H.M.S. Gorgon (1914)

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H.M.S. Gorgon
Career Details
Pendant Number: N.51
Builder: Armstrong, Elswick
Ordered: 1912
Laid down: 11 June, 1913
Launched: 9 June, 1914
Commissioned: 11 September, 1918
Lost: 16 September, 1918
Fate: Sunk by internal explosion
General Characteristics
Displacement (normal): 4,825 tons
Length: 290 feet
Beam: 74 feet
Draught: 16 feet 4 inches
Propulsion: 2 Shaft Triple Expansion, 4,000 shp. 4 Yarrow boilers
Speed: 13 knots
Range:
Complement: 303
Armament:
  • 2 × BL 9.2"/50 Elswick Pattern 'E' guns in single Mark IX mountings
  • 6 × BL 6"/49 Mark XVIII guns in single Mark IV mountings

H.M.S. Gorgon was an ex-Norwegian coast defence battleship which was purchased while building in Britain by the Royal Navy during the First World War for use as a monitor. Originally to have been named the Nidaros, the Gorgon was so heavily modified and her completion deemed such a low priority that she missed most of the war. To her fell the duty of firing the last rounds on the German-held Belgian coast.

Construction

The Nidaros was ordered from Armstrong's in Elswick in January, 1913. She was launched on 9 June, 1914 by Madame Vogt, the wife of the Norwegian Minister to Great Britain.

Alterations

Gorgon's main and second-battery directors were installed by the time she joined the fleet, specifically June 1918.[1]

In Command

Footnotes

  1. The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, 1919, p. 15.

Bibliography

Template:Gorgon Class (1913)