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HMS Empress of India - Battleships-Cruisers.co.uk

HMS Empress of India

Name : HMS Empress of India
Laid Down : 9th July 1899
Launched : 7th May 1891
Completed : 11th September 1893
Type : Battleship
Class : Royal Sovereign
Builder : Pembroke
Country : UK
Pennants :
Fate : Sunk as target On 4 November 1913, Empress of India was used as a target ship in firing trials in Lyme Bay that were primarily intended to give officers and men an idea of the effect of live shell against a real target. A secondary objective was to look at the problems caused by several ships firing at the same target at the same time. The first ship to engage the stationary Empress of India was the light cruiser Liverpool, this was followed by two dreadnought battleships (Thunderer and Orio

HMS Empress of India. Steel armoured pre dreadnought battleship built at Pembroke Dockyard as part of the Royal Sovereign class. Launched 7th May 1891 at Pembroke dockyard. She was initial to be called HMS Renown in1900 but changed before completion. She served in the Channel Squadron, HMS Empress of India was finally sunk as a target on 4th November 1913. Displacement: 14,150 tons. Horse power: 13,000. Length: 380 ft. Beam: 75ft. Draught: 27' 6". Compliment: 712. Speed 18 knots. Armament: four 67 ton in two armoured barbettes (13.5 inch). Ten 6-inch guns, 16 - 6 pounder QF, (this were distributed widely on two decks, with six mounted on main deck in casemates and the rest on upper deck with splinter shields. In the refits of 1902/1904 this upper deck guns had their splinter shields replaced with 5-inch KC armour casemates. ) Twelve 3 pounder guns and seven 18-inch torpedo tubes (5 aw and 2 submerged). Partial belt of 18 inch thick armour.

HMS Empress of India, named after a regnal title of Queen Victoria, was the first ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy. She was ordered under the Naval Defence Act Programme of 1889 with the name of Renown and was laid down on 9 July 1889 at Pembroke Dockyard. The ship was renamed before she was launched on 7 May 1891 by Louise Margaret, Duchess of Connaught and Strathearn. One man was killed when a cable snapped the following day. The ship was then transferred to Chatham Dockyard, where she was completed in August 1893, at a cost of £912,612. Empress of India was commissioned at Chatham on 11 September 1893 to relieve the ironclad battleship Anson as the flagship of the second-in-command of the Channel Fleet. She participated in annual manoeuvres in the Irish Sea and English Channel as a unit of the "Blue Fleet", 2–5 August 1894. Sometime during the year, the ship was fitted with bilge keels to reduce her rolling. In June 1895, Empress of India was among the ships representing the Royal Navy at the opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal in Germany. That summer, the ship again took part in annual manoeuvres, held from 24 July to 30 August 1895. She became a private ship in December 1895 and was paid off at Chatham on 7 June 1897. The following day, Empress of India recommissioned for service with the Mediterranean Fleet. Before departing, she took part in the Fleet Review for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria at Spithead on 26 June. The ship arrived at Malta to begin her Mediterranean service in August. In August and September 1898, she was part of the International Squadron blockading Crete during the Greco-Turkish uprising there. Captain Henry Hart Dyke was appointed in command in June 1899. The ship was relieved by the battleship Implacable on 14 September 1901[8] and departed Gibraltar homebound on 3 October. On 12 October, Empress of India paid off at Devonport, but she recommissioned the next day under the command of Captain Henry Louis Fleet, to relieve the ironclad battleship Howe at Queenstown, Ireland, as both the coast guard ship there and as flagship to Rear-Admiral Edmund Jeffreys, Senior Naval Officer, Coast of Ireland Station.[8] The ship began an extensive refit at Plymouth in early March 1902 During this refit her upper deck six-inch guns received casemates to improve their protection. Empress of India was assigned to the Home Fleet on 7 May 1902, in which she served as flagship in port and as flagship of the second-in-command when the fleet was at sea. The ship participated in the Coronation Fleet Review of King Edward VII in August. Empress of India served as flagship of "B Fleet" during combined manoeuvres of the Home Fleet, Mediterranean Fleet, and Channel Fleets off Portugal from 5 August to 9 August 1903, but her port engine broke down for 14 hours and the fleet had to leave her behind. Her sister ship Royal Oak relieved her as flagship of the second-in-command of the Home Fleet on 1 June 1904, and she became a private ship. The battleship Hannibal relieved her on 22 February 1905, and the ship paid off the next day. That same day, Empress of India recommissioned in reserve at Devonport and relieved the battleship Barfleur as flagship of the new Fleet in Commission in Reserve at Home. In July 1905 she participated in Reserve Fleet manoeuvres. In September 1905, the protected cruiser Aeolus relieved her of her duties, but she recommissioned on 31 October 1905 with a new nucleus crew to resume her Reserve Fleet duties. She then underwent a refit that lasted into 1906. Empress of India collided with the submarine A10 in Plymouth Sound on 30 April 1906. When the Reserve Fleet was abolished in February 1907 and became the Home Fleet, Empress of India continued her service as flagship, but now for the Rear-Admiral, Devonport Division. On 25 May she was relieved as flagship by the protected cruiser Niobe. Three days later, the ship recommissioned as a special service vessel.[8] Empress of India relieved her sister ship Royal Oak as parent ship of the special service vessels in November 1911.[15] On 2 March, the ship left Portsmouth under tow by the armoured cruiser Warrior, en route to the Motherbank, where she was to be laid up, but she collided with the German barque Winderhudder en route and had to return to Portsmouth for repairs. She finally arrived at the Motherbank two months later and was laid up, awaiting disposal

