HMS Gorgon (1914)

HMS Gorgon
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Gorgon
Builder	Armstrong Whitworth
Laid down	11 June 1913
Launched	9 June 1914
Commissioned	1 May 1918
Decommissioned	September 1919
Fate	Sold for scrap, 26 August 1928
General characteristics
Class and type	Gorgon-class monitor
Displacement	5,746 long tons (5,838.2 t) at deep load
Length	310 ft (94.5 m)
Beam	73 ft 7 in (22.4 m) at bulge 55 ft (16.8 m) at main hull
Draught	16 ft 4 in (5.0 m)
Installed power	4,000 ihp (2,982.8 kW)
Propulsion	2 × shafts, 2 × Vertical triple expansion steam engines 4 × dual-fired Yarrow water-tube boilers with oil sprayers
Speed	12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Range	2,700 nmi (5,000 km; 3,100 mi) at 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph)
Complement	305
Armament	2 × 9.2 in (234 mm) Mk XII guns 4 × 1 - BL 6 inch Mk XVIII guns 2 × 1 - QF 3 inch 20 cwt gun anti-aircraft guns 4 × 3-pounder anti-aircraft guns 4 × 2-pounder anti-aircraft guns
Armour	Belt: 3–7 in (7.6–17.8 cm) Bulkheads: 3–4 in (7.6–10.2 cm) Gun turret: 8 in (20 cm) Conning Tower: 8 in (20 cm) Deck: 1–2.5 in (2.5–6.4 cm)

HMS Gorgon and her sister ship Glatton were two monitors originally built as coastal defence ships for the Royal Norwegian Navy, as HNoMS Nidaros and Bjørgvin respectively, by Armstrong Whitworth at Elswick. She was purchased from Norway at the beginning of the First World War, but was not completed until 1918 although she had been launched over three years earlier. She engaged targets in Occupied Flanders for the last several months of the war and fired the last shots of the war against such targets on 15 October 1918. She was used as a target ship after several attempts to sell her had fallen through before being sold for scrap in 1928.