HMS Thunderer (1911) - Service History

Service History

On commissioning in June 1912 Thunderer and her three Orion class sisters – Orion, Conqueror and Monarch formed the 2nd Division of the 2nd Battle-squadron (BS) and she remained with her sisterships throughout. At Jutland on the 31st May 1916 all four of the Orions were present under the leadership of Rear Admiral Arthur Leveson flying his flag in Orion, her CO was Captain O. Backhouse, followed by : Monarch – Captain G.H. Borret, Conqueror - Captain H.H.D. Tothill and Thunderer- Captain J.A. Fergusson.

Thunderer first came to action at 1830 when indistinct ranges of 22 to 18,000 yards were obtained on some German ships due to poor visibility from smoke she did not open fire at this time, it must be remembered Thunderer was at the rear of the 2nd division and her visibility would be affected by the smoke of the three leading ships. At 1915 Thunderer sighted two enemy battleships visible between the Royal Oak and the Iron Duke, she fired two salvoes of Common Percussion Capped shell at the leading ship, no hits were made and the second salvo was actually fired over the top of the Iron Duke. Thunderer did not sight the enemy again however during the German fleets run to the south after they broke off the engagement the Moltke sighted four large ships at 2240, these were the four Orion class ships, so she had a lucky escape that the British lookouts did not see her. In total Thunderer fired just 37 rounds of 13.5” all being Common Percussion Capped, she did not use her 4 in batteries at all.

Post Jutland the Orion class ships spent their time on routine fleet manoeuvres and in 1917 Thunderer was fitted with flying-off platforms on her upper turrets – B & X. Following the war she became a cadet training ship in 1921 and as such out-lived the others of her class, if she had not been a training ship she would have been scrapped that year under the terms of the Washington treaties. In November 1926 she was sold for scrap, partial scrapping was carried out at Rosyth to reduce her draft so that she could be finished off at Blyth.

In November 1926 Thunderer was sold for scrap she is seen here arriving at Blyth, she was too deep drafted to enter Blyth so was partially stripped down at Rosyth, even so she grounded at the entrance and it took six days to get her light enough to be floated to Hughes Bolckow for scrapping. Although stripped of her guns and large amounts of her upperworks she still arrived under her own steam, although with only the fore funnel remaining only the forward group of six boilers would be working (the other 12 used the aft funnel) also just two of the four shafts would probably be in use.