HMS Cornwallis (1901)

Cornwallis fires a broadside during the withdrawal from Suvla Bay in December 1915. Photo by Ernest Brooks
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Cornwallis
Namesake	William Cornwallis
Builder	Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, Leamouth, London
Laid down	19 July 1899
Launched	17 July 1901
Completed	February 1904
Commissioned	9 February 1904
Fate	Sunk by U-32, 9 January 1917
General characteristics
Class and type	Duncan-class pre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement	Normal: 13,270 to 13,745 long tons (13,483 to 13,966 t) Full load: 14,900 to 15,200 long tons (15,100 to 15,400 t)
Length	432 ft (132 m) (loa)
Beam	75 ft 6 in (23.01 m)
Draught	25 ft 9 in (7.85 m)
Installed power	18,000 ihp (13,000 kW) 24 × Belleville water-tube boilers
Propulsion	2 × triple-expansion steam engines 2 × screw propellers
Speed	19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph)
Range	6,070 nmi (11,240 km; 6,990 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	720
Armament	4 × 12-inch (305 mm) 40-caliber Mk IX guns 12 × 6-inch (152 mm) 45-calibre guns 10 × 12-pounder guns 6 × 3-pounder guns 4 × 18-inch (457 mm) torpedo tubes (submerged)
Armour	Belt: 7 in (178 mm) Bulkheads: 11–7 in (279–178 mm) Decks: 2–1 in (51–25 mm) Turrets: 10–8 in (254–203 mm) Barbettes: 11–4 in (279–102 mm) Casemates: 6 in (152 mm) Conning tower: 12 in (305 mm)

HMS Cornwallis was a Duncan-class pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy. Built to counter a group of fast Russian battleships, Cornwallis and her sister ships were capable of steaming at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph), making them the fastest battleships in the world. The Duncan-class battleships were armed with a main battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns and they were broadly similar to the London-class battleships, though of a slightly reduced displacement and thinner armour layout. As such, they reflected a development of the lighter second-class ships of the Canopus-class battleship. Cornwallis was built between her keel laying in July 1899 and her completion in February 1904.

After commissioning in 1904, Cornwallis was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet until 1905, when she was transferred to the Channel Fleet. She stayed there for two years before being moved to the Atlantic Fleet, where she remained until 1909, at which point she returned to the Mediterranean Fleet. In 1912, she was reassigned to the Home Fleet, first to the 4th Battle Squadron and then to the 6th Battle Squadron, where she was stationed at the outbreak of the First World War. The 6th Squadron covered the crossing of the British Expeditionary Force to France in August 1914, and thereafter its ships were transferred to the 3rd Battle Squadron to reinforce the Grand Fleet on the Northern Patrol.

In January 1915, Cornwallis was sent to the Mediterranean to take part in the Dardanelles campaign against the Ottoman Empire. She fired the first shots of the campaign on 19 February during a bombardment of Ottoman coastal defences. Over the following two months, she participated in numerous attacks on the forts that failed to destroy them, leading to the decision that a major ground attack would be necessary to neutralise the defences. Cornwallis supported the Landing at Cape Helles on 25 April and shelled Ottoman troops over the following month as the Allied soldiers sought to push further inland. She thereafter served with the Suez Canal Patrol and briefly on the East Indies Station until March 1916, when she returned to the Mediterranean. While on patrol off Malta on 9 January 1917, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German U-boat U-32.