HMS Illustrious (1896) - Technical Characteristics

Technical Characteristics

HMS Illustrious was laid down at Chatham Dockyard on 11 March 1895 and launched on 17 September 1896. She began trials in October 1897 and was completed in April 1898.

When the lead ship of the class, HMS Majestic, was launched in 1895, at 421 ft (128 m) long and with a full-load displacement of 16,000 tons, she was the largest battleship ever built at the time. The Majestics were considered good seaboats with an easy roll and good steamers, although they suffered from high fuel consumption. Illustrious began life as a coal-burner, but was converted to burn fuel oil by 1907–1908. Illustrious had side-by-side funnels, her class being the last British battleships with this arrangement; successor battleship classes had their funnels in a line.

Although the earlier ships of the class had pear-shaped barbettes and fixed loading positions for the main guns, Illustrious and Caesar had circular barbettes and all-around loading for their main guns, which established the pattern for future classes.

Illustrious and the other Majestic-class ships had 9 inches (230 mm) of Harvey armour, which allowed equal protection with less cost in weight compared to previous types of armour. This allowed Illustrious and her sisters to have a deeper and lighter belt than previous battleships without any loss in protection. She was divided into 150 watertight compartments.

The Majestics boasted a new gun, the 46-ton 12-inch (305-mm) 35-caliber Mk VIII, the first new British battleships to mount a 12-inch (305-mm) main battery since the 1880s. One hundred thirteen miles (182 km) of wire were wrapped around each gun barrel, and each gun took nine months to manufacture. Illustrious carried four such guns in two barbettes (one forward and one aft) with up to 400 rounds for each. The new gun, which would be the standard main armament of British battleships for sixteen years, was a significant improvement on the 13.5-inch (343-mm) gun which had been fitted on the Admiral and Royal Sovereign classes that preceded the Majestics. and was lighter. This saving in weight allowed Illustrious to carry a secondary battery of twelve 6-inch (152-mm) 40-caliber guns, a larger secondary armament than in previous classes. She also had four submerged torpedo tubes in the bow and one above water in the stern.