Early Career
She was commissioned into the 1st Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet on 20 March 1909 and participated in fleet manoeuvres in April and June 1909, the Spithead Review on 12 June 1909, and the Fleet Review off Southend on 2 July. She was refitted between 17 August and 17 January 1910 in an attempt to cure the electrical problems with her turrets, but they were still unsatisfactory. Another attempt was made to bring her turrets to working order during a refit in the spring of 1911, but this too was unsuccessful and the decision was made the following year to convert her turrets to hydraulic power. This was delayed until after her deployment to join the Mediterranean Fleet at the end of 1912. On 17 March 1913, she collided with the submarine HMS C34, but the collision was ruled the fault of the submarine. She returned to the UK in December 1913 in preparation for a major refit that would finally give her turrets hydraulic power and make her battle-worthy.
Her refit at Portsmouth Dockyard began in March 1914 and was interrupted by the declaration of war on Germany on 4 August. She'd been formally recommissioned the day prior, but the turret work required another week to complete. Invincible was the first battlecruiser to be fitted with a new fire-control director, but this could not be completed in the allotted time and would remain inoperable until she was refitted after the Battle of the Falkland Islands. She was declared operational on 12 August, when Rear-Admiral Sir Archibald Gordon Moore, commanding the 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron, hoisted his flag in her. He was ordered to the Humber, along with the battlecruiser HMS New Zealand, where he could better support the British ships patrolling the Broad Fourteens.
Read more about this topic: HMS Invincible (1907)
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