Courageous-class battlecruiser
The Courageous class of battlecruisers were built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. The class was nominally designed to support the Baltic Project, a plan by Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher. The first two ships, Courageous and Glorious, were commissioned in 1917 and spent the war patrolling the North Sea. Furious was designed a few months later to meet a revised requirement specifying an armament of two BL 18-inch Mk I guns. All three ships were laid up after the war, but were rebuilt into the Courageous-class aircraft carrier during the 1920s. Glorious and Courageous were sunk early in the Second World War and Furious was sold for scrap in 1948.
About Courageous-class battlecruiser in brief
The Courageous class of battlecruisers were built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. The class was nominally designed to support the Baltic Project, a plan by Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher that was intended to land troops on the German Baltic Coast. The first two ships, Courageous and Glorious, were commissioned in 1917 and spent the war patrolling the North Sea. Their half-sister Furious was designed a few months later to meet a revised requirement specifying an armament of two BL 18-inch Mk I guns. All three ships were laid up after the war, but were rebuilt into the Courageous-class aircraft carrier during the 1920s. Glorious and Courageous were sunk early in the Second World War and Furious was sold for scrap in 1948. Her secondary armament was upgraded to BL 5. 5-inch Mk I Guns, rather than the 4-inch guns used by the first 2 ships. The ships were known in the Royal navy as “Lord Fisher’s hush-hush cruisers” and their odd design also earned them the nickname of the Outrageous class. In the letter dated April 1912, Fisher stated: There must be further armour of SPREASE IN… IN. Fisher’s belief in the paramount importance of speed over everything else is highlighted in a letter he wrote to Churchill in 1912 concerning the battleships of the 1912–13 Naval Estimates of the British Navy. In the same letter, he wrote: ‘I’ve told you that the more that the ships of the Big Light Cruisers, the more the excellence and simplicity of their design and three vital requisites of speed, gunpower, and draught, so well balanced!’ In fact, Fisher’s adherence to this principle is highlighted in a letter to Churchill of the Naval Estimates of the 1912 13 Naval Estimates of the British Navy, dated April 13–13, when he said: “There must be VERY further armour..”.
The ships of this class were fast but very lightly armoured, with only a few heavy guns. They were given a shallow draught in part to allow them to operate in the shallow waters of the Baltic but also reflecting experience gained earlier in the war. To maximize their speed, the first capital ships of the Royal Navy to use geared steam turbines and small-tube boilers. They participated in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in November 1917 and were present when the High Seas Fleet surrendered a year later. Furious was modified during construction to take a flying-off deck and hangar in lieu of her forward turret and barbette. After some patrols in the North Sea, her rear turret was removed and another flight deck added. Her aircraft attacked the Zeppelin sheds during the Tondern raid in July 1918. Her displacement and beam were increased over that of her half-Sisters with slightly less draught.
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This page is based on the article Courageous-class battlecruiser published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 31, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
