HMS Agamemnon (1906)
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | 1904[1] |
| Builder: | William Beardmore and Company Dalmuir |
| Laid down: | 18 May 1905 |
| Launched: | 23 June 1906 |
| Fate: | Sold for breaking up 24 January 1927 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 16,500 tons (17,683t full load) |
| Length: | 443 ft 6 in (135.2 m) |
| Beam: | 79 ft 6 in (24.2 m) |
| Draught: | 26 ft 9 in (8.2 m) |
| Propulsion: | Vertical triple expansion (4 cylinder) engines by Palmers and Hawthorn Leslie to 2 screws. Fifteen Babcock boilers, pressure 275 psi, 16,750 ihp (12,490 kW) |
| Speed: | 18.5 knots (34.3 km/h) |
| Range: | 9,180 nautical miles (17,000 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h) |
| Capacity: | 900-2,171 tons of coal plus 1,090 tons of oil |
| Complement: | 800-817 |
| Armament: |
Four 12 inch 45 cal, 80 r.p.g. (2 × 2) |
| Armour: |
Main belt: 12 inches (amidships), 6-2 inches (forward) |
HMS Agamemnon was one of two Lord Nelson-class battleship launched in 1906 and completed in 1908, at a cost of £1,652,347. She was the Royal Navy's penultimate pre-dreadnought battleship.
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[edit] Construction
HMS Agamemnon was ordered in 1904. It was the first warship order for the Dalmuir Naval Construction Works and was launched in June 1906 before the construction works were themselves completed. With HMS Dreadnought being built at the same time, it was suggested to equip HMS Agamemnon with an all-big-gun armament but the idea was rejected on cost grounds. In fact, some of her 12in guns were taken to build Dreadnought, which delayed her completion somewhat. She was launched by the Countess of Aberdeen in an event which was so significant locally, that two special trains were recruited to transport people from Glasgow to increase the size of the crowd.[2]
Because HMS Dreadnought was launched in February 1906, Agamemnon was considered obsolete by the time she was put to sea. Although she was considered an excellent sea-goer, combining stability and manoeuvrability, she was less successful as a combat vessel. One significant problem was the mixed-gun armament, the feature of pre-dreadnought battleships that was questioned during construction, as it was difficult to distinguish the splashes caused by the 12in and 9.2in shells. As it transpired, this shortcoming did not prove important in battle.
[edit] Career
[edit] Pre-war
HMS Agamemnon spent her peacetime career with the Home Fleet. In 1913 she was assigned to the 4th Battle Squadron.
[edit] World War One
Upon the outbreak of war in 1914, Agamemnon was re-assigned to join her sister-ship (HMS Lord Nelson) in the Channel Fleet.
On 9 February 1915, she was transferred to the Mediterranean in support of the Dardanelles campaign. She arrived off Dardanelles on 19 February during the first bombardment of Ottoman forts and immediately joined the attack. She was also involved in the bombardment of 25 February, the amphibious assault of March 4 and another bombardment of March 6.
One day later, on 7 March, she was sent into the Straits of Dardanelles to bombard forts again, but was hit eight times by heavy shells, including one 14in shell that penetrated the quarter deck, wrecked the ward room and the gun room below it, casualties were light. Damage was also sustained when HMS Agamemnon and her sister-ship formed the spearhead of a disastrous attack on 18 March and were first to enter the straits. They bombarded the forts from long range while other allied ships went in closer. Mines and shells from Ottoman positions caused many casualties, sinking one French pre-dreadnought and two British battleships. Agamemnon survived after only being hit by a dozen 6in howitzer shells. The Gallipoli landings of 25 April were supported by HMS Agamemnon as part of the Fifth Squadron. She remained in the Mediterranean after the battle.
On 2 December 1915 she took part in the destruction of Kavak Bridge and on 5 May 1917 shot down the Zeppelin LZ 85. She was one of only two battleships to remain in the Mediterranean after January 1917 (the other being HMS Lord Nelson), and spent most of the war supporting British forces in the Balkans and at Moudros watching over the German ships SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau. The two German ships finally made their sortie and steamed to Moudros to engage Agamemnon. However, both German ships hit a mine before a single shot was fired. The Breslau sank shortly thereafter.
On 30 October 1918 the Ottoman Empire signed the Armistice of Mudros on board while she was anchored at Lemnos in the Northern Aegean Sea.
[edit] After the War
Form June 1919 to July 1921, HMS Agamemnon was converted at Chatham Dockyard to a radio controlled target ship and used until 1926. She was sold to Cashmore, Newport on 24 January 1927 for scrapping.
[edit] References
- Lord Nelson class battleships
- British Warships 1914-1919, Dittmar, F.J. and Colledge, J.J. Ian Allan, London; (1972), ISBN 0-7110-0380-7
- Roger Chesneau and Eugene M. Kolesnik, ed., Conway's All The Worlds Fighting Ships, 1860-1905, (Conway Maritime Press, London, 1979), ISBN 0-85177-133-5
[edit] External links
- Picture gallery of HMS Agamemnon
- Worldwar1.co.uk info page
- Clyde Built Warships info page
- MaritimeQuest HMS Agamemnon pages
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