King George V Class Battleship - HMS Audacious

From SN Guides

The name Audacious

The first use of Audacious in the Royal navy is recorded in 1785, the actual number of ships using the name is recorded as either three, four or five, depending on whether a captured French sloop Audacieux is included in the list and whether the aircraft carrier is also included..

One of my fathers collection and marked as unknown this is the Audacious and can only be her as a new ship 1913-4

1. The first ship to bear the name Audacious was a 74-gun 3rd rate ship of the line built in 1785 and scrapped in 1815
2. In 1797 a small 14 gun sloop named Audacieux was captured from the French and commissioned into the Royal navy as HMS Audacieux she was last listed in 1801.
3. Was a not very successful experimental battleship built at the Napier shipyard on the Clyde in 1989-90, she was a single ship of class and was converted to a depot ship and renamed Fisgard in 1902 and further converted to a repair ship and renamed again becoming the Imperieuse in 1914, she was finally scrapped in march 1927.
4. Is the KGV class battleship and the subject of this article
5. Was the name ship of the Audacious class of aircraft carriers but just two months before her launch in January 1946 she was renamed the Eagle (R05).

The name Audacious may well come back into use in 2012 as one of the astute class of submarines.

Class information

The four ships of the King George V class of the 1910 building program were to have been repeat Orion class , but the battle-cruiser Lion had been completed in May 1912 with her foremast ahead of the fore funnel, this proved to be a far better arrangement than that in the Orion’s were it was behind the funnel so the Orion plan was modified and the mast placed ahead of the fore funnel producing a new and much improved class of battleship, this must be a rare case where a battle-cruiser influenced the design of a battleship. The first two ships of the class, KGV and the Centurion were initially fitted with pole type foremasts but the advent of director firing needed a more substantial mast and they were refitted with heavier tripod masts although this refit in KGV herself did not occur until 1918, the Audacious and Ajax were fitted with tripod masts from the outset. Although the Orion and KGV classes were very similar the position of the mast easily distinguishes the two types. It was widely known that the 4” secondary guns of these ships, (and all preceding Dreadnought types) were far too light to deal with the newer and larger torpedo boats and destroyers that were appearing on the scene but the change to 6” guns would have added 2,000 tons to weight and increased the cost substantially so the Liberal Government of the day vetoed this improvement on the grounds of trying to keep the naval budget down.

Building data

Ordered under the 1910 naval estimates Audacaious was built by Cammell Laird Limited of Birkenhead, Merseyside England , she was laid down on the 23rd, March 1911 and launched on the 14th. september 1912. She commissioned into the Ist Division of the Second Battle squadron ( 2BS) on the 21st October 1913.

Basic Details

Length 597'09" Beam 89'01" Draft 28'08" displacement 23, 000 tons standard and 25,700 tons full load

Machinery

The machinery arrangement for the King George V class was very similar to that of the earlier Orion class with quadruple propellers being driven by Parsons direct drive steam turbines. 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. The boilers of greater power remained in three groups of six with eighteen Yarrow boilers in total, although coal fired oil spraying equipment was fitted for quickly raising steam. The normal power for Audacious was 31,000 SHP giving 21 knots, her trials data is as yet unknown.

Bunker capacity was up to 3,180 tons of coal and 800 tons of oil, this gave a range of 6,370 miles at 10 knots.

Finding details of the machinery layout of these old ships is quite daunting, I obtained details of the layout from studying a minute plan with a magnifying glass, the details are as accurate as I can get them for the moment SW 05 Nov 2007

Armament

Main battery

Ten 13.5" C45 Mk5 guns were carried in five twin turrets all on the centre line with B and X superfiring over A and Y turrets , Q turret sited amidships was the only one with restricted firing arcs although B and X were still restricted from firing directly over A & Y due to the very real possibility of muzzle blast entering the lower turrets sighting hoods which were still placed in the forward ends of the turret roofs, because of this B & Y guns were restricted from firing over from right ahead / astern to 30 degrees either side.

