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2 shafts, reciprocating steam engines, 2 boilers, 2,310 hp
Speed
6.5 knots (12.0km/h)
Complement
194
Armament
Originally two BL 12 inch Mk VIII in a single turret, two QF 3-pounder guns. Lord Clive and General Wolfe had an additional single BL 18 inch Mk I in 1918 installed aft. Similar work on Prince Eugene was not completed because of the end of the war.
Armour
Belt: 6 inch
Turret: 10.5 inch
Barbette 8 inch
Deck 2 inch
The Lord Clive-class monitor, sometimes referred to as the General Wolfe class, were ships designed for shore bombardment and were constructed for the Royal Navy during the First World War.
The slow progress of the war led to the need for more shore bombardment ships and various schemes for using spare heavy guns were considered. Heavier guns such as 13.5-inch and 15-inch weapons had no available mountings so the main armament consisted of a single twin 12-inch (305mm) gun turret taken from decommissioned Majestic-classpre-dreadnought battleships.
The ships were ordered after the Abercrombie class had begun building and the hull form was a near repeat of that design. Extra quick-firing artillery for protection from destroyers and torpedo boats was also fitted in most ships and consisted of up to four six-inch guns.
The stern of HMS Lord Clive; showing her BL 18 inch gun on its fixed mounting, November 1918On board Lord Clive; her BL 18 inch gun is at its full elevation. November 1918
Three of the ships, HMS General Wolfe, Lord Clive and Prince Eugene, were to be converted to take the BL18-inch guns that had originally been allocated to HMSFurious. The guns were mounted aft, permanently arranged to fire over the starboard beam. The mounting consisted of two massive side girders parallel to the barrel, between which the gun was slung. At the forward end was a support about which the gun could train in a limited arc, with a hydraulic cylinder providing ten degrees of traverse each side of the mounting center line. The gun was loaded at the fixed angle of 10 degrees, but firing was only allowed between 22 degrees and 45 degrees of elevation, to distribute the large firing forces evenly between the forward and after supports. The mounting was covered by a large non-traversing half-inch steel plate shield fixed to the deck.[1]
The enormous rounds and charges were transported to the gunhouse on a light railway fixed to the main deck. Work was completed on Lord Clive and General Wolfe but the end of World War I intervened before Prince Eugene was finished. Both of the converted ships saw action. The original 12-inch turret was left in place on them to maintain stability.
General Wolfe fired on a railway bridge at Snaeskerke, four miles (6km) south of Ostend, Belgium, on 28 September 1918. The range of 36,000 yards (33km) made this the greatest range at which a Royal Navy vessel has ever engaged an enemy target using guns.[citation needed]Lord Clive fired a mere four rounds with the replacement gun at enemy targets.
Buxton, Ian (2008) [1978]. Big Gun Monitors: Design, Construction and Operations 1914–1945 (2nd Reviseded.). Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-84415-719-8.
Crossley, Jim (2013). Monitors of the Royal Navy; How the Fleet Brought the Great Guns to Bear. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword. ISBN978-1-78383-004-6.
Dittmar, F. J. & Colledge, J. J., "British Warships 1914-1919", (Ian Allan, London, 1972), ISBN0-7110-0380-7
Dunn, Steve R. (2017). Securing the Narrow Sea: The Dover Patrol 1914–1918. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-84832-251-6.
Friedman, Norman (2011). Naval Weapons of World War One: Guns, Torpedoes, Mines and ASW Weapons of All Nations; An Illustrated Directory. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-84832-100-7.
The M29 class comprised five monitors of the Royal Navy, all built and launched during 1915.
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The Abercrombie class of monitors served in the Royal Navy during the First World War.
The Erebus class of warships was a class of 20th century Royal Navy monitors armed with a main battery of two 15-inch /42 Mk 1 guns in a single turret. It consisted of two vessels, Erebus and Terror, named after the two ships lost in the Franklin Expedition. Both were launched in 1916 and saw active service in World War I off the Belgian coast. After being placed in reserve between the wars, they served in World War II, with Terror being lost in 1941 and Erebus surviving to be scrapped in 1946.
