The ships of the King Edward VII class, launched between 1903 and 1905, were the last pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy.
In similarity with the American battleships of the Mississippi class these ships were of the type called "semi-dreadnought", which included
artillery of intermediate caliber to enhance the firepower of the whole ship's battery. As it is logical, the many pre-dreadnought battleships
serving in the world navies took part in the naval actions during the First World War, often enduring the most dangerous tasks; the ships of the King
Edward VII class would not be an exception to this.
The ships of this class spent their service time in the Atlantic Fleet, the Channel Fleet and the Home Fleet. The flagship HMS King Edward VII
resulted sunk in January 1916 when she struck a mine off Cape Wrath. The HMS Britannia was torpedoed and sunk off Cape Trafalgar the 9th November
1918, two days before the Armistice, by the German submarine UB-50, being the last British warship lost in the war. The other ships survived the
war, either performing auxiliary tasks or remaining in the reserve, to be finally sold for scrap in 1921.
King Edward VII class: 8 units - Africa, Britannia, Commonwealth, Dominion, Hibernia, Hindustan, King Edward VII, New Zealand
Type: Battleship
Length: 138.2 meters
Beam: 23.8 meters
Draught: 8.15 meters
Displacement (normal): 16350 tonnes
Propulsion: 2 x shaft, 2 x vertical compound expansion steam engine, coal boilers Babcock and Wilcox/Niclausse, 18000 horsepower
Speed: 18.5 knots (34.3 kilometers/hour)
Range: 5270 nautical miles (9760 kilometers) at 10 knots
Complement: 777
Armament: 4 x 305-millimeter 40/45-caliber cannon, 4 x 234-millimeter 47-caliber cannon, 10 x 152-millimeter 45-caliber cannon,
14 x 76-millimeter cannon, 14 x 47-millimeter cannon, 2 x Maxim machine gun, 5 x 450-millimeter torpedo tube
Armor: 203-229 millimeters in belt, 203-305 millimeters in bulkheads, 25-63 millimeters in deck, 305 millimeters in barbettes,
203-305 millimeters in main turrets, 127-229 millimeters in secondary turrets, 178 millimeters in casemates, 305 millimeters in conning tower
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