HMS Conqueror (1911)

HMS Conqueror (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 Conqueror 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 sold for scrap.

Following the Colossus class, Britain’s next class of Battleship was the Orion class, which was the first class of British ship to dispense with the wing turret arrangement. 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 and were a major step forward, and were thus described as 'Super-Dreadnoughts'.

With the possibility of war looming, the cost savings achieved with 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 striking power for 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 power; however this was an unsatisfactory gun, with poor accuracy and wear levels. With the 13.5” gun a return to lower muzzle velocities was achieved, and striking power was increased by means of a heavier shell thereby resulting in an altogether superior weapon.