HMS Glory (1899)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Glory.

300px HMS Glory departs Portsmouth for the China Station, December 1900
Career (United Kingdom)
Name:	HMS Glory
Ordered:	1896 Programme
Builder:	Cammel Laird, Birkenhead
Cost:	£780,000
Laid down:	1 December 1896
Launched:	11 March 1899
Completed:	October 1900
Commissioned:	1 November 1900
Decommissioned:	17 September 1921
Renamed:	HMS Crescent April 1920
Fate:	Sold for scrapping 19 December 1922
General characteristics
Class and type:	Canopus class
Type:	Predreadnought battleship
Displacement:	12,950 tons
Length:	431 ft (131 m)
Beam:	74 ft (23 m)
Draught:	26 ft (7.9 m)
Installed power:	13,500 I.H.P.
Propulsion:	2 shafts, water tube boilers, vertical triple expansion steam engines by Lairds, 15,400 ihp (11,500 kW). Belleville boilers.
Speed:	18 knots
Complement:	750
Armament:	4 × BL 12-inch (304.8 mm) 35-caliber Mk VIII guns 12 × QF 6-inch (152.4 mm) 40-caliber guns 10 × 12-pounder quick-firing guns 6 x 3-pounder guns 4 × 18 in (457 mm) torpedo tubes (underwater)
Armour:	Belt 6 inches (152 mm) Bulkheads 10-6 inches (254-152 mm) Barbettes 12 inches (305 mm) Gun houses 8 inches (203 mm) Casemates 6 inches (152 mm) Conning tower 12 inches (305 mm) decks 2 inches-1 inch (51 mm-25.4 mm)

HMS Glory was a Royal Navy battleship of the Canopus class.

Technical Characteristics

HMS Glory and her five sister ships were designed for service in the Far East, where the new rising power Japan was beginning to build a powerful and dangerous navy, and to able to transit the Suez Canal. They were designed to be smaller (by about 2,000 tons), lighter, and faster than their predecessors, the Majestic-class battleships, although they were slightly longer at 430 feet (131 m). In order to save weight, Glory carried less armor than the Majestics, although the change from Harvey armor in the Majestics to Krupp armor in the Canopus class meant that the loss in protection was not as great as it might have been, Krupp armor having greater protective value at a given weight than its Harvey equivalent. Still, Glory's armor was light enough to make her almost a second-class battleship. Part of the Canopus class's armor scheme included the use of a special 1-inch (2.54 mm) armored deck over the belt to defend against plunging fire by howitzers that France reportedly planned to install on its ships, although this report proved to be false.

Glory had four 12-inch (305-mm) 35-caliber guns mounted in twin turrets fore and aft; these guns were mounted in circular barbettes that allowed all-around loading, although at a fixed elevation. The ships also mounted twelve 6-inch (152-mm) 40-caliber guns (sponson mounting allowing some of them to fire fore and aft) in addition to smaller guns, and four 18-inch (457-mm) submerged torpedo tubes.

The Canopus class ships were the first British battleships with water-tube boilers, which generated more power at less expense in weight compared with the cylindrical boilers used in previous ships. The new boilers led to the adoption of fore-and-aft funnels, rather than the side-by-side funnel arrangement used in may previous British battleships. The Canopus-class ships proved to be good steamers, consuming 10 tons of coal per hour at full speed, with a high speed for battleships of their time, a full two knots faster than the Majestics.

Operational history

HMS Glory commissioned on 1 November 1900 for service on the China Station, departing the United Kingdom for China on 24 November 1900. While there, she was in collision with battleship HMS Centurion during a storm at Hong Kong on 17 April 1901, when Centurion drifted across her bows, but Glory suffered no damage. Glory refitted at Hong Kong in 1901-1902.

In 1905, the United Kingdom and Japan ratified a treaty of alliance that reduced the need for a Royal Navy presence on the China Station, and all battleships there were recalled. As a result, Glory was recalled from China in July 1905, departing Hong Kong on 22 July 1905.

Glory paid off at Portsmouth on 2 October 1905. She returned to full commission on 24 October 1905 for service in the Channel Fleet. On 31 October 1906, she transferred to the Portsmouth Reserve Division, which in January 1907 became the Portsmouth Division of the new Home Fleet. She underwent a refit at Portsmouth from March to September 1907, during which she received fire control and magazine cooling and had her machinery and boilers overhauled.

Her refit completed, Glory commissioned at Portsmouth on 18 September 1907 for service in the Mediterranean Fleet. On 20 April 1909, she paid off at Portsmouth and recommissioned for reserve duty with a nucleus crew in the 4th Division, Home Fleet, at the Nore. She became part of the 3rd Fleet at the Nore in May 1912 and transferred to Portsmouth in April 1913.

When World War I broke out in August 1914, Glory was assigned to the 8th Battle Squadron, Channel Fleet, based at Devonport, but she was detached on 5 August 1914 to serve at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, as guard ship and to support the North America and West Indies Station cruiser squadron, serving as flagship of the station. She escorted a Canadian troop convoy in October 1914.

Glory transferred to the Mediterranean in May 1915 to participate in Dardanelles campaign, arriving at the Dardanelles in June 1915. At the end of 1915 she left this duty and joined the Suez Canal Patrol in the Mediterranean on 4 January 1916. In April 1916, she returned to the United Kingdom and began a refit at Portsmouth that lasted until July 1916.

Glory recommissioned on 1 August 1916 to serve as Flagship, Rear Admiral, British North Russia Squadron. In this duty, she was based at Archangel to protect supplies that arrived there for the Russian Army.

In September 1919, Glory returned to the United Kingdom. She paid off into care and maintenance on 1 November 1919 at Sheerness. She was renamed HMS Crescent in April 1920 and transferred to Rosyth on 1 May 1920 to serve as a harbor depot ship.

Crescent paid off and was placed on the disposal list on 17 September 1921. She was sold for scrapping on 19 December 1922.

References

Glory departs Portsmouth for the China Station in December 1900.

• Burt, R. A. British Battleships 1889-1904. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1988. ISBN 0870210610.
• Chesneau, Roger, and Eugene M. Kolesnik, eds. Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1979). ISBN 0-85177-133-5
• Dittmar, F. J., & J. J. Colledge. British Warships 1914-1919, Londo: Ian Allen, London, 1972. ISBN 0-7110-0380-7
• Gibbons, Tony. The Complete Encyclopedia of Battleships and Battlecruisers: A Technical Directory of All the World's Capital Ships From 1860 to the Present Day. London: Salamander Books Ltd., 1983.
• Gray, Randal, Ed. Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1985. ISBN 0870219073.
• Pears, Randolph. British Battleships 1892-1957: The Great Days of the Fleets. G. Cave Associates, 1979. ISBN 978-0906223147.