HMS Barham (04)

Barham underway at low speed, mid-1930s
History
United Kingdom
Name	Barham
Namesake	Admiral Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham
Builder	John Brown & Company, Clydebank
Yard number	424
Laid down	24 February 1913
Launched	31 December 1914
Commissioned	19 October 1915
Identification	Pennant number: 04
Fate	Sunk by U-331, 25 November 1941
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Queen Elizabeth-class battleship
Displacement	32,590 long tons (33,113 t)
Length	643 ft 9 in (196.2 m)
Beam	90 ft 7 in (27.6 m)
Draught	33 ft (10.1 m)
Installed power	24 Yarrow boilers 56,000 shp (42,000 kW)
Propulsion	4 shafts; 2 steam turbine sets
Speed	24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph)
Range	5,000 nmi (9,260 km; 5,750 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement	1,016 (1916)
Armament	4 × twin 15-inch (381 mm) guns 14 × single 6-inch (152 mm) guns 2 × single 3-inch (76 mm) 20 cwt AA guns 4 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour	Waterline belt: 13 in (330 mm) Deck: 1–3 in (25–76 mm) Barbettes: 7–10 in (178–254 mm) Gun turrets: 11–13 in (279–330 mm) Conning tower: 13 in (330 mm)

HMS Barham was one of five Queen Elizabeth-class battleships built for the Royal Navy during the early 1910s. Completed in 1915, she was often used as a flagship and participated in the Battle of Jutland during the First World War as part of the Grand Fleet. For the rest of the war, except for the inconclusive action of 19 August 1916, her service generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea.

During the 1920s and 1930s, the ship was assigned to the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Home Fleets. Barham played a minor role in quelling the 1929 Palestine riots and the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. The ship was in the Mediterranean when the Second World War began in September 1939, on her voyage home three months later, she accidentally collided with and sank one of her escorting destroyers, HMS Duchess.

She participated in the Battle of Dakar in mid-1940, where she damaged a Vichy French battleship and was slightly damaged in return. Barham was then transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet, where she covered multiple Malta convoys. She helped to sink an Italian heavy cruiser and a destroyer during the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941 and was damaged by German aircraft two months later during the evacuation of Crete. Barham was sunk off the Egyptian coast the following November by the German submarine U-331 with the loss of 862 crewmen, approximately two thirds of her crew.