HMS Albion (1898)

HMS ''Albion'' was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the British Royal Navy and a member of the . Intended for service in Asia, ''Albion'' and her sister ships were smaller and faster than the preceding s, but retained the same battery of four guns. She also carried thinner armour, but incorporated new Krupp steel, which was more effective than the Harvey armour used in the ''Majestic''s. ''Albion'' was laid down in December 1896, launched in June 1898, and commissioned into the fleet in June 1901.

''Albion'' spent the first few years of her career abroad on the China Station from 1901 to 1905, before returning to British waters to serve with the Channel Fleet and later the Atlantic Fleet. After the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, she was mobilised and returned to the Channel Fleet, but was quickly sent to the Atlantic to help defend against the possibility of German warships breaking out of the North Sea. In December and January 1915, she supported operations against German Southwest Africa.

The ship was transferred to the Mediterranean Sea in January 1915 to participate in the Dardanelles Campaign. She participated in major attacks on the Ottoman coastal fortifications defending the Dardanelles in March 1915, but the British and French fleets proved incapable of forcing the straits. During these operations, ''Albion'' was damaged by Ottoman artillery twice. In October 1915, she was transferred to Salonika to support the Allied operations against Bulgaria through then-neutral Greece, but she saw no further action. She was transferred back to Ireland in April 1916 for service as a guard ship, a role she filled until October 1918, when she was reduced to a barracks ship. ''Albion'' was sold for scrap in December 1919 and broken up the following year.

Design

''Albion'' and her five sister ships were designed for service in East Asia, where the new rising power Japan was beginning to build a powerful navy, though this role was quickly made redundant by the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902. The ships were designed to be smaller, lighter and faster than their predecessors, the s. ''Albion'' was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of . She displaced normally and up to fully loaded. Her crew numbered 682 officers and ratings.

The ''Canopus''-class ships were powered by a pair of 3-cylinder triple-expansion engines, with steam provided by twenty Belleville boilers. They were the first British battleships with water-tube boilers, which generated more power at less expense in weight compared with the fire-tube boilers used in previous ships. The new boilers led to the adoption of fore-and-aft funnels, rather than the side-by-side funnel arrangement used in many previous British battleships. The ''Canopus''-class ships proved to be good steamers, with a high speed for battleships of their time— from —a full two knots faster than the ''Majestic''s.

''Albion'' had a main battery of four 35-calibre guns mounted in twin-gun turrets fore and aft; these guns were mounted in circular barbettes that allowed all-around loading, although at a fixed elevation. The ships also mounted a secondary battery of twelve 40-calibre guns mounted in casemates, in addition to ten 12-pounder guns and six 3-pounder guns for defence against torpedo boats. As was customary for battleships of the period, she was also equipped with four torpedo tubes submerged in the hull, two on each broadside near the forward and aft barbette.

To save weight, ''Albion'' carried less armour than the ''Majestic''s— in the belt compared to —although the change from Harvey armour in the ''Majestic''s to Krupp armour in ''Albion'' meant that the loss in protection was not as great as it might have been, Krupp armour having greater protective value at a given weight than its Harvey equivalent. Similarly, the other armour used to protect the ship could also be thinner; the bulkheads on either end of the belt were thick. The main battery turrets were 10 in thick, atop barbettes, and the casemate battery was protected with 6 in of Krupp steel. Her conning tower had 12 in thick sides as well. She was fitted with two armoured decks, thick, respectively.

Service history

HMS ''Albion'' was laid down by Thames Iron Works at Leamouth, London on 3 December 1896. She was launched on 21 June 1898 after being christened by Mary of Teck, then Duchess of York, and the wave created by ''Albion''s entry into the water caused a stage from which 200 people were watching to collapse into a side creek, and 34 people, mostly women and children, drowned in one of the worst peacetime disasters in Thames history. Both the launch and the stage collapse were captured on film by E. P. Prestwich and Robert W. Paul. The decision to distribute these films was controversial in its day, sparking one of the earliest debates surrounding videojournalism.

''Albion''s completion then was delayed by late delivery of her machinery. She finally began trials late in 1900, during which she was further delayed by machinery and gun defects, and she was not finally completed until June 1901. HMS ''Albion'' was commissioned on 25 June 1901 at Chatham Dockyard, by Captain W. W. Hewett and a complement of 779 officers and men, to relieve battleship ''Barfleur'' on the China Station.

She arrived at Hong Kong on 11 September 1901, and relieved ''Barfleur'' as second flagship of the China Station, based in that city. Captain Martyn Jerram was appointed flag captain in March 1902. During her time on the station, she underwent refits at Hong Kong in 1902 and 1905. In 1905, the United Kingdom and Japan ratified a treaty of alliance, reducing the requirement for a large British presence on the China Station, and the Royal Navy recalled all its battleships from the station. At Singapore, ''Albion'' rendezvoused with her sister ships ''Ocean'' and ''Vengeance'' and battleship ''Centurion'', and on 20 June 1905 the four battleships departed to steam in company to Plymouth, where they arrived on 2 August 1905. ''Albion'' then became part of the Channel Fleet. She soon suffered a mishap, colliding with battleship ''Duncan'' at Lerwick on 26 September 1905, but suffered no damage. ''Albion'' transferred to the commissioned Reserve on 3 April 1906, and underwent an engine and boiler refit at Chatham. On 25 February 1907, ''Albion'' paid off at Portsmouth.

