Text copyright © Ian Johnston 2011
Photographs Crown Copyright © 2011 by permission of National Records of Scotland
First published in Great Britain in 2011 by
Seaforth Publishing
An imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd
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S. Yorkshire S70 2AS
Email [email protected]
The right of Ian Johnston to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published and distributed in the United States of America and Canada by
Naval Institute Press
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First Naval Institute Press eBook edition published in 2015.
ISBN 978-1-61251-949-4 (eBook)
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Ship No 374 INFLEXIBLE
Ship No 402 AUSTRALIA
Ship No 418 TIGER
Ship No 443 REPULSE
Ship No 460 HOOD
THE ‘G3’ BATTLECRUISERS
APPENDICES
1. Comparisons
2. Repulse and Hood: Manpower Levels during Construction
3. Construction times
4. Shipyard Monthly Reports
5. Tiger: Armour and Other Weights
6. Progressive Trials, HMS Repulse
7. Report on Behaviour of Repulse on Passage North
8. Programme for Steaming Hood, March 1920
9. Report on Hood’s Gun Trials
10. Instructions for Riveting
SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
During the period 1906 to 1916, five main classes of battlecruisers were built for the Royal Navy, a total of thirteen ships. The orders for these vessels were distributed across the principal shipyards, Royal Dockyards and private yards responsible for all the capital ships built up to and including the First World War. For many of these yards, this meant an all but continuous supply of prestigious contracts, particularly so in the case of battlecruisers which were generally of a higher order value than their battleship equivalents and moreover, held in very high esteem by the Navy and public alike in the years up to 1914.
The very rapid development of the battlecruiser type during the ten-year period from 1906 to 1916 resulted in ships half as long again on twice the displacement, 20 per cent faster and with 50 per cent more offensive power. Naturally, the increase in size that inevitably accompanied successive classes of capital ship had an impact on the yards that produced them to the extent that, by 1916, only a handful of the yards that started building the early dreadnoughts were capable of building ships the size of Repulse and Hood.
The John Brown shipyard and marine engineering works on the River Clyde is significant in the construction of battlecruisers for two reasons. The first is that the records of this company have survived the collapse of the British shipbuilding industry substantially intact although with some important areas missing. In this, John Brown’s is probably better served historically than any of the other big British yards operating at that time. These records provide access to information about the construction of the ships they built in the form of a detailed breakdown of costs and the labour devoted to each contract. The latter, expressed in weekly levels, gives an indication of effort over the entire building period. However, the skills and techniques employed at Clydebank were much the same as those in any of the big British yards and to that extent, the experience of Clydebank can be seen as typical of the rest of the industry as a whole. Secondly, John Brown’s is noteworthy in having built one battlecruiser from each of the five main classes beginning with Inflexible followed by Australia, Tiger, Repulse and Hood. Had the construction of the ‘G3’ battlecruiser design of 1921 gone ahead, Brown’s would also have contributed one of those.
While there are many expert books on the design history and operational careers of battlecruisers, the purpose of this book is to look exclusively at the construction of the five that were laid down over a ten-year period at Clydebank. The working practices, machines and tools used there were typical of those used throughout the shipbuilding industry and to that extent, the events described here could as easily have taken place at any of the other large British yards. While the shipyard was the point of assembly, the ramifications of building such large and complex vessels ran through much of British industry, with companies located throughout the UK making contributions to the ship as disparate as barbette armour and the ship’s bell.
The river frontage of John Brown’s Clydebank shipyard in 1907. The Cunard liner Lusitania is in the fitting-out basin which separates the works into West and East Yards. While there are no vessels under construction in the West Yard, the East Yard is well occupied. The shipbuilding berths are served by light pole derricks capable of lifting three tons. The stern of Inflexible can be seen to right of shot. See yard plan overleaf.