HMS Empress of India Photos for Sale
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HMS Empress of India of the Channel Squadron - 1896


HMS Empress of India, 1893.


HMS Empress of India, 1893.


HMS Empress of India, 1893.


HMS Empress of India, 1893.


HMS Empress Of India


HMS Empress of India.


HMS Empress of India with Rear Admiral Charles Grey Robinson inset.


HMS Empress of India.

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Known Crew Details :

Name

Start of Service

End of Service

Known Date

Carmelo ABELA

0th 0

0th 0

0th 0

Timeline Entries :


7th May 1891 - Launched
28th January 1892 - Preparing for steam trials at Pembroke
9th February 1892 - At Pembroke
27th February 1892 - Arrived Sheerness from Pembroke
29th February 1892 - Sailed Sheerness for Chatham to be completed
1894 - Channel Squadron
1895 - Channel Squadron
15th August 1895 - At Torbay with the Reserve Fleet
1896 - Channel Squadron
22nd January 1896 - Capt. Angus McLeod in Command
22nd January 1896 - At Plymouth for repairs
22nd January 1896 - 25th Jan 1896 Sailed Plymouth for Portland
18th July 1896 - Arrived Berehaven
22nd September 1896 - Arrived Leith for the arrival of the Tsar of Russia
1897 - Channel Squadron
26th June 1897 - Capt. C. Campbell in Command
26th June 1897 - Fleet Review celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria
1898 - Mediterranean and Red Sea Fleet
1899 - Mediterranean and Red Sea Fleet
1900 - Mediterranean and Red Sea Fleet
24th December 1900 - Turned over to relief crew
1901 - Mediterranean and Red Sea Fleet
16th August 1902 - Coronation Review at Spithead
16th August 1902 - Capt. H.L. Fleet in Command
5th August 1903 - On Fleet Maneouvres
5th August 1903 - Commenced Fleet Maneouvres
1904 - Home Fleet
15th December 1904 - Sailed Portland for Plymouth
1905 - Channel Fleet
June 1906 - In Commission, In Reserve, At Plymouth
April 1909 - 4th Division, Home Fleet at Plymouth
4th November 1913 - Sunk As Target

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