St Vincent class battleship - HMS Collingwood

From SN Guides

The name Collingwood

The Royal Navy has had three ships and one shore establishment named collingwood, they were named after Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood the 1st Baron Collingwood. Collingwood had a long career in the RN Notably he was present at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1797 as Captain of HMS Excellant. at Trafalgar now Admiral he was in HMS Royal Sovereign -leader of the second line of British ships ( Victory led the other). On Nelson's death he assumed overall command of the fleet. A great Seaman he died of cancer on board the Ville de Paris, off Port Mahon, on 7 March 1810.

Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood the 1st Baron Collingwood.

The first Collingwood appeared in 1841 and was an 80-gun second-rate battleship, she was converted to screw driven steam propulsion in 1861, and sold in 1867. The second ship was an Admiral class battleship built between 188o and 1887 and was scrapped in 1909, the third ship was the subject of this article. The fourth Collingwood was a shore base or 'Stone Frigate' a Marine warfare School opened in January 1940 collingwood carries the name forwards to today. In 2007 HMS Dryad closed with its operations transferred to Collingwood

Class information

The St Vincent class were a follow on of the preceding Bellerophon class and because they were very different from the following single ship class, Neptune, they can be considered the final development ,as a class, of the Dreadnought. They were followed by the single ship class the Neptune were the first super-firing turrets in a Royal navy battleship were fitted, the wing turrest were also staggered in this class allowing, in theory, a ten gun broadside. The new gun , a 50 calibre (C50) 12”, made it’s appearance in this class, the earlier Dreadnoughts had the 45 calibre weapon (C45). The new gun being 5 calibres or 5 feet longer needed a re-working of the basic design in the area of X and Y turrets to allow room for the longer weapon, there were slight modifications to the armour with an increase in thickness of the armoured deck but the deck below this was reduced in thickness so the overall effect was a negligible increase in protection. The machinery no longer had a separate cruising turbine in an attempt to improve the rather poor fuel consumption of the class, particularly when cruising, otherwise the class were identical to the Bellerophon’s, the similarity and lack of correction of faults in these ships designs was the direct result of the Dreadnought arms race, the need to out-build any competitor meant that the follow on classes to the Dreadnought were built so quickly after the Dreadnought that there was no time for the design to properly evolve. It would take until the appearance of the Orion class in 1912 to make a start on these design defects, up until the appearance of the dreadnoughts the old idea of naval gunnery was little changed from the days of Nelson ; get close and overwhelm the enemy with the sheer weight of shell fired hence the need for a thick armoured belt on the side of the ship and the Royal Navy’s emphasis on the rate of fire. With the advent of heavier guns and longer ranges the old idea of protecting a ship by having a thick armoured belt was no longer sufficient. With the longer ranges the guns that fired the shells were using higher elevations resulting in a higher altitude of flight and thus a steeper angle of descent, or plunging fire, of the shells, to compound this better range finders and the advent of director control of the main battery was further increasing the ranges at which future battles would be fought. Although named Dreadnoughts they now had plenty to worry about in a long range gunnery battle, a plunging shell would easily penetrate their deck armour quite possible resulting in the loss of the ship.

Building data

Collingwood was built by Devonport dockyard being laid down on the 03rd. February 1907, launched on the 07th November 1908 and was commissioned on the 19th. March 1910

HMS Collingwood in 1914 - curtesy of Maritime Quest

Basic Details

L 536’ B 84’ Draft 27’ to 31’03” Displacement 19,250 tons Standard to approx 23,000 tons full load Crew 810 to 820 men.

Machinery

Machinery : Quadruple propellers driven by Parsons direct drive steam turbines in a more or less identical layout to the Dreadnought with the exception that no cruising turbine was fitted instead an extra stage was fitted to the High pressure turbines, this was separated from the main turbine by a by-pass valve. As id the dreadnought and Bellerophon classes the high pressure turbines drove the outboard propeller shafts and the low pressure turbines the inner shafts developing just under 26,000 SHP on trials at 342 Rpm giving a maximum speed of 21.5 knots , normal power was 24,500 HP for 21 knots. Steam was provided by eighteen Babcock and Wilcox boilers arranged in three groups essentially coal fired they were however fitted with oil sprayers to permit faster raising of steam. Steam pressure was 235 psi with a heating surface of 63,414 square feet Bunker capacity was 2,800 tons of coal and 940 tons of oil, consumption at full speed being in the order of 360 tons per day, range was 4,250 miles at 18 knots rising to 6,900 miles at 10 knots

Scan of an undated image of Collingwood, the original image was one of my late fathers and will be dated circa 1910 to 1918 and is now nearing ninety years old and free of copywrite

Armament

Main battery Ten 12” C50 Mk11 guns in five twin turrets in the same layout as the preceding Dreadnought and Bellerophon classes. The New weapon was not a success, now fifty calibres in length the longer barrel was designed to give higher muzzle velocities and thus greater range and hitting power, it used a larger propellant charge of 307 lbs against the earlier 12” guns 258 lbs of MD size 45 cordite. The larger charge did not always burn correctly within the barrel length resulting in a very poor shell spread pattern, also the higher pressures within the gun barrel , something akin to 20-22 tons per square inch, caused serious wear and thus the guns only had a working life of around 220 rounds. Shell weights were the same for the earlier 12 “ guns at 850 to 859 lbs the range was around 21,000 yards at 15 degrees elevation against 19,000 yards for the C45 guns of the earlier classes. As with the preceding classes only eight of the ten guns could be fired on either beam with four or six ahead and six or eight astern, the actual numbers depending on the relative bearing of the target.

