HMS SUPERB

 

HMS Superb was the third of the Bellerophon class of Dreadnought type battleships. The preceding class was Dreadnought, and the next class was St Vincent. The Bellerophon class comprised three ships; in order of completion they were Bellerophon, Temeraire and Superb.

 

The text of this article was provided by Steve Woodward.

 

The name Superb

 

The Royal Navy named nine ships Superb as in the table below.

 

Basic Data: HMS SUPERB

Type: Battleship

Class: Bellerophon Class

Builders: Armstrong Whitworth

Yard: Elswick

Country: UK

Yard number: 800

Registry: N/A

Official number: N/A

Signal letters: N/A

Call sign: N/A

Gross tonnage: N/K

Net tonnage: N/K

Deadweight: N/K

Length: 526 Ft

Breadth: 82.5 Ft

Depth: N/K

Draught: 31.5 Ft

Displacement (Std): 18,596 tons

Displacement (Full Load): 22,540 tons

Engines: Two Parsons direct drive steam turbines.

Engine builders: Wallsend Company

Works: Newcastle

Country: UK

Boilers: 18 Babcock and Wilcox coal fired boilers

Power: 23,000 SHP

Propulsion: Four screw

Speed: 21 knots

Complement: Approx 790 - 840

Image 1

Image 1 shows Superb and was taken at an unknown date.

Overview of the Class

 

Superb was built by Armstrongs at their Elswick works at Newcastle on Tyne. Laid down on the 06th February 1907 she was launched 07th November 1907 and commissioned on the 29th May 1909. She took much longer to complete than her sisters owing to labour disputes and strikes.

 

Although superficially similar to Dreadnought, the main external distinguishing feature was the second tripod mast. Dreadnought had a single tripod mast immediately aft of the forward funnel with a heavy boat derrick facing aft from this mast, whilst Bellerophon had a second mast immediately forward of the aft funnel with the boat derrick facing forwards of this mast. Another not-so-easy to tell feature was that the rather weak secondary battery of twenty-four 12 pounder guns of the Dreadnought were replaced with sixteen singly mounted 4” guns which recognised the increasing risk of attack by torpedo-carrying small craft and the rapidly increasing size of these ships.

 

Internally the main difference was the improvement to the under-water protection from torpedo damage. A continuous fore and aft torpedo bulkhead now ran from the forward end of the forward magazine to the aft end of the after magazine. It was called a screen bulkhead as it was intended to screen the magazines from torpedoes. The Bellerophon class was one foot shorter than the Dreadnought class and just 5 inches greater in beam. However the Bellerophon ships were slightly less than 500 tons heavier in standard displacement reflecting the greater use of armour. They were also 1,800 tons heavier in full load displacement. The two masts on this class were located on the fore-side of the funnels and an improvement on Dreadnought’s single mast which was placed behind the fore funnel but in certain wind condition smoke and hot gasses could make the spotting tops untenable. A novel feature of this class having two masts, is that when fitted with fire-control systems they were fitted with two sets.

 

Machinery

 

The machinery of the Bellerophon Class ships was virtually identical to the Dreadnoughts -  Quadruple propellers driven by Parsons direct drive steam turbines, built by the Wallsend Company of Newcastle.  The turbines consisted of a high pressure ahead and astern turbine on the outboard shafts, and a low pressure ahead and astern on the two inboard shafts. The inboard shafts also incorporated an ahead cruising turbine for fuel economy. The turbines developed a total of 23,000 SHP and gave 21 knots. Steam was produced by 18 Babcock and Wilcox coal fired boilers. There were three boiler rooms with six boilers in each with a working pressure of 230 psi. The range of the class was not particularly good being about 5,700 miles at 10 knots.

 

Please see the entry for Bellerophon HERE for more information about the engines.

Main Armament

 

Main battery: Ten 12” C45 Mk10 guns (identical to the Dreadnought, Invincible and Indefatigable classes) construction being identical using steel inner tubes and liners and reinforced with flat wire winding and finally enclosed in a steel jacket. The gun houses themselves were Vickers Mk 9.

 

The guns fired a shell weighing 850lbs for the HE to 859 lbs for the AP. Post Jutland, when it was realised that British shells had performed poorly, and that rather than just make a hole in the armour of an enemy ship what was needed was a shell to penetrate the armour before exploding, a new shell was designed called the ‘Green Boy’ which weighed 854 lbs. Dependant on type, the shells ranged from 38 to 48 inches in length and the rate of fire of the guns was about one round every 40 seconds. The range was just under 19,000 yards at 13.5 degrees elevation and used a charge of 258lbs of MD45 propellant. MD45 is a cordite or colloidal propellant consisting of long rods of explosive - cordite being a somewhat unstable blend of nitro-cellulose and nitro-glycerine with added stabilisers. Shore versions of these guns had a longer range of around 25,000 yards with a much higher elevation (in excess of 40 degrees) not achievable on a ship .

