Erin Class battleship - HMS Erin

From SN Guides

The name Erin

Erin in 1916, X turret is seen trained fully round to starboard and is either on, or very close to, the training stops. The focsle deck position of Q ( midships) turret can be clearly seen in this freely available picture.

Erin is an Anglo-Irish form of the name Eirinn, The battleship Erin is the first use of the name within the Royal Navy , a second ship used the name built in 1933 as the trawler Erin of 394 tons displacement, she was requisitioned by the navy in 1940 as an anti-submarine trawler and named HMS Erin, she was sunk along with the trawler HMS Hojo by an under-water explosive device planted by Italian frogmen on the 18th January 1942 with the loss of two of her crew, the name has not been used since.

Class information

Erin was a single ship of her class, she was basically a follow on design of the British battleship classes the Orion’s and King George V classes, being laid down immediately after HMS Audacious , she was ordered by the Turkish Government from Vickers in 1911, to be named Reshadieh and later renamed Reshad V, she was laid down in the December of 1911 and launched on the 03rd September 1913, construction carried on as normal until the assination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand 0n the 28th June 1914. With the threat of war looming the British Government now asked for her finishing to be delayed, with the sea trials over and her crew already in the UK the British Government was now very worried about which side Turkey would take, Britain’s or Germany’s, the worry was that the Rashad V and another battleship being built for Turkey, the Sultan Osman 1, would end up fighting with the Germans against the Royal navy. On the out-break of war on the 04th August 1914 Churchill, then First Sea Lord, ordered the seizure of both ships, this caused immensely bad feelings in Turkey as The Reshad V had been paid for largely by public subscription and if nothing this inevitable action ensured that Turkey would side with Germany in the war. Although appearing very similar to the Royal Navy KGV class battleships Erin had three distinctive features – Q turret, the midships gun was mounted one deck higher at foc’sle deck level, the tripod foremast had its bracing legs facing forwards, and the two funnels were mounted closer together just behind the foremast, they were also round whereas the KG’s were elongated with flat sides.

An undated but possibly early shot of HMS Erin

Basic Details

L 559’06” B 91’07” Draft 28’05” Displacement 22,780 tons standard and 25,250 tons full load, the standard displacement is for a ship fully stored, with water in her circulating systems but minus storage water and fuel. Her crew in RN service numbered 1070 men.

Although similar in looks to the KGV class Erin was almost forty feet shorter and whereas the width of British battleships was dictated by the width of British Naval dry-docks Erin was not limited by this factor being two and a half feet wider, this meant she would have to be dock in a civilian yard. This restriction in the beam of British capital ships was short sighted as narrower ships meant less width for torpedo defences, Britain would have been far better served in either using civilian ship yards for it’s major ships or building new dry-docks.

Building data

Erin was laid down by Vickers at their Barrow-in-Furness yard in December 1911 and launched on the 03rd September 1913

This freely avaiable image of Erin shows her in 1918 launching an observation balloon

Machinery

Quadruple screws driven by Parsons direct drive steam turbines in a more or less identical arrangement to British ships The machinery spaces were split into three with the inboard shafts leading to the centre engine room and the outer shafts the port and starboard wing engine rooms. The two inboard shafts were driven by the high pressure ahead and astern turbines with the ahead turbines having an extra stage for cruising, this was separated from the main turbine by a bypass valve. The outer shafts were driven by the ahead and astern low pressure turbines, for cruising the out board turbines would be shut down , the ship relying on the inboard shafts alone. Steam was supplied by fifteen Babcock and Wilcox coal fired boilers, these were fitted with oil sprayers to give extra power for high speed steaming. Developed power was 26,500 SHP which gave 21 knots, only a fraction slower than her comtempories however her lower bunker capacity of just 2,120 tons of coal and 710 tons of oil ( the KGV’s carried 3150 tons of coal) gave her a rather short range of 5,300 miles at 10 knots which was fine for her intended service in the Mediterranean but was rather to low for the North Atlantic.

Armament

Main battery

Erin was the last battleship in the Royal Navy to carry the 13.5” gun, she was also the 13th ship to do so, the guns fitted to Erin were slightly different from those fitted to the rest of the ships and were designated the Mk6 gun , it’s construction was identical to the other weapons being of wire winding over a steel inner-tube with a shrunk on cover, it fired the same shell as the slightly earlier British Mk5H gun, that is the 1,400 lb Armour Piercing (AP) round and used the same 297lb cordite charge, but had a slightly lower muzzle velocity and hence a slightly shorter range – 23,000 yards against 24,000 yards for the Mk5H, this is not really significant as this was generally outside accurate gunfire range, the lower velocity would be beneficial in reducing wear of the gun liner and the Mk6 had a very good wear rate of about 300 rounds before the gun would need relining, the calibre of the guns, C45, was also the same as the British gun Erin mounted ten guns in five twin turrets, there was however one problem, just ten guns had been made for Erin and should a gun need replacing for relining then a British Mk5 weapon would have to be fitted in it’s place, the different muzzle velocity and range of the British gun meant that to match it’s Mk6 sisters it would have to have a slightly reduced cordite charge to avoid firing an uneven broadside. The rate of fire was between one and two rounds per minute with approximately 110 rounds per gun being carried, each gun weighed about 77 tons and the weight of a complete twin turret was in the order of 600 tons. An easy way to tell Erin from her similar British counterparts was Q turret, on Erin this was mounted one deck higher at foc’sle deck level

