Bellerophon Class Battleship (1907)

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The Bellerophon class of three dreadnoughts was designed as a follow-up to the revolutionary HMS Dreadnought.

Dreadnought's secondary armament was deemed insufficient to fight close quarter battle with enemy Torpedo Boat Destroyers, and the three ships were given heavier guns. Their internal sub-division was improved to decrease the possibility of sinking from mine or torpedo attack. Unlike Dreadnought the Bellerophon class were given two tripod masts, with two control tops. This was ostensibly to improve sea-keeping capability, but with the main mast just forward of the second funnel, it was frequently inundated with smoke and proved nearly useless in bad weather.

The three ships of the class performed service with the Grand Fleet for much of the First World War, and in 1918 HMS Superb and HMS Téméraire were dispatched to the Eastern Mediterranean for service against the Ottoman Empire. Due to their inferior main armament, all three ships were immediately relegated to non-active duties following the Armistice, and were scrapped during the course of the 1920s.

Name Built at. Machinery by. Laid down Launched Completed Boilers Cost
Bellerophon HM Dockyard, Portsmouth Fairfield 06 December, 1906 27 July, 1907 20 February, 1909 Babcock £1,763,491
Téméraire HM Dockyard, Devonport Hawthorn Leslie 01 January, 1907 24 August, 1907 01 May, 1909 Yarrow £1,641,114
Superb Armstrong, Whitworth & Co. Wallsend Company. 06 February, 1907 07 November, 1907 29 May, 1909 Babcock £1,744,287

Fire Control

Rangefinders

Sometime during or after 1917, an additional 9-foot rangefinder on an open mounting was to be added specifically to augment torpedo control.[1]

Evershed Bearing Indicators

Bellerophon and Téméraire were fitted with this equipment before late 1914, but it is not clear whether Superb was included in this.[2]

Transmitting positions were

  • Fore control platform (transmitters to port and starboard with C.O.S. to select one in use)
  • 'A' turret
  • 'Y' turret
  • Upper aft conning tower

The protocols for handling wooding of the turrets is outlined in the Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1914.[3]

Mechanical Aid-to-Spotter

At some point, the ships in this class were equipped with two Mark I Mechanical Aid-to-Spotters, one on each side of the foretop, keyed off the Evershed rack on the director. As the need for such gear was apparently first identified in early 1916, it seems likely that these installations were effected well after Jutland.[4]

Gunnery Control

The control arrangements were as follows.[5]

Control Positions

  • Fore top
  • Main top
  • 'A' turret
  • 'Y' turret

Some ships had C.O.S.s within the control positions so they could be connected to either TS.[6]

Control Groups

The five 12-in turrets were each a separate group with a local C.O.S.[Inference] so that it could be connected to

  • Forward TS
  • After TS
  • Local control from officer's position within turret

Directors

Main Battery

The ships were completed without a director, but were eventually fitted with a geared tripod-type director in a light aloft tower on the foremast along with a directing gun in 'Y' turret.[7] The battery was not divisible into groups for split director firing.[8]

Secondary Battery

The 4-in guns never had directors installed.[9]

Torpedo Control

Transmitting Stations

Like all large British ships of the era prior to King George V and Queen Mary, these ships had 2 TSes.[10]

Dreyer Table

Each ship was eventually retro-fitted with a Mark I Dreyer table,[11] but was never given Dreyer Turret Control Tables.[12]

Fire Control Instruments

By 1909, all 3 ships were equipped with Barr and Stroud Mark II* Fire Control Instruments for range, deflection and orders.[13]

The Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1909 lists the Barr and Stroud Mark II* equipment on this class as:[14]

  • Combined Range, Order, Deflection: 10 transmitters, 27 receivers
  • Group Switches: 5
  • Rate: 4 transmitters, 16 receivers
  • Bearing: none
  • Range: none

Additionally, this class had the following fire control equipment:[15]

  • Siemens turret fire gongs: 10 with pushes in lamp boxes
  • Fire Gongs: none
  • Graham's Captain's Cease Fire Bells: 15 with 1 key

The ships also had Target Visible and Gun Ready signals, with indications of which turret could see the target and which guns were ready being visible in the TSes and control positions.[16]

In 1911, it was decided that the three ships should be fitted with "range, buzzer and bearing instruments for communication between control positions, control turrets and transmitting and plotting stations."[17]

Alterations

In 1916, it was approved that the ships should have fire control instruments fitted for their 4-in armament. What precisely this means is unclear, but perhaps they did not previously have range and deflection receivers?[18]

See Also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1917, p. 198. (C.I.O. 481/17)
  2. ↑ conspicuously not named in sections in Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1914, pp. 33-9.
  3. ↑ Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1914, pp. 34-5.
  4. ↑ The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, 1919, pp. 25-6.
  5. ↑ Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1914, p. 7.
  6. ↑ Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1914, p. 7.
  7. ↑ The Director Firing Handbook, 1917. pp. 88, 142.
  8. ↑ The Director Firing Handbook, 1917. p. 88.
  9. ↑ absent from list in The Director Firing Handbook, 1917. p. 143.
  10. ↑ Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1914, pp. 6-7.
  11. ↑ Handbook of Capt. F.C. Dreyer's Fire Control Tables, p. 3.
  12. ↑ absent from list in Handbook of Capt. F.C. Dreyer's Fire Control Tables, p. 3.
  13. ↑ Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1909, p. 56.
  14. ↑ Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1909, p. 58.
  15. ↑ Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1909, p. 58.
  16. ↑ Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1914, p. 11.
  17. ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1911, p. 95.
  18. ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1916, p. 145.

Bibliography

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