The main battery of the KGV class was very similar to that of the preceeding Orion class battleships. Britain had learnt from the rather poor performance of the high velocity 12" C50 gun fitted to the St Vincent, Neptune and Colossus classes that higher velocity was not the answer to greater range and hitting power, the answer lay in a heavier shell. The 13.5" gun which had reappeared in the Royal navy after a gap of many years, and was first fitted in the Orion class, was an excellent weapon with very good range, accuracy and hitting power, it also had a good safety margin allowing it to fire a heavier shell, the increase from the 1260lb early shells fired by the Orions to the 1410 lbs heavy shell did not increase the range even though the propellant charge was now four quarter charges of almost 106 lbs of MD450 (rod based) cordite, the gun still had a maximum range of just under 24,000 yards. The barrel construction was of a liner in an inner tube (A) which was wire wound with many miles of flat wire, over this was shrunk a steel jacket, there were problems with wire winding, the barrel could droop and it is often quoted that the german solid guns were better made. Solid guns took a lot longer and much more machining to make whereas the wire wound gun was much quicker in manufacture. With a navy with such a large number of weapons speed of manufacture was of the essence and the Royal Navy never had supply problems for replacement barrells that the German navy had. There were five main magaines and an associated shell room, each serving it's own gun, there were 112 rounds for each gun so each magaine would hold 896 106lb quarter charges of cordite a total of 474,880 lbs of explosive and a total of 1,120 shells weighed 1,568,000 lbs or 700 tons. The excellent barrel life of 400 rounds for the lighter shell was reduced to 220 rounds, which was still good.

Secondary battery

Sixteen 4" C50 Mk8 guns were carried, mainly in casemate mounts, and mainly in the forward end of the vessel, most of the guns were mounted in the deck houses, but four of these guns were mounted in hull casemates forwards below the focsle deck and found to be useless in any kind of sea so were removed in 1915 reducing the battery to 12 guns, although these guns were a bit ineffectual in size the deck-house mounted weapons could at least be used in most weathers. Although the destroyers of the day were increasing in size and the range at which torpedoes could be fired was increasing the Liberal government of the day was trying to save weight and thus money the 6" secondary battery that was predicted and needed for the KGV class was never fitted. The class were also fitted with four 3 pounder signalling guns and in 1915 she was fitted with an extra pair of 4" HA AA guns on the quarter-deck.

Torpedo armament

Three 21" submerged torpedo tubes were fitted with one on either beam and the third fitted in the stern, the torpedoes carried were the 21" Mk2 with a 515lb explosive charge of TNT. At 45 knots they had a range of just 4,500 yards rising to nearly 11,000 yards at 30 knots.

Armour Protection

The armour scheme of the KGV's was basically that of the orions but with slight improvements but by no means good, failings were still there. The relatively narrow beam of British capitals ships to maintain high speeds restricted the under water protection which was certainly deficient in comparison to 'say' comparable German ships, the torpedo (screen) bulkheads were still discontinuous over their length and rather to close to the outer hull but did cover a greater length than those on the Orion class. The side armour belt was, as in the Orion class, carried up to the upperdeck thus protecting the ship a little better from long range plunging shell fire, the Lower belt was of 12" thickness and the upper 8" of Krupp Cemented Armour ( KCA) The transverse armoured bulkheads were of 10" KNC whilst the torpedo bulkheads were a maximum of 3" KNC plate over the magazine and engine room areas but down to 1" in other areas, this defficient underwater protection was destined to let down one of the class leading to her loss.

The barbettes protecting the the turret traing gear and shell/ charge handling spaces was of 10" KNC whilst outside of other armour and tapering to 3" KNC when inside of other armour plating. The Gun houses ( turrets) had 11" faces but the side armour is not recorded, the decks ammounted to a maximum of 4" of non cemented armour over the magazines, machinery and other vulnerable spaces but tapering to just 1" in other areas.

