H.M.S. Indefatigable (1909)

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H.M.S. Indefatigable (1909)
Pendant Number: 13 (1914)[1]
Builder: Devonport Royal Dockyard[2]
Ordered: 1908 Programme[3]
Laid down: 23 Feb, 1909[4]
Launched: 28 Oct, 1909[5]
Completed: 5 April, 1911[6]
Commissioned: 24 Feb, 1911[7]
Sunk: 31 May, 1916[8]
Fate: at the Battle of Jutland
Completed in 1911, H.M.S. Indefatigable was the first of three battlecruisers in her class. She would be lost to a magazine explosion at the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

Construction

Indefatigable was laid down in Devonport Royal Dockyard on 23 February, 1909 by Mrs. Cross, wife of Vice-Admiral Charles H. Cross, the Admiral Superintendent.[9] She launched on Thursday, 28 October, by Lady Loreburn. Present were a large number of naval, military and local dignitaries. International guests were Captain Koerver, the German Naval Attaché, and Captains Petroff, Vlatkin, and Leskoff of the Imperial Russian Navy cruisers Diana, Aurora and Bogatyr. At five minutes to four, Lady Loreburn christened the ship with a bottle of Australian wine. She then severed a ceremonial cord and to the strains of "Rule Britannia" the Indefatigable went down the slipway.[10] Captain Arthur C. Leveson commissioned the Indefatigable at Devonport on 24 February, 1911.[9]

Service

Indefatigable at Jutland, c. 3pm May 31, 1916.
IWM SP 799

Indefatigable was re-commissioned at Devonport on 17th June, 1913 for service with the First Battle Cruiser Squadron.[11]

Pursuit of Goeben and Breslau

Main article: Pursuit of Goeben and Breslau

Indefatigable, along with the H.M.S. Indomitable, shadowed the German battlecruiser Goeben and light cruiser Breslau on 4 August, 1914 after the German ships had bombarded the French Algerian port of Phillipeville.

Jutland

Official reports

Indefatigable was destroyed by a cordite explosion after receiving hits from the German Von der Tann at approximately 4pm. Only two of her crew survived her cataclysmic end.

Radio

Sometime before 1913, she may have also had a Type 3 Battleship Auxiliary set, but it was to be replaced by a Type 10 Cruiser Auxiliary set.[12]

Boats

In July 1914, the ship was appropriated 42-foot motor launch No. 262, though the boat was not yet delivered from the contractor.[13]

Alterations

In 1913, Indefatigable 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.[14]

In 1910, it was decided that the telaupad control of the secondary battery in Neptune, Indefatigable, Hercules and Colossus should be replaced with Rudolph voicepipes. Other ships in the Home Fleet had also been experimentally fitted, but a report on a final decision was still pending.[15]

Telescopes

In September 1914, Indefatigable and New Zealand were each to be sent eight 3/9 power telescopes and to return the same number of 2.5 power scopes, Pattern G. 329 upon receipt. These were likely to serve as trainer telescopes. Constrained supplies meant that 26% of the scopes actually supplied her may have wound up being 5/12 or 5/21 scopes.[16]

Captains

Dates of appointment are provided when known.

See Also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 35.
  2. ↑ Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. p. 26.
  3. ↑ Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. p. 26.
  4. ↑ Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. p. 26.
  5. ↑ Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 35.
  6. ↑ Navy (Dockyard Expense Accounts). 1912–1913. p. 31.
  7. ↑ "The Indefatigable" (News). The Times. Friday, 24 February, 1911. Issue 39517, col E, p. 6.
  8. ↑ Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 35.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "The Indefatigable" (News). The Times. Friday, 24 February, 1911. Issue 39517, col E, p. 6.
  10. ↑ "Launch of Warships" (News). The Times. Friday, 29 October, 1909. Issue 39103, col F, p. 4.
  11. ↑ The Navy List. (April, 1914). p. 328.
  12. ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1913. W/T Appendix, p. 13.
  13. ↑ Admiralty Weekly Order No. 122 of 10 July, 1914.
  14. ↑ The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, pp. 9-10.
  15. ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1910. p. 149. (A.L.G. 12731/10/18960 of 16 Aug 1910).
  16. ↑ Admiralty Weekly Order No. 408 of 25 Sep, 1914.
  17. ↑ Leveson Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/42. f. 472.
  18. ↑ The Navy List. (April, 1911). p. 330.
  19. ↑ Leveson Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/42. f. 472.
  20. ↑ The Navy List. (December, 1914). p. 335.

Bibliography


Indefatigable Class Battlecruiser
  Indefatigable New Zealand Australia  
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