Secondary battery Twenty 4” C50 QF Mk7 guns all in single mounts in a mixture of 8 guns in casemates and 12 in open mounts these fired a 31lb shell to 11,500 yards . Four three pounder guns C50 were also carried, these could be used for AA surface or signalling duties, the shell wight was actually 3.3 lbs with a bore of 1.85” range was 5,600 yards with an AA ceiling of 15,000 feet.

Torpedo armament Three below water tubes were fitted for 18 inch Whitehead torpedoes with one firing ahead and one on either beam.

Armour Protection

The armoured protection of the St Vincent class remained very similar to the Dreadnought and Bellerophon classes. The main belt was 10 inches tapering to 8 inches on the lower belt and although of Krupp cemented armour (KCA) this was rather inferior, it was also not carried high enough allowing plunging fire relatively easy access over the top of the belt to the weak deck armour. The armoured bulkheads closing off the citadel were of 8 inches KCA forwards and 5” KCA aft The fore and aft torpedo bulkheads were still set rather too far inboard and were really magazine screens rather than true torpedo bulkheads these ran from the forward end of the forward magazine to the aft end of the after magazine, thickness varied between 1 to 2 inches with 3 inches in way of the mid-ships p and Q turrets.. The deck s were all of Krupp Non Cemented Armour ( KNCA), the upper-deck being ¾. “ The main deck 1 ¾. Inches Middle deck 1 ½. Inches increasing to 3 inches as special protective screens over the magazines , boiler and engine spaces. The gun houses ( turrets) had 11 inch faces and 4 inch roofs all KCA , the forward control tower had 8 inches of KCA and it’s communications tube 5 inches of KCA , whilst the figures for the aft tower were 4 inches also KCA.

Service History

On commissioning in 1910 Collingwood joined the 1st. Battle Squadron (BS) of the Grand Fleet and her time was spent on fleet manoeuvres until she ran aground on an uncharted rock off Ferrol a port in Spain close to Caruna. Post repairs she became flagship of the 1st. BS in June of 1912 and then led the usual un-exciting life of fleet manoeuvres and training until the 31st may 1916 when she took part in the battle of Jutland

At Jutland she was part of the fifth division of the 1st BS led by Rear Admiral Gaunt in Colossus followed by Collingwood, Neptune and St Vincent. As with many ships Collingwood’s opening action at Jutland began when the already disabled German light cruiser the Wiesbaden appeared out of the smoke at 1832 at which time she fired around eight salvos. Later at 1905 she sighted the German destroyers of the 6th and 9th flotillas during their torpedo attack on the Grand Fleet and opened fire with her 4” batteries, this was possibly the disabled V48 or perhaps the G42 which was endeavouring to take her in tow. At 1915 she sighted the German battle-cruisers and opened fire on the Derfflinger at a range of 8,000 yards with HE ( High Explosive)shells, it would seem strange to fire HE at an armoured target but this is the munitions that were in the guns at the time and also in transit to the guns, by the time APC ( Armour Piercing Capped) shells arrived at the guns the target had disappeared in the smoke, although hits were claimed with two of the HE salvos post battle investigation revealed this to be a single hit. At around 1925 Collingwood briefly sighted a German destroyer on her Quarter and engaged with her after 12” turrets with no reported hits, at 1935 she took avoiding action on sighting a torpedo from the attacking destroyers. The 12 “ HE shell from Collingwood hit the Derfflinger on the side of the super-structure and burst inside the sick-bay blowing a hole 18’ by 7’06” wide in the superstructure side, and below the shell burst a hole was also blown in the battery roof deck 5’ by 2’03” and a further 30 feet of the deck was bulged upwards by 6 feet. Below the battery deck the upper deck (5/16”) was bowed down and a 14” hole made by a shell fragment as well as many splinter holes. Above the shell burst the upper superstructure deck had a hole eight feet square blown in it with the remained of the deck bowed upwards for twenty feet. Additionally splinters tore apart cabling and caused a minor amount of damage to two 3.5 inch guns. Collingwood fired a total of 84 rounds of 12” shell, of which 32 were HE and 54 APC she also fired 35 rounds of 4”, she herself received no damage nor personnel injuries. A young officer in A turret during the Jutland battle was Prince Albert, later Duke of York, in 1923 he married Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, at the end of 1936 his brother abdicated and he became King george VI

Post Jutland and over-shadowed by the newer Super-Dreadnoughts with their better armour and superior 13.5 inch guns Collingwood conduct patrols in the North Sea she was assigned as a gunnery training ship in October 1919, she was sold for scrapping in December 1922 under the terms of the Washington Naval treaties, scrapping commenced in 1923.

Collingwood in 1914 taken at the same time as the first photo - also by kind courtesy of Maritime Quest

Article completed 05th October 2007 by Steve Woodward

Bibliography

Bibliography: IWM, Jutland – John Campbell, Jutland - Geoffrey Bennett, Wikipedea - photo of admiral Collingwood, HMS Collingwood shore establishment - http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.266/changeNav/3533 Photos of HMS Collingwood kind courtesy of http://www.maritimequest.com/warship_directory/great_britain/battleships/collingwood/hms_collingwood.htm

St Vincent Class Battleships

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