H.M.S. Inflexible (1907)

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H.M.S. Inflexible (1907)
Pendant Number: 83 (1914)
75 (Jan 1918)
47 (April, 1918)[1]
Builder: John Brown, Clydebank
(Ship no. 374)[2]
Laid down: 5 Feb, 1906[3]
Launched: 26 Jun, 1907[4]
Commissioned: Oct, 1908[5]
Sold: 1 Dec, 1921[6]
Fate: Scrapped


Construction and Acceptance

When in December 1906 Indomitable's anchor and hawsepipe arrangements seemed problematic in mock-up, Lusitania was fitting out in Clydebank, and it was observed that she had a more elegant plan. It was mimicked for Inflexible and Indomitable.[7]

Construction Costs, pounds Sterling[8]
Hull and fittings 785,512
Propelling and Machinery 467,976
Hydraulics and Air Compressing 311,696
Gun mountings 12,824
Total 1,578,373

The ship's heavy gun mountings were manufactured by Vicker's, whereas her sisters' were by Armstrong's. Inflexible's guns were criticised for "poor training control . The creep is not at all good; the turrets to do not start or stop with precision, the reversal of direction of training is erratic," and a pointed contrast made with the same fittings in the other ships. Moreover, the fire control arrangements were not ready by the time of the gun tests.[9]

Alterations

By November, 1909, Inflexible had her training engines' control machinery altered from the original combination of a two-position lever for direction and a hand-wheel operated "creep valve" to control the speed of traversal to a hand wheel which controlled both functions and made operation much less clumsy and permitted a training rate of 3 degrees per second, albeit requiring three full turns of the wheel to get there.[10]

In 1913, Inflexible was slated as part of the seventeen ship order to receive a director. It was fitted sometime between December, 1915 and the Battle of Jutland.[11]

Captains

Dates of appointment are provided when known.

See Also

Footnotes

  1. Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 35.
  2. Clydebank Battlecruisers. Footers.
  3. Clydebank Battlecruisers. p. 15.
  4. Clydebank Battlecruisers. p. 16.
  5. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. p. 24.
  6. Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 35.
  7. Johnston. p. 16.
  8. Johnston. p. 16.
  9. Johnston. p. 16.
  10. Brooks. Dreadnought Gunnery and the Battle of Jutland, pp. 45-46.
  11. The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, pp. 9-11.
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 Roberts. Battlecruisers. p. 122.
  13. The Navy List (December, 1914). p. 337.
  14. The Navy List (October, 1915). p. 395a.
  15. The Navy List (November, 1916). p. 394r.
  16. The Navy List (December, 1918). p. 820.
  17. The Navy List (August, 1919). p. 820.

Bibliography


Invincible Class Battlecruiser
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