HMS Collingwood (1908)

HMS Collingwood (1908) was a St. Vincent-class battleship of the Royal Navy, the second of three ships in her class. Named for Admiral Lord Collingwood, a hero of the Battle of Trafalgar, she was a development of the preceding ''Dreadnought'' design, featuring improved armour and a more powerful secondary battery. As part of the Home Fleet and later the Grand Fleet, her career was dominated by service during the First World War, where she participated in the pivotal Battle of Jutland.

Design and description

The St. Vincent-class battleship was an incremental evolution of the ''Bellerophon''-class, itself a direct successor to the revolutionary HMS ''Dreadnought''. Key improvements over earlier designs included a slightly modified 12-inch Mk XI gun with longer barrels for increased muzzle velocity and a revised armour belt that was thinner but deeper. Her Parsons steam turbine propulsion system, fed by eighteen Babcock & Wilcox boilers, was identical to that of her predecessors, designed to maintain a top speed of 21 knots. The secondary armament consisted of twenty 4-inch Mk VII guns, an increase from the Dreadnought's 12-pounders, intended to better defend against the growing threat from torpedo boats and destroyers. Like other British dreadnoughts of the period, her layout featured five twin gun turrets, with one aft and two on each broadside.

Construction and career

HMS Collingwood was ordered under the 1907–08 Naval Estimates and her keel was laid down at Devonport Royal Dockyard on 3 February 1908. She was launched on 7 November 1908, with the ceremony performed by Lady Jellicoe, wife of then-Captain John Jellicoe. Completed in April 1910 at a cost of approximately £1,680,888, she was commissioned into the Home Fleet, joining the 1st Battle Squadron. Her early peacetime service was spent in routine fleet exercises, manoeuvres, and gunnery practice in the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean, forming part of the core strength of the Royal Navy's battle line. In July 1914, as tensions escalated following the assassination in Sarajevo, she was with the fleet at its annual review at Spithead.

World War I service

Upon the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Collingwood was assigned to the Grand Fleet, based at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands under the command of Admiral Sir John Jellicoe. She participated in several fruitless sweeps and sorties into the North Sea, including actions supporting the Harwich Force and the Battle of Dogger Bank. Her most significant action came during the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916, where she was part of the 1st Battle Squadron. During the main fleet engagement, she engaged several German capital ships, including the battlecruisers SMS ''Derfflinger'' and SMS ''Von der Tann''. Notably, her crew included a young Midshipman Albert, Duke of York, the future King George VI. Collingwood emerged from the battle unscathed, having fired 98 main-calibre shells. For the remainder of the war, she continued Grand Fleet patrols and was present at the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet in November 1918.

Post-war fate

Following the Armistice, Collingwood was transferred to the 3rd Battle Squadron in March 1919, serving briefly in the Mediterranean Fleet during the Allied intervention in the Black Sea. By 1919, she was rendered obsolete by the new ''Queen Elizabeth''-class and ''Revenge''-class super-dreadnoughts. Placed in reserve at Portsmouth in 1920, she was used as an accommodation ship. Under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, she was designated for disposal. HMS Collingwood was sold for scrap to Thos. W. W. W. W. W. W. W. W. W. W. W. Ward &Ward on 12 March 1, 12, (1908) and Company in the Ward in G.Briti>