HMS Prince of Wales (1902) - Technical Description

Technical Description

HMS Prince of Wales was laid down at Chatham Dockyard on 20 March 1901 and launched by Mary, Princess of Wales, on 25 March 1902. She was completed in March 1904.

The Formidables were similar in appearance to and had the same armament as the Majestic and Canopus classes that preceded them. The Formidables are often described as improved Majestics, but in design they really were enlarged Canopuses; while the Canopus class took advantage of the greater strength of the Krupp armour employed in their construction to allow the ships to remain the same size as the Majestics with increased tonnage devoted higher speed and less to armor without sacrificing protection, in the Formidables Krupp armour was used to improve protection without reducing the size of the ships. The Formidables thus were larger than the two preceding classes, and enjoyed both greater protection than the Majestics and the higher speed of the Canopus class. The Formidables' armour scheme was similar to that of the Canopuses, although, unlike in the Canopuses, the armour belt ran all the way to the stern; it was 215 feet (66 m) long, 15 feet (4.6 m) deep and 9 inches (230 mm) thick, tapering at the stem to 3 inches (76 mm) thick and 12 feet (3.7 m) deep, and at the stern to 1.5 inches (38 mm) thick and 8 feet (2.4 m) deep. The main battery turrets had Krupp armour, 10 inches (250 mm) on their sides and 8 inches (200 mm) on their backs.

The Formidables improved on the main and secondary armament of previous classes, being upgunned from 35-calibre to 40-calibre 12-inch (300 mm) guns and from 40-caliber to 45-calibre 6-inch (150 mm) guns. The 12-inch guns could be loaded at any bearing and elevation, and beneath the turrets the ships had a split hoist with a working chamber beneath the guns that reduced the chance of a cordite fire spreading from the turret to the shell and powder handling rooms and to the magazines.

The Formidables had an improved hull form that made them handier at high speeds than the Majestics. They also had inward-turning propellers, which allowed reduced fuel consumption and slightly higher speeds than in previous classes but at the expense of less maneuverability at low speeds.

After the first three, there was a change in design for the last five ships, starting with London; as a result they are often considered to constitute the London class, but also can be viewed as in effect a sub-class of the Formidable class. The main difference in the Londons was thinner deck armor and some other detail changes to the armor scheme. and the consequent lower displacement.

Prince of Wales and her sister ship HMS Queen were the last two London-class ships built. They were identical to the first three Londons except that they had open 12-pounder gun batteries mounted in the open on the upper deck amidships, had a lower displacement, and had a few other minor details of their design changed. Queen and Prince of Wales were laid down after the Duncan class battleships that succeeded the Formidables and Londons in order to create with their six sisters a tactical group of eight ships, and were completed after the Duncans as well. They generally are considered part of the Formidable or London class, but the difference in the mounting of their 12-pounder guns, their lower displacement, and their later construction than the Duncans lead some authors to viewed them as constituting a Queen class separate from the Formidable and London classes.

Due to service problems with the water tube Belleville boilers the original plans were changed during construction, and HMS Queen was fitted with Babcock and Wilcox cylindrical boilers instead. The nearly identical Prince of Wales was fitted with the problematic water tube Belleville boilers, the last British battleship to be built with them.

Prince of Wales was the last battleship for which Sir William Henry White had sole design responsibility to commission in the Royal Navy. She was also the last of the 29 battleships of the Majestic, Canopus, Formidable, London, Duncan, and Queen classes which commissioned between 1895 and 1904 and all shared a single, standard design that originated with the Majestics and was improved over time to reach its final development in Queen and Prince of Wales.

Like all predreadnoughts, Prince of Wales were outclassed by the dreadnought battleships that began to appear in 1906, although they took on some front-line duties early in World War I.