 

During the building of the Bellerophon class, attention was now being paid to the streamlining of the shells. A measure to this is the formula ‘CRH’ which stands for Calibre Radius Head, and the 4crh shells carried on the class indicated the length of the curvature of the nose of the shell in relation to its length. Earlier ships including the Dreadnought had used 2crh shells, but trials with the 4crh confirmed these had longer ranges and eventually all 12” gunned ships using the more streamlined shell.

Image 3 is a copy of an admiralty plan of Temeraire showing the location of her main and secondary armaments, The main turrets were identified the same way as Dreadnought: “A” forward on the Foc’sle, “P” to port, “Q” to starboard of midships, “X” & “Y” aft. It should be noted that the plan gives this as the 'Temeraire' class in fact it should be Bellerophon class.

Image 3

Secondary armament

 

Secondary battery: The secondary battery consisted of sixteen 4” Mk7 guns each in single mounts. Eight of these guns were placed two each on “A”, “P”, “Q”, and “Y” turrets, and the remaining eight in casemate mounts - four on either beam in the deck house at forecastle deck level. There still prevailed the thought that defence of the ship against torpedo attack would only come either before or after a fleet action using the main battery, so that whilst the main battery was in action the eight 4” on their roofs could not be used. At least the eight casemate guns, usable during a fleet action, were a step in the right direction, although the open mounts on two of the turrets had one advantage – they could be fired through 360 degrees whilst the case mates were limited to 60 degrees either side of their stowed position. Designed in 1904, 700 of these guns were produced and something like 500 of them remained in use on merchant vessels in WW2. The construction of these weapons was very similar to the main battery using wire winding. On some of the later Dreadnoughts the turret-mounted weapons were high angle AA guns, but to date I have found no evidence of these being fitted on the Bellerophon class ships.

The guns fired three types of shell: CPC ( Common Percussion Cap), HE ( High Explosive), and Shrapnel. All weighed 31lbs and could be fired either electrically or by percussion, range was 11,500yards using a charge of just over 9lbs of cordite, and the rate of fire was up to 8 rounds per minute.

 

Temeraire also carried four 3 pounder saluting guns.

Three below-water torpedo tubes were fitted for 18” Whitehead torpedoes. These fired one on either beam and one ahead.

 

Armoured protection

 

Armour:

 

· Main belt - 10” tapering to 8”

· Transverse Bulkheads - 8”

· Longitudinal torpedo bulkheads 1 to 2" with 32 in the vicinity of the midships wing turrets

· Barbettes - 10” tapering to 9”

· Turrets : faces - 11” crowns 3" , decks - 3” tapering to 0.5”

Image 4 is from and Admiralty manual and shows the disposition of armour in black.

Image 4

Operational History

 

On commissioning, Superb joined the 1st Division of the Home Fleet and was transferred to 4th Battle Squadron in 1915.

 

Superb was at Jutland with the 3rd Division of the 4th BS Led by Admiral Sir John Jellicoe. Iron Duke was followed by Royal Oak, Superb and Canada, Her action during Jutland began at 1826 when the hapless Weisbaden, a disabled German light cruiser, appeared out of the smoke. One of many British ships to fire on this target, Superb fired four salvoes claiming two hits.

 

Although in the general action against the German battleships around 1900 when some firing was carried out at 9 miles, Superb could only see 5 miles and did not open fire. At 1920 she opened fire on the Derfflinger and fired seven salvos in 4½ minutes with two claimed hits at 12,200 yards. During the battle she fired 54 12 in shells, 16 CPC and 38 HE. She did not use her 4 " batteries at all and received no damage.

 

In 1918, she was detached with HMS Temeraire to the Mediterranean, becoming flagship of the British Eastern Mediterranean Squadron and later flagship of the British Naval Forces in the Black Sea - the first British flagship to enter the Black Sea.

 

Back in UK waters in 1919 she was paid off into the Nore Reserve. Placed on the Disposal list in 1920, she was used as a gunnery and aerial bombing target until sold for scrapping in 1922.

Images

 

1. Images #1 is an expired Crown Copyright photographs

2. Image #2 is from the Imperial War Museum collection and is in the public domain

3. Images #3 and #4 are from old Admiralty manuals

Image 2

Image 2 is an aerial photograph of Superb at an unknown date.

British & Commonwealth Battleships and Battle Cruisers