| Range: | 5610 nautical miles (10,390 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h) |
| Complement: | 997 1,267 |
| Armament: | 8 x 13.5 in (343 mm) guns, 16 x 4 in (102 mm) guns, 2 x 21 in (533 mm) submerged torpedo tubes, 1 x 4 in (102 mm) gun was removed from Princess Royal |
The Lion class was a three ship class of battlecruisers of the Royal Navy, and were a battlecruiser design of the Orion-class battleships, the first "super-dreadnought", and were intended to solve the problems of their predecessors, the Indefatigable-class, who suffered from poor armoured protection. To attain their high speed of 27 knots (50 km/h), the Lions too had to do away with much of their armour protection, considering their length was increased by over two hundred feet compared to their predecessors, it was a risky decision. The ships were also the first battlecruisers to be armed with the fairly new 13.5 inch (343 mm) by Vickers.
The first two ships of the "Splendid Cats", were commissioned in 1912. In 1913, Queen Mary was commissioned, being given more armour protection, though still not enough, and was heavier in tonnage. Though sometimes seen as separate from the Lions, she is commonly seen as the third ship of the Lion-class and is therefore included here.
The ships were very bloodied during the battle of Jutland in 1916, Lion coming very close to blowing up, indeed, sadly, Queen Mary blew up and sunk, just nine survived the devastating explosion that ripped her apart. It was after that explosion that Vice-Admiral David Beatty, in Lion, is noted to have said "There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today".
The ships did not fight a major action again in World War I and, due to the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, the two surviving ships lives came to a premature end and were scrapped that year.
| Lion-class battlecruiser |
| Lion | Princess Royal | Queen Mary |
| List of battlecruisers of the Royal Navy |