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Bellerophon Class Battleship




In design, the three ships of the ''Bellerophon'' class (and the subsequent three of the ''St Vincent'' Class ) were near-repeats of HMS ''Dreadnought'' . Visually the only difference from ''Dreadnought''. was a second tripod mast.


DESIGN

The ''Bellerophon''s continued the universal trend of greater displacement and cost. They did address some of the flaws of ''Dreadnought''. Changes to the hull gave a more complete internal protection and allowed the larger ships to make the same speed with the same powerplant. While ''Dreadnought'' had Bulkhead s that protected only the Magazines , the ''Bellerophon'' had complete bulkheads running longitudinally through the ship. The 12-pounder guns that had been added to ''Dreadnought'' for protection from Torpedo Boat s were recognised as being insufficient and their Secondary Armament was made up of 4-inch guns. The foremast which on ''Dreadnought'' was behind the fore funnel so that it could be used for the boat crane was sited ahead of the funnel moving the lookouts stationed on the observation platform out of the smoke plume. A mainmast added ahead of the aft funnel was still affected by the plume of the fore funnel and was not considered a success.
These changes did require some compromises in the design resulting in thinner armor, reducing the belt armor from 11 to 10 inches, and a reduced Coal bunkerage, which limited the steaming endurance.


CHARACTERISTICS

  • Length: 522 ft waterline, 526 ft overall

  • Beam : 82 ft 6 in

  • Draught : 31 ft 5 in

  • Displacement : 18,596 t, 22,540 t load

  • Armament:

  • :10 x 12 in (305 mm) 45 cal MK X (5 x 2)

:16 x 4 in (102 mm) 16 x 1
:4 x 3-pounder (1.4 kg) 4 x 1
:3 x 18 in (457 mm) torpedo tubes