Service History

Audacious sinking with destroyers helping to removing unecessary crew

Audacious being the last of the class to be built joined her sister-ships King George V, Ajax and Centurion and commissioned into the 1st Division of the 2BS on the 21st October 1913, part of the Home Fleet, in 1914 this was renamed the Grand Fleet. Her early life was one of patrols and gunnery exercises. On the 27th October 1914 with the Aufdacious just over a year old she sailed from Lough Swilly, Lough Swilly lies between the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal and northern Donegal and guarded by Fanad and Dunaff Head in Ireland, she was in company with her 3 sisterships and three of the Orion class – Orion, Monarch and Thunderer. Conqueror was in the lead as flagship under Vice Admiral Warrender followed by Ajax, Audacious, King George V, Orion, Monarch and Thunderer at 0845 with the squadron to the northeast of Tory Island a dull thud was felt on the Audacious, there was no indication of an explosion and the order ‘close water-tight doors’ was not given. At the time the ship was turning to port in line with the rest of the ships and so did not notice the list, as she steadied up the list was now noticeable and the order to close the doors was given. The mine had exploded on the port side just forward of the engine room aft bulkhead ,although damage was not severe the rather weak longitudinal torpedo or screen bulkhead had been damaged and was leaking, and water flooding into the port engine room was now leaking into the centre engine room. The enquiry into her sinking blamed the weakness of this bulkhead which is said to have distorted making proper closure of doors valve etc. impossible. With a large port list counter flooding was commenced on the starboard wing compartments, this reduced the list to 10 degrees or so however this counter flooding caused further problems, the compartments counter flooded were causing progressive flooding else-were and the pumps were now struggling. One though on this was that the explosion had weakened the screen bulkheads making watertight closure impossible. With the weather worsening and flooding outside of the armoured citadel getting worse Audacious attempted to return to port but with just the starboard engine room working her maximum speed was just nine knots. A little over an hour after the explosion and the starboard engine room started to flood and all power was lost. It was now decided to evacuate the most of the crew retaining only the essential crew to try and save the ship, the Town class light cruiser Liverpool, a number of destroyers and the Transatlantic liner Olympic – sister to the Titanic removed all but 250 of the crew. Then in an amazing feat of seamanship the Olympic connected up a tow line to the Audacious and attempted to tow her to port but due to the quite rough weather this tow parted, Liverpool next put a line on the injured ship but this line also parted, next to have a go was the collier Thornhill but this also proved an impossible tow. Flooding continued throughout the day and throughout the ship which at least reduced the list, by 1700 only 50 men remained on board the now stricken vessel, at 1815 with the list now increasing the final crew were removed from the ship and at 1850 she was listed at 30 degrees to port, at 1845 she capsized and floated keel upwards , at 1900 there was a very large explosion which was thought to be one of the forward magazines, this was followed by two smaller explosions and Audacious sank.

Audacious was the first capital ship to be sunk in WW1 and her loss was keenly felt, although Britain had many new battleships these were not all commissioned and worked up. The fleet being weaker in fact than on paper. It was perhaps this weakness that made Admiral Jellicoe make the decision to keep the loss secret, a very strange decision given that there were hundreds of American citizens returning to the United States on the Olympic and many with cameras to record the loss. So although Britain kept Audacious in the fleet lists the rest of the world read about her and saw pictures of the sinking, this became a huge joke to the rest of the world and greatly damaged the British Governments credibility. Owing to this absurd secrecy the wreck of the Audacious was only found in 1995 she lays in 216 feet of water, with the top of the wreck at 190 feet, some 15 miles off Malin Head. The wreck's GPS position is 55 28.291 North by 07 45.101 West. As there were no casualties in the sinking there is no problem exploring this wreck but the area is littered with munitions up to 13.5” calibre and due to the weather and depth it is considered a dive only for the very experienced.

This picture courtesy of wkipedia shows the audacious sinking and perhaps during the final reduction in crew from 250 to 50 men

The mine that sank Audacious was laid by a converted German liner Berlin, formerly owned by Norddeutscher Lloyd and later to become the white Star Liner Arabic, under the command of Captain Pfundheller , originally the plan was to lay her cargo of 200 mines in the Irish sea but navigational problems exacerbated by Britain extinguishing coastal lights forced her to change her plans. Instead she laid her deadly cargo in the nearest shipping lane using a V shaped pattern completely un-aware that Lough Swilly was now in use as a temporary naval base, Scapa Flow was having its submarine defenses upgraded and was currently seen as an unsafe anchorage. When she had finished her mine laying Berlin set sail for Norway via Iceland , machinery and fuel problems forced her to be interned in Hommelvik near Trondheim – were she arrived on the 26th October 1914.

Bibliography

Bibliography: IWM,

1. Jutland – John Campbell,
2. Jutland - Geoffrey Bennett,
3. Conway’s 1906-21
4. Wkipedia for the list of previous ships named audacious and the final picture of her sinking

To visit audacious today visit : http://www.deepimage.co.uk/wrecks/audacious/audacious990-article.htm

This article was completed on the 21st November 2007 by Steve woodward