The HMS Iron Duke was a British super-dreadnought battleship launched in 1912; the ships of her class were the third series of
super-dreadnought battleships commissioned by the Royal Navy. The main armament was concentrated in the centerline making use of
superimposed turrets and the tripod mast was placed before the funnel to avoid the nuissance of smoke in the observation post.
These ships compared favorably with the contemporary German battleships of the Konig class because those were armed with main
armament of lesser caliber, however being slightly more armored.
Commissioned as flagship of the Home Fleet in the eves of the First World War, the HMS Iron Duke served as flagship of the Grand
Fleet during the war, taking part in the Battle of Jutland where she inflicted severe damage to the battleship SMS Konig. After
the war, the HMS Iron Duke served as flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet, taking part in the Allied intervention in the Russian
Civil War in the Black Sea and in the Greco-Turkish War. In 1926, she was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, where she served as a
training ship, remaining on active duty for a few more years.
After the London Naval Treaty of 1930 the HMS Iron Duke was disarmed and reconverted into a gunnery training ship, serving this
function until the outbreak of the Second World War, when she was moored in Scapa Flow as a harbor defense ship. After being badly
damaged by German bombers she was ran aground to avoid sinking, and later continued to serve as an antiaircraft platform until the
end of the war, being eventually refloated and broken up for scrap in 1946.
Class: Iron Duke (4 units - Benbow, Emperor of India (ex Delhi), Iron Duke, Marlborough)
Type: Battleship
Length: 189.8 meters
Beam: 27.4 meters
Draught: 10 meters
Displacement (standard): 25000 tonnes
Propulsion: 4 x shaft, 4 x steam turbine Parsons, 18 x boiler Babcock and Wilcox/Yarrow, 30400 horsepower
Speed: 21.6 knots (40 kilometers/hour)
Range: 7800 nautical miles (14445 kilometers) at 10 knots
Fuel: 1020-1630 tonnes of coal and 1070-1630 tonnes of petrol
Complement: 925 (1022 in wartime)
Armament: 10 x 343-millimeter 45-caliber cannon, 12 x 152-millimeter 50-caliber cannon, 2 x 76-millimeter cannon, 4 x 47-millimeter cannon,
4 x 533-millimeter torpedo tube
Armor: 203-305 millimeters in belt, 63-152 millimeters in ends, 32-51 millimeters in upper deck, 38 millimeters in middle deck,
25-63 millimeters in lower deck, 178-258 millimeters in barbettes, 102-279 millimeters in main turrets, 51-152 millimeters in battery
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