HMS ''Incomparable'' was the name given by Admiral John "Jackie" Fisher to a proposal for a very large

battlecruiser The battlecruiser (also written as battle cruiser or battle-cruiser) was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. These were similar in displacement, armament and cost to battleships, but differed in form and balance of at ...

which was suggested in 1915. The design was intended to mount 20-inch guns, which would have been the largest ever mounted on a warship. Despite research into the concept, it never entered the design stage or came close to being built.Breyer, Siegfried: ''Battleships and Battlecruisers of the World, 1905-1970''. Macdonald, London, 1973. p 172. .

History

Fisher had long been an advocate of improving technology to maintain

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

's naval superiority. At the beginning of the 20th century he had masterminded the introduction of the

dreadnought The dreadnought (alternatively spelled dreadnaught) was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her ...

type of battleship and its faster cousin, the

. At the start of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Fisher returned to the office of

First Sea Lord The First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff (1SL/CNS) is the military head of the Royal Navy and Naval Service of the United Kingdom. The First Sea Lord is usually the highest ranking and most senior admiral to serve in the British Armed F ...

. Here he oversaw the development of vessels which took the battlecruiser concept to its logical extreme. Favouring an amphibious assault on the Pomeranian coast of Germany, three "large light cruisers" were built. These ships (s) were designed to have a relatively shallow draft, but while they mounted large guns, they would have carried less armour than contemporary battlecruisers. The last of these, , was intended to carry only two 18-inch guns, one forward and one aft, far larger and more powerful than the 15-inch weapons that were standard on the and s, and the two s; at the same time her deck and belt armour was at best only 3 inches thick, not really capable of standing up to the guns of even a

light cruiser A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to thi ...

. One of these guns was actually fitted to ''Furious'', the one in the aft position, but was removed after a few months following damage to the ship when it was fired.

Design

''Incomparable'' was suggested as the logical conclusion of this trend. By the standards of her time, she would have been a mammoth vessel. Her intended displacement of 48,000 tons dwarfed the newly built s (28,000 tons). No British battleship or battlecruiser would be built of that displacement until , which was completed after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. This large hull was intended to accommodate engines capable of immense speed and sufficient fuel to give a prodigious range, coupled with armament and ammunition greater than anything before sent to sea. The 20-inch guns which were planned for ''Incomparable'' were bigger than the largest guns ever installed on a warship (the 18.1-inch guns of ): 20-inch guns were ultimately only ever to be used on paper. The 18 inch gun tested on ''Furious'' was used on monitors during the war, from which complaints were occasionally voiced that it 'caused a shower of sheared off rivet heads' whenever fired. Just as remarkable as the firepower intended was the speed of the ship: if ''Incomparable'' had been capable of the 35 knots intended, she would have been faster than almost any battleship or battlecruiser built historically, and indeed faster than many cruisers or destroyers. She was expected to have a life span of no more than 10 years; Fisher expected her design to be quickly surpassed. As a warship, ''Incomparable'' would have been of dubious tactical value. Her construction would have been a very great expense, and her armour relatively weak. Despite the tremendous size of the main guns, there would be only six of them (fitted in two superfiring twin turrets forward and one aft) which was considered the bare minimum number of guns for long-range salvo firing. The

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

's experience at the

Battle of Jutland The Battle of Jutland (german: Skagerrakschlacht, the Battle of the Skagerrak) was a naval battle fought between Britain's Royal Navy Grand Fleet, under Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet, under Vic ...

in 1916, where three of Fisher's battlecruisers were destroyed, resulted in a decisive turn away from the 'large light cruiser' concept and towards the '

fast battleship A fast battleship was a battleship which emphasised speed without – in concept – undue compromise of either armor or armament. Most of the early World War I-era dreadnought battleships were typically built with low design speeds, ...

'. The subsequent design of battlecruiser, the , ended up incorporating much heavier armour but retained the proven 15-inch guns. Only one, , was completed, with the rest scrapped in 1919. The following class intended (but also never built), based on the G3 design, was a battlecruiser only in relation to the paired N3 battleship.

Note

References

External links

''Incomparable'' History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Incomparable, HMS Battlecruisers of the Royal Navy World War I battlecruisers of the United Kingdom Proposed ships of the Royal Navy Abandoned military projects of the United Kingdom