King George V class Battleship - HMS Ajax

From SN Guides

The name Ajax

Ajax taken on the 12th June 1923 - although the location is not given she still in the Mediterranean at this time, the two 4" HA AA guns installed on the quarter deck in 1915 are very evident in this picture - picture courtesy of MaritimeQuest'

There were two Mythological Greek heroes named Ajax - Ajax the Great and Ajax the lesser, the lesser Ajax was King locriois's son a Trojan war hero and Ajax the greater was also a hero of the Trojan war and the son of Telamon and Periboea - Homer describes him of Great stature so it is probably Ajax the great that HMS Ajax is named after.

There have been eight ships in the Royal navy to bear the name but it is probably the seventh that springs to anyones mind when recalling the name, she was the cruiser of the Battle of the River Plate fame.

1. was a third rate ship of the line bearing 74 guns built in 1767 and scrapped in 1785
2. Was another 74 gun third rater, a veteran of Trafalgar she was built in 1798 and destroyed by fire, just two years after Trafalgar, in 1807. The accidental fire occurred whilst she was on the Dardanelles station.
3. another 74 gun 3rd rater she was built in 1809 converted to steam ( propellor) in 1846 and scrapped in 1864
4. Was a 78 gun second rater, launched in 1835 at Pembroke as the vanguard she was renamed Ajax in 1867 and scrapped in 1875, she was a new type of ship designed by Sir William Symonds who gave his name to these type of hull shapes - Symondite, a feature of which was a very wide beam.
5. Was an iron clad battleship, lead ship of a class of two ships - Ajax and Agammemnon, built between 1876 and 1883, almost 301 feet long she displaced 8500 tons and mounted four 12.5" guns, she was scrapped in 1905
6. Is the subject of this article
7. The most famous Ajax, she was a leander class light cruiser pennant No. C22, launched in 1934, her fame came from her role in the Battle of the River Plate were Commodore Harwoods cruisers of Force G - Exter, Ajax and sistership Achillies engaged the far larger and more heavily armed foe Graf Spee. Hit 7 times she never-the-less inflicted considerable damage on the Graf Spee hereself. decommissioned in 1948 a sale to Thailand fell though and the ship, veteran of many actions, was scrapped in Wales at Newport in late 1949.
8. The final Ajax, F114, to date was a 1962 leander class frigate scapped in 1988.

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

1913 picture of Ajax fitting out at Scotts greenock yard with the liner alaunia in the back ground, A turret is trained out on the port beam. This picture shows the handsome lines of the KGV class very well - picture courtesy of MaritimeQuest

Ordered under the 1910 construction programme Ajax was built by Scotts' Shipbuilding and Engineering limited at their Greenock yard on the River Clyde, she was laid down on the 27th. February 1911 and launched on the 21st. March 1912. She commissioned in to the 2nd. Battle Squadron (BS) of the Home Fleet on the 31st October 1913.

Basic Details

Length 597'09" Beam 89'01" Draft 28'08" displacement 23, 000 tons standard and 25,700 tons full load crew 850 men

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 Babcock and Wilcox boilers in total, although coal fired oil spraying equipment was fitted for quickly raising steam. The normal power for Ajax was 31,000 SHP giving 21 knots accurate dat for her trials has not been located as yet but she is reputed to have achieved just over 21 knots being the slowest of the four ships.

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 and falling to just over 4,000 miles at 20knots.

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 deatails are as accurate as I can get them for the moment SW 21 oct 2007

Armament

Main battery

Ten 13.5" C45 Mk5 guns were carried in five twin Mk3 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.

Although not certain this quite probably an image of the right gun of Ajax Q turret being changed sometime in 1916 post Jutland image is courtesy of SN member - Holystone

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.

Ajax at Port Said in 1923 - image is courtesy of SN member - Holystone

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. The stern torpedo tube was removed in 1916.

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

On commissioning on the 31st October 1913 Ajax joined her sisters as part of the 2nd battle squadron (BS) of the Home fleet, In 1914 she became part of the Grand fleet. Little of note appears to have occurred in her early years, her first action came at Jutland on the 31st may and 01st June 1916, she was with her sisters as the first division part of the 2nd BS. Based at Cromarty, in the lead was HMS King George V flagship of Vice Admiral Sir Martyn Jerram, followed by HMS Ajax Capt. G H Baird, HMS Centurion Capt. M Culme-Seymour with audacious lost to a mine in October 1914 replaced by HMS Erin Capt. VA Stanley. Due to the 2nd BS being on the eastern end of Jellicoes battle line and thus being furthest out from the action the 2nd BS did little at Jutland with the enemy fleet largely being obscured by smoke and mist. Ajax first came to action a little after 1900 the German 1st. Scouting group – SMS’s Lutzow , Derflinger, Seydlitz, Moltke and Von der Tann appeared through the mist and smoke and the Ajax was most likely the first ship to open fire with a single salvo of Common Percussion capped ( CPC) shell at 18,700 yards, this salvo fell short and up 1,000 was ordered but the 4th light Cruiser squadon ( LCS) now obscured the target and fire was checked. This was effectively the end of the action for the Ajax, although taking part in the pursuit of the German High Seas fleet as it now fled for its life to the south she did not engage another target, she had fired just six rounds of 13.5” CPC and did not use her 4” batteries at all. Post Jutland she saw no further action, in late 1918 she was posted to the Mediterranean where in 1919 she supported the White Russians in the Black sea, she remained in the Mediterranean fleet until 1924 when she returned home and into reserve at the Nore. She remained in reserve until 1926 when due to the construction of the Nelson class battleships, Nelson and Rodney, she was placed on the disposal list in 1926 and sold for scrap in November 1926, she was scrapped during 1927 by Alloa Shipbreaking Company of , Rosyth and Charlestown.

Ajax circa 1922, note the wooden flying off platform on topof B turret, when an aircraft is to be flown off metal brackets were clamped to the barrels of the gun and the platform extended to the gun muzzles, having taken off the spotting plane would then have to either crash land in the sea alongside a smaller vessel with the pilot hoping to be picked up, or if fuel permitted, fly to the nearest land where the plane would be returned to the ship by lighter when she was in port. Image provided by SN member Holystone

Article completed by Steve Woodward 20th November 2007

Bibliography

Bibliography: IWM,

1. Jutland – John Campbell,
2. Jutland - Geoffrey Bennett,
3. Conway’s 1906-21
4. pictures are courtesy of MaritimeQuest

http://www.maritimequest.com/warship_directory/great_britain/pages/battleships/hms_ajax_1912.htm