HMS Indefatigable (1909)

HMS Indefatigable
History
United Kingdom
Name	Indefatigable
Ordered	1908–1909 Naval Programme
Builder	HM Dockyard, Devonport
Laid down	23 February 1909
Launched	28 October 1909
Commissioned	24 February 1911
Fate	Sunk during the Battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916
General characteristics
Class and type	Indefatigable-class battlecruiser
Displacement	18,500 long tons (18,800 t) 22,130 long tons (22,485 t) at deep load
Length	590 ft (179.8 m)
Beam	80 ft (24.4 m)
Draught	29 ft 9 in (9.07 m) (deep load)
Installed power	31 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers 43,000 shp (32,000 kW)
Propulsion	4 × shafts; 2 × steam turbine sets
Speed	25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph)
Range	6,690 nmi (12,390 km; 7,700 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	800
Armament	4 × twin BL 12 in (305 mm) Mk X guns 16 × single BL 4 in (0 m) Mk VII guns 2 × submerged 17.72 in (450 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour	Belt: 4–6 in (102–152 mm) Decks: 1.5–2.5 in (38–64 mm) Gun turrets: 7 in (178 mm)

HMS Indefatigable was the lead ship of her class of three battlecruisers built for the Royal Navy during the first decade of the 20th Century. When the First World War began, Indefatigable was serving with the 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron (BCS) in the Mediterranean, where she unsuccessfully pursued the battlecruiser Goeben and the light cruiser Breslau of the German Imperial Navy as they fled toward the Ottoman Empire. The ship bombarded Ottoman fortifications defending the Dardanelles on 3 November 1914, then, following a refit in Malta, returned to the United Kingdom in February where she rejoined the 2nd BCS.

Indefatigable was sunk on 31 May 1916 during the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle of the war. Part of Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty's Battlecruiser Fleet, she was hit several times in the first minutes of the "Run to the South", the opening phase of the battlecruiser action. Shells from the German battlecruiser Von der Tann caused an explosion ripping a hole in her hull, and a second explosion hurled large pieces of the ship 200 feet (60 m) in the air. Only three of the crew of 1,019 survived.