Every British Battleship Ever Built (Not One Was Sunk by Another Battleship)
Bold History
3,171 views
In 1889 an Act of Parliament committed Britain to a fleet stronger than the next
two navies in the world combined. Over the next fifty-seven years the Royal Navy
completed ninety-five battleships, more than any nation has ever built, and lost
seventeen of them.
Not one was sunk by another battleship.
Five were mined. Seven were torpedoed by submarines. One was sunk by a torpedo
boat with an Ottoman crew and a German officer aboard. One was destroyed by
aircraft. One ran onto a rock in fog, in peacetime. And two simply detonated at
their own moorings, killing more than fifteen hundred men between them without an
enemy within two hundred miles.
The fleets met once, at Jutland. Twenty-four British dreadnoughts were in the
line. One of them was hit, twice, and nobody aboard her was killed.
This is all twenty-seven classes in the order they were built: the Royal
Sovereigns that every navy on earth copied, the ship that made ninety-eight
battleships obsolete in an afternoon and fifty of them British, the two Ottoman
battleships seized in a single week in 1914, and finally Vanguard, the last
battleship completed by anybody, finished after the war she was built for had
already ended.
Hood is not in the seventeen. She was a battlecruiser.
0:00 Ninety-five battleships, and what actually killed them
0:35 Royal Sovereign class, 1892 - the design everybody copied
2:33 Centurion class, 1894 - small battleships for a very large ocean
4:12 HMS Renown, 1897 - the admiral's ship
5:27 Majestic class, 1895 - the largest class of battleships ever built
7:03 Canopus class, 1899 - the ship Cradock left behind
9:14 Formidable class, 1901 - a New Year's morning in the Channel
10:55 London class, 1902 - the worst morning in the Royal Navy's history
12:26 Duncan class, 1903 - fast ships built against a threat that did not exist
14:09 King Edward VII class, 1905 - the Wobbly Eight
15:53 Swiftsure class, 1904 - bought so that Russia could not have them
17:34 Lord Nelson class, 1908 - the last, and obsolete before they floated
19:19 HMS Dreadnought, 1906 - fifty British battleships made second-class
22:10 Bellerophon class, 1909 - fixing the famous ship, quietly
23:19 St Vincent class, 1910 - a better gun that was worse
24:44 HMS Neptune, 1911 - the ten-gun broadside nobody dared fire
25:57 Colossus class, 1911 - the only British dreadnought hit at Jutland
27:17 Orion class, 1912 - the super-dreadnought
28:45 King George V class, 1912 - the loss Britain hid for four years
30:30 Iron Duke class, 1914 - Jellicoe's flagship
32:23 HMS Agincourt, 1914 - seven turrets, three owners, and a war
34:43 HMS Erin, 1914 - the other seized ship
36:11 HMS Canada, 1915 - went home to Chile, and outlived them all
37:58 Queen Elizabeth class, 1915 - the fast battleship
41:26 Revenge class, 1916 - the ships nobody modernised
43:52 Nelson class, 1927 - cut down to fit the treaty
46:20 King George V class, 1940 - the only navy that kept the treaty
49:48 HMS Vanguard, 1946 - the last battleship completed by anybody
52:08 Ninety-five ships, and the seventeen that did not come back
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Every British Battleship Ever Built (Not One Was Sunk by Another Battleship)
Bold History
3,171 views
In 1889 an Act of Parliament committed Britain to a fleet stronger than the next
two navies in the world combined. Over the next fifty-seven years the Royal Navy
completed ninety-five battleships, more than any nation has ever built, and lost
seventeen of them.
Not one was sunk by another battleship.
Five were mined. Seven were torpedoed by submarines. One was sunk by a torpedo
boat with an Ottoman crew and a German officer aboard. One was destroyed by
aircraft. One ran onto a rock in fog, in peacetime. And two simply detonated at
their own moorings, killing more than fifteen hundred men between them without an
enemy within two hundred miles.
The fleets met once, at Jutland. Twenty-four British dreadnoughts were in the
line. One of them was hit, twice, and nobody aboard her was killed.
This is all twenty-seven classes in the order they were built: the Royal
Sovereigns that every navy on earth copied, the ship that made ninety-eight
battleships obsolete in an afternoon and fifty of them British, the two Ottoman
battleships seized in a single week in 1914, and finally Vanguard, the last
battleship completed by anybody, finished after the war she was built for had
already ended.
Hood is not in the seventeen. She was a battlecruiser.
0:00 Ninety-five battleships, and what actually killed them
0:35 Royal Sovereign class, 1892 - the design everybody copied
2:33 Centurion class, 1894 - small battleships for a very large ocean
4:12 HMS Renown, 1897 - the admiral's ship
5:27 Majestic class, 1895 - the largest class of battleships ever built
7:03 Canopus class, 1899 - the ship Cradock left behind
9:14 Formidable class, 1901 - a New Year's morning in the Channel
10:55 London class, 1902 - the worst morning in the Royal Navy's history
12:26 Duncan class, 1903 - fast ships built against a threat that did not exist
14:09 King Edward VII class, 1905 - the Wobbly Eight
15:53 Swiftsure class, 1904 - bought so that Russia could not have them
17:34 Lord Nelson class, 1908 - the last, and obsolete before they floated
19:19 HMS Dreadnought, 1906 - fifty British battleships made second-class
22:10 Bellerophon class, 1909 - fixing the famous ship, quietly
23:19 St Vincent class, 1910 - a better gun that was worse
24:44 HMS Neptune, 1911 - the ten-gun broadside nobody dared fire
25:57 Colossus class, 1911 - the only British dreadnought hit at Jutland
27:17 Orion class, 1912 - the super-dreadnought
28:45 King George V class, 1912 - the loss Britain hid for four years
30:30 Iron Duke class, 1914 - Jellicoe's flagship
32:23 HMS Agincourt, 1914 - seven turrets, three owners, and a war
34:43 HMS Erin, 1914 - the other seized ship
36:11 HMS Canada, 1915 - went home to Chile, and outlived them all
37:58 Queen Elizabeth class, 1915 - the fast battleship
41:26 Revenge class, 1916 - the ships nobody modernised
43:52 Nelson class, 1927 - cut down to fit the treaty
46:20 King George V class, 1940 - the only navy that kept the treaty
49:48 HMS Vanguard, 1946 - the last battleship completed by anybody
52:08 Ninety-five ships, and the seventeen that did not come back