Cressy Class Armoured Cruisers

World War 1 Naval Combat

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hms cressy Cressy Class.  Armoured cruiser equivalents of the Diadem class.  They reintroduced the 9.2 inch gun but were criticised for only carrying two of them.  The lower 6 inch casemate guns were very wet in a seaway and the large sides.  The class were built to defend merchant shipping against raids by French cruisers and to operate with the battle fleet and were all sheathed for tropical service.

HMS Cressy
Built Fairfield, Govan, laid down October 1898, completed May 1901.

HMS Aboukir
Built Fairfield, Govan, laid down November 1898, completed April 1902.

HMS Bacchante
Built John Brown, Clydebank, laid down February 1899, completed November 1902.

HMS Hogue
Built Vickers, Barrow, laid down July 1898, completed November 1902.

HMS Sutlej
Built John Brown, Clydebank, laid down August 1898, completed May 1902.

HMS Euryalus
Built Vickers, Barrow, laid down July 1899, completed January 1904.

Average cost £800,000.

Size:
Length 440 feet pp 472 feet overall, beam 69 feet 6 inches, draught 26 feet, displacement 12,000 tons load.

Propulsion:
2 shaft triple expansion engines, 21,000 ihp, 21 knots

Trials:
Cressy 21,200 ihp = 20.79 knots
Aboukir 21,352 ihp = 21.6 knots
Bacchante 21,520 ihp = 21.75 knots
Hogue 22,065 ihp = 22.1 knots
Sutlej 21,261 ihp = 21.77 knots
Euryalus 21,318 ihp = 21.63 knots

Armour:
6-2in belt, 6in barbettes, 6in turret faces, 3-1in decks

Armament:
2 x 9.2in Mk VIII (2 x 1), 12 x 6in Mk VII (12 x 1), 3 x 3pounder (3 x 1), 2 x 18in TT

Comments:
The introduction of Krupp armour enabled this class to re-introduce side armour in the British cruisers, making them the first modern Armoured Cruisers in the British navy.  The class also were the first British ships to use wood that had been treated to be fire proof.  Crew 760.

World War 1 Service:
Cressy
7th Cruiser Squadron North Sea as part of Cruiser Force C.
28 August 1914 Covering force at the Battle of Heligoland Bight.
22 September 1914 Sunk by German submarine U9.

Aboukir
7th Cruiser Squadron North Sea as part of Cruiser Force C.
28 August 1914 Covering force at Battle of Heligoland Bight.
22 September 1914 Sunk by German submarine U9.

Bacchante
7th Cruiser Squadron North Sea as part of Cruiser Force C
28 August 1914 Covering force at Battle of Heligoland Bight.
October 1914 Escorted convoy to Gibraltar.
February 1915 Suez Canal.
April 1915-1916 Dardanelles.
1917 9th Cruiser Squadron West Africa.
1920 Sold for scrap.

Hogue
7th Cruiser Squadron North Sea as part of Cruiser Force C
28 August 1914 Covering force at Battle of Heligoland Bight.
22 September 1914 Sunk by German submarine U9.

Sutlej
9th Cruiser Squadron Grand Fleet.
February 1915 11th Cruiser Squadron Ireland.
February 1916 Santa Cruz.
September 1916 9th Cruiser Squadron West Africa
1917 Accommodation ship at Rosyth.
January 1918 Re-named Crescent II as Depot ship at Rosyth.
1919 Sold for scrap.

Euryalus
7th Cruiser Squadron North Sea as part of Cruiser Force C
28 August 1914 Covering force at Battle of Heligoland Bight.
October 1914 Escorted convoy to Gibraltar.
February 1915 Suez Canal.
April 1915 Dardanelles.
December 1915 Suez Canal.
1916 East Indies.
November 1917 paid off at Hong Kong for (cancelled) conversion to a minelayer.
1920 Sold for scrap.

HMS Euryalus.  The newly re-introduced armoured belt was 231 foot long and 11 feet 6 inches deep covering from the main deck to 5 feet below the waterline.  The class saw extensive service during the war and were considered successful despite the famous loss of three of them to the submarine U9. HMS Euryalus

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