This image courtesy of the martimeQuest website shows Erin in 1917

Secondary battery It was in the secondary battery that the Erin was a great improvement over the KGV class, on which she was based, the KGV’s had a secondary battery of sixteen 4” guns whereas Erin mounted sixteen 6” once again these guns were unique to the Erin designated the Mk9 they had a higher muzzle velocity than similar British guns and thus a slightly greater range, however they fired the same 100lb shell and used a 33lb charge to attain a range of 14,500 yards at an elevation of 15 degrees, this low elevation and the fact that all the singly mounted guns were in casemates below the foc’sle deck meant that these were single purpose guns meant only to repulse attack by torpedo craft and could not be used against aircraft, as in ships built for the Royal Navy these casemate mounted guns were rather low in the hull and thus very wet at sea and certainly the forward guns, if not all would be unusable with any kind of a sea running. Rate of fire was about six rounds a minute with approximately 150 rounds per gun being carried.

In addition six 6 pounder C42 guns were mounted on single open pedestal mounts, sometimes referred to as the 6 pounder Hotchkiss gun of a little over a 2” bore they were used for saluting but were also intended for use against small surface craft and in an AA role, they obviously fired a six pound shell at a rate of about 18 rounds per minute with a maximum range of 8 to 9 thousand yards and an AA ceiling of 9 to 10 thousand feet but a maximum elevation of 60 degrees limited their usefulness. Two designated HA AA 3” C50 Mk1 guns were carried, these were also referred to as the 3” 20cwt gun, were fitted on single pedestal mounts , firing a shell of 13 lbs they had a range of about 14,000 yards and an AA ceiling of about 30,000 feet.

Torpedo armament

Erin was fitted with four submerged type 21” torpedo tubes, two on either beam, with two forward of A turret and two aft of Y turret

Armour Protection

Whilst she was compatible or slightly better armoured than her foreign contemporaries she was slightly deficient compared to similar British ships her main armoured belt was 12” thick with a 4” upper belt, this belt was also rather shallow, the armoured bulkheads closing off the armoured citadel were 8” tapering to 4”, her barbettes were 10” outside of other armour and reducing to 3” when inside of other armour. Turret faces were of 11” and the decks typically for the age did not address the risk of plunging fire at 3” over magazines and machinery spaces and tapered to 1.5” in other areas. Erin had one advantage over her British contemporaries, she had a continuous anti torpedo bulkhead running the length of the ship between A and Y turrets although I have no knowledge of how thick this defence was, but it was better than the discontinuous screen bulkheads fitted to the likes of the King George V class ships.

This image freely available from the US NH website shows Erin in drydock, it is undated and does not give a location but I think this is Cromarty

Service History

On her commissioning Erin joined the 4th battle Squadron ( 4BS) of Grand Fleet on the 05th September 1914 but within a month had moved to the 2BS, she was a Chatham based ship but actually worked out of Scapa Flow her first CO being the Honourable Victor Stanley a rather lapse CO who left the running of his ship to the Commander Reginald Guy Hannan Henderson, later Admiral Sir Reginald Guy Hannan Henderson, Third Sea Lord, a most efficient and popular commander, under his watchful eye Erin achieved a high degree of efficiency. Reggie Henderson as he was known had a relaxed attitude to spit and polish and was not so concerned with how the ship looked but how she fought, and she fought well. On the 31st May 1916 Erin took part in the battle of Jutland as part of the 1st Division of the 2nd battle squadron (1D2BS) based on Cromarty the division was lead by the King George V flying the flag of Sir Martyn Jerram, Vice Admiral 2BS, Captain F.L. Field, she was followed by Ajax Capt. G.H. Baird, Centurion Capt. M. Culme-Seymour and in the rear Erin Capt. VA Stanley, the 1D2BS was on the far eastern side of the British fleet and was thus furthest away from the action and Erin in the rear further still from the action, the majority of the action being fought by the ships on the western end of the battle line, Erin did not fire her armament at all in the battle so Reggie Hendersons battle training was for nought. At the end of WW1 Erin joined the 3BS of the newly formed Home Fleet but this was only a short commission, in October 1919 she was placed in reserve, In December that same year she was placed in commission once more as a gunnery drill ship at Chatham, following this duty she was placed in reserve again becoming flagship of the Nore reserve fleet in March 1920, given a reprieve from the scrap-yard she was refitted in July-August 1920 with the intention of retaining her post the 1921 Washington Naval Treaty however this was reversed and Thunderer took over her duties as training ship and Erin went back into reserve, In may 1922 she was placed on the disposal list, on the 19th December 1922 she was sold for scrap, to which yard she went seems to be lost in the sands of time should anyone know her fate please let me know

Bibliography

Bibliography:

1. IWM,
2. Jutland – John Campbell,
3. Jutland - Geoffrey Bennett,
4. Conway’s 1906-21

Article completed 11th march 2008 by Steve Woodward

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