Home > HMS Inflexible (1907)
HMS Inflexible was one of three Invincible-class battlecruisers built for the Royal Navy in 1906-08.She was built at John Browns' shipyard on the Clyde, being laid down on 5 February 1906, launched on the 26 June 1907, completed and commissioned in October 1908.
1 Characteristics
- Dimensions: 530 ft x 78.5ft x 26.2ft (162m x 23.9m x 7.99m)
- Displacement: 17,250 tons standard, 20,125 tons full load
- Armament: 8-12" (4x2), 16-4" (16x1), 3-4" AA, 1-3" AA, 5-18" submerged TT
- Armour thickness: Belt - 2"-6"; Turrets - 4"-7"; Deck - 1"- 2.5"; Control Tower - 10"
- Propulsion: 31 Yarrow boilers, 4 Parsons steam turbines, total power output 41,000hp (31MW) = 26kts
- Range: 6330 nautical miles at 10 knots, 2290 nautical miles at 23 knots.
- Fuel capacity: 3170 tons of coal.
- Complement: 784
2 Career
On the outbreak of World War I Inflexible was flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet. Between 4-10 August 1914 she was engaged on the hunt for the SMS Goeben, before being ordered back to Britain on 19 August 1914. Between 1-10 October, she was on the Shetland patrol, covering a troop convoy, before being ordered to the South Atlantic on 4 November 1914 following the British defeat at the Battle of Coronel. She arrived at the Falkland Islands on 7 December, one day before the Battle of the Falkland IslandsThe Battle of the Falkland Islands was a naval engagement of the First World War, fought between units of the Royal Navy and the Kaiserliche Marine navies on 8 December 1914. The British, reeling from the defeat at the Battle of Coronel sent a large force where she assisted in the destruction of the German squadron without incurring any damage to herself. On 19 December she was ordered back to the Mediterranean, where she underwent a refit at GibraltarGibraltar is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom. It is located in southwestern Europe adjoining the southern coast of Spain, a strategic location on the Strait of Gibraltar that links the North Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. History Main a before becoming flagship of the DardanellesThe Dardanelles (Turkish: Canakkale Bogazi , formerly Hellespont, is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea with the Marmara Sea. Just like the Bosporus strait, it separates Europe (in this case the Gallipoli peninsula) and the m operation on 24 January 1915Events January 12 The Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of Congress. January 12 United States House of Representatives rejects proposal to give women the right to vote. January 13 An earthquake (6. 8 in Richter scale) in Avezzano, Ital. On the 18 March, in the Dardanelles Narrows she was hit twice by gunfire from Turkish forts and nine crew members were killed; the same day, she struck a mine and was forced to withdraw after taking 2,000 tons of flood water. After repairs at Gibraltar, she joined the Grand Fleet on 19 June 1915.
On 31 May 1916 she participated in the Battle of Jutland where she sustained no damage, unlike her sister-ship HMS Invincible which blew up after taking a hit from a German ship, revealing the weakness of the battlecruiser design - its lack of adequate armour. The rest of the war was uneventful, and she was paid off to the Reserve Fleet in January 1919 before being laid up for disposal 31 March 1920 and sold and broken up in December 1922.
Inflexible