On 26 February 1907, ''Albion'' recommissioned at Portsmouth for temporary service with the Portsmouth Division of the Home Fleet. She returned to full commission on 26 March 1907 to begin service in the Atlantic Fleet. During this service, she underwent a refit at Gibraltar in 1908 and at Malta in 1909. She was with the fleet that visited London from 17 July to 24 July 1909 to be entertained by the citizens of the city, and on 31 July 1909 was present at the fleet review of the Home and Atlantic Fleets at Cowes by King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. ''Albion'' ended her Atlantic Fleet service by paying off on 25 August 1909. She then began service at the Nore as parent ship of the 4th Division, Home Fleet. She became a unit of the 3rd Fleet at the Nore in May 1912, and underwent a refit at Chatham that year. She was stationed at Pembroke Dock in 1913.

First World War

When the First World War broke out in August 1914, ''Albion'' was assigned to the 8th Battle Squadron, Channel Fleet. On 15 August 1914, she became second flagship of the new 7th Battle Squadron. On 21 August 1914, she was sent to the Saint Vincent- Finisterre Station to provide battleship support to cruiser squadrons operating in the Atlantic in case Imperial German Navy heavy ships broke out into the open Atlantic. Here, she served as the flagship of Rear Admiral H. L. Tottenham. On 3 September 1914, she transferred her flag, becoming a private ship, and moved to the Cape Verde-Canary Islands station to relieve her sister ship there. ''Albion'' was transferred to the Cape of Good Hope Station in South Africa in October 1914, where she took up duty as a guard ship at Walvis Bay through November 1914. Following the Battle of Coronel on 1 November, where a British cruiser squadron was defeated by the German East Asia Squadron, the Admiralty ordered Rear Admiral Herbert King-Hall, the commander of the Cape of Good Hope Station, to concentrate his squadron to prevent Spee from defeating him in detail. ''Albion'' was accordingly recalled from Walvis Bay to Table Bay. In December 1914 and January 1915, she participated in Allied operations against German Southwest Africa. Later in January, ''Albion'' returned to port in Simon's Town, South Africa, before proceeding to the Mediterranean Sea.

Dardanelles campaign

''Albion'' transferred to the Mediterranean in January 1915 to participate in the Dardanelles campaign. She took part in the bombardment of the Ottoman Turkish forts guarding the outer entrance to the Dardanelles on 19 February 1915. This was the first stage in a plan to force the Dardanelles and enter the Sea of Marmara. ''Albion'' was joined by three other British battlecruisers and battleships—, , and —and two French battleships— and . Once these ships had cleared the initial defences, additional ships would join the attack; heavy Ottoman resistance instead stalled the initial attack before ''Albion'' could begin her part of the operation, and she did not see action that day. Nevertheless, she did sweep an area for naval mines along with the protected cruiser ; while on the operation, ''Albion'' fired eight 6-inch shells in an unsuccessful attempt to draw Ottoman attention so their guns could be destroyed by counter-battery fire.

''Albion'' participated in another attack on the forts on 25 February; she was tasked with covering a group of minesweepers, along with ''Triumph'' and several destroyers after the main bombardment force suppressed the Ottoman batteries. During their operation, ''Albion'' came under fire from a gun from Battery "Orkaniye"; counter fire from ''Albion'', and forced the Ottomans to check their fire. By the afternoon, most of the Ottoman artillery had ceased firing, apart from some field guns that could not be observed, and so the minesweepers were ordered to begin clearing the mines, covered by ''Albion'', ''Triumph'', and ''Vengeance''. The following day, ''Albion'', ''Triumph'', and were assigned to the force that was to break into the Dardanelles and destroy the fortresses at close range. ''Albion'' was assigned to the fort at Dardanus, and she opened fire with her main battery at a range of , though the Ottoman response was light. After the guns fell silent, ''Albion'' and ''Majestic'' moved on but quickly came under fire from dispersed, mobile field guns, and both vessels were forced to take evasive maneuvers to avoid serious damage. After ''Majestic'' was holed below the waterline, Admiral John de Robeck ordered them to break off the attack.

On 28 February, ''Albion'' took part in another attempt to suppress the Ottoman defences in the Dardanelles; she and ''Triumph'' led the operation, and were tasked with neutralizing the repaired fortress at Dardanus, while ''Majestic'' and ''Ocean'' supported them by engaging the mobile field guns. As ''Albion'' and ''Triumph'' approached Dardanus, they came under heavy fire from Ottoman guns on the European side of the straits, including the fortress at Erenköy, and were forced to circle to avoid taking hits. Unable to engage Dardanus under these conditions, the ships instead opened fire on the guns at Erenköy, which initially seemed to be effective, as the Ottoman fire slackened. ''Ocean'' and ''Majestic'' approached in an attempt to attack Dardanus, but they too came under renewed, furious fire from Erenköy, and de Robeck again ordered a withdrawal. The only success came after the four battleships withdrew from the straits and a landing party from ''Triumph'' went ashore and disabled a number of light guns. The inability of the British and French fleets to neutralize the mobile field guns convinced the Allied command that the only way forward would be to make a major amphibious assault to clear the guns by land.

''Albion'' supported another operation in the Dardanelles on 3 March; she, ''Triumph'' and covered a landing force that was to raid Sedd el Bahr. Heavy weather delayed the start of the attack, but the landing took place without incident. ''Albion'' shelled Erenköy, which did not return fire, and the landing party discovered a battery of six 15-pounder field guns that they destroyed. Two days later, ''Albion'' conducted an indirect fire test to determine the efficacy of attempting to neutralize the fortresses at ranges where the Ottomans would be unable to reply; this was planned to demonstrate the feasibility of using the powerful dreadnought , armed with guns, in that role. ''Albion'' was tasked with shelling one of the fortresses protecting Çanakkale

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