The Marshal Ney class was a class of monitor built for the Royal Navy during the First World War.
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HMS Prince Eugene was one of eight Lord Clive-class monitors built for the Royal Navy in 1915 to conduct shore bombardments during the First World War. The ship was assigned to the Dover Patrol for the duration of the war and provided cover for the Inshore Squadron during the First Ostend Raid. She was sold for scrap in 1921.
HMS General Craufurd was the one of eight Lord Clive-class monitors built for the Royal Navy during World War I. Their primary armament was taken from obsolete pre-dreadnought battleships. The ship spent the war in the English Channel bombarding German positions along the Belgian coast as part of the Dover Patrol. She participated in the failed First and Second Ostend Raids in 1918, bombarding the defending coastal artillery as the British attempted to block the Bruges–Ostend Canal. Later that year General Craufurd supported the coastal battles during the Hundred Days Offensive until the Germans evacuated coastal Belgium in mid-October. The ship was decommissioned almost immediately after the war ended the following month, but she was reactivated in 1920 to serve as a gunnery training ship for a year. General Craufurd was sold for scrap in 1921.
HMS Lord Clive was the lead ship of her class of eight monitors built for the Royal Navy during World War I. Their primary armament was taken from obsolete pre-dreadnought battleships. The ship spent the war in the English Channel bombarding German positions along the Belgian coast as part of the Dover Patrol, often serving as a flagship. She participated in the failed First Ostend Raid in 1918, bombarding the defending coastal artillery as the British attempted to block the Bruges–Ostend Canal. Lord Clive was one of two ships in the class fitted with a single 18-inch (457 mm) gun in 1918, but she only fired four rounds from it in combat before the end of the war in November. The ship conducted gunnery trials after the war and was sold for scrap in 1927.
HMS General Wolfe, also known as Wolfe, was a Lord Clive-class monitor which was built in 1915 for shore-bombardment duties in the First World War. Her class of eight ships was armed by four obsolete Majestic-class pre-dreadnoughts which had their 12-inch guns and mounts removed, modified and installed in the newly built monitors. Wolfe spent her entire war service with the Dover Patrol, bombarding the German-occupied Belgian coastline, which had been heavily fortified. In the spring of 1918 she was fitted with an 18-inch (457 mm) gun, with which she made the longest-range firing in the history of the Royal Navy - 36,000-yard (20 mi) - on a target at Snaeskerke, Belgium. After the war, she was laid up before being stripped and put up for sale in 1920. She was finally scrapped in 1923.
HMS Sir John Moore was one of eight Lord Clive-class monitors built for the Royal Navy in 1915 to conduct shore bombardments during the First World War. The ship was assigned to the Dover Patrol for the duration of the war and was sold for scrap in 1921.
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HMS Abercrombie was a Royal Navy Roberts-class monitor of the Second World War. She was the second monitor to be named after General Sir Ralph Abercrombie.
The M15 class comprised fourteen monitors of the Royal Navy, all built and launched during 1915.
HMS Turbulent was an S-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy during the First World War.
The Neptune class was a proposed class of cruisers planned for the British Royal Navy in the latter years of the Second World War. They were large ships which were to be armed with twelve 6-inch (152 mm) dual-purpose guns and with a heavy secondary armament. Although five ships of the class were planned in 1944, they were cancelled following the end of the war and before construction could begin.
HMS Satyr was an R-class destroyer which served with the Royal Navy during the First World War. Launched on 27 December 1916, Satyr joined the Harwich Force under the command of Commander Hubert de Burgh. In 1917, the destroyer formed part of a force protecting the monitors Erebus and Terror in their bombardment of Ostend. As part of this action, Satyr, along with sister ships Taurus, Sharpshooter and Torrent, sank the German destroyer S20. After the war, the ship served with the Torpedo School at the Devonport. In 1923, the Navy decided to retire many of the older destroyers in preparation for the introduction of newer and larger vessels and Satyr was sold to be broken up on 16 December 1926.
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