HMS Bulwark was one of five London-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy at the end of the 19th century. Completed in 1902 she was initially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet as its flagship. The ship then served with the Channel and Home Fleets from 1907 to 1910, usually as a flagship. Following the start of the First World War in August 1914, Bulwark, along with the rest of the squadron, was attached to the reformed Channel Fleet to protect the British Expeditionary Force. On 26 November 1914 she was destroyed by a large internal explosion with the loss of 741 men near Sheerness.
About HMS Bulwark (1899) in brief
HMS Bulwark was one of five London-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy at the end of the 19th century. Completed in 1902 she was initially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet as its flagship. The ship then served with the Channel and Home Fleets from 1907 to 1910, usually as a flagship. Following the start of the First World War in August 1914, Bulwark, along with the rest of the squadron, was attached to the reformed Channel Fleet to protect the British Expeditionary Force. On 26 November 1914 she was destroyed by a large internal explosion with the loss of 741 men near Sheerness; only a dozen men survived the detonation. Little of the ship survived to be salvaged and her remains were designated a controlled site under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. Diving on the wreck is generally forbidden. The five ships of the London class were ordered in 1898 in response to increased naval construction for the Imperial Russian Navy. The London class was a virtual repeat of the preceding Formidable class, though with significant revision to the forward armour protection scheme. The ships carried enough coal to give them a range of 5,550 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots. The main battery consisted of four BL 12-inch Mk IX guns mounted in twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. Their secondary armament consisted of a dozen BL 6- inch Mk VII guns mounted mounted in casemates mounted in the sides of the hull.
As was customary for battleships of the period, they were also equipped with four submerged 18-inch torpedo tubes in the hull, two on each broadside. The Londons had an armoured belt that was 9 inches thick; the transverse bulkheads on the aftend of the belt were 9 to 12 in thick. They were fitted with three armoured decks, ranging in thickness between 1 and 2.in for each side of a ship. Bulwark is the fourth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Royal Navy, and one of the three battleships ordered as part of the 1898–1899 Naval Estimates. She was commissioned by Captain Frederick Hamilton on March 18, 1899, for service with the Mediterranean fleet with the cost of £846,846 plus £167,970 for armament for her armament. She had a metacentric height of 4. 46 feet. Her crew numbered 738 officers and ratings as a private ship and up to 789 when serving as a Flagship. She displaced 15,366 long tons normally and up to 15,955 longtons fully loaded. Her conning tower had 14in of Krupp steel. During her sea trials,. Bulwark reached 18. 2 knots from 15,353 ihp. The ship had a pair of three-cylinder inverted vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one screw, using steam provided by twenty Belleville boilers.
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