HMS Monarch (1911)

HMS Monarch (1911)

10 × BL 13.5 inch (343 mm) guns
16 × BL 4-inch (101.6 mm) Mk VII guns

3 × 21 inch (533 mm) submerged torpedo tubes

HMS Monarch was an Orion-class battleship of the Royal Navy. She served in the 2nd Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet in World War I, and fought at the Battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916, suffering no damage.

As a result of the Washington Naval Convention she was decommissioned in 1921 and was used as an experimental and target ship. She was sunk by Revenge in 1925.

Following the Colossus class Britain's next class of Battleship were the Orion class. Beaten to a world's first by the American South Carolina class commissioned in 1910, these were the first battleships in the Royal Navy to feature an all-big-gun armament on the centre line.

With the possibility of war looming the cost savings made by limiting the displacement of the Dreadnought types were dispensed with, resulting in a far better and larger ship. The Orion Class also saw the introduction of the new 13.5" gun. To achieve greater hitting power in the later variants of the Dreadnought the barrels of the 12" guns had been lengthened to increase the muzzle velocity and hence the range and impact energy. This was, however, a less satisfactory gun with poor accuracy due to excessive muzzle droop and with a short active life due to higher wear levels. In the 13.5" gun a return to lower muzzle velocities was made, the hitting power being increased by the greater weight of the shell fired by the bigger gun, making it a more accurate and more powerful weapon.