HMS Marlborough (1912)

HMS Marlborough
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Marlborough
Namesake	John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
Ordered	1911
Builder	Devonport Dockyard
Laid down	25 January 1912
Launched	24 October 1912
Commissioned	June 1914
Stricken	1932
Fate	Sold for scrap, 27 June 1932
General characteristics
Type	Iron Duke-class battleship
Displacement	Normal: 25,000 long tons (25,401 t) Full load: 29,560 long tons (30,030 t)
Length	622 ft 9 in (190 m) o/a
Beam	90 ft (27.4 m)
Draught	29 ft 6 in (8.99 m)
Installed power	18 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers 29,000 shp (22,000 kW)
Propulsion	4 × Parsons turbines 4 × screw propellers
Speed	21.25 kn (39.4 km/h; 24.5 mph)
Range	7,800 nmi (8,976 mi; 14,446 km) at 10 kn (11.5 mph; 18.5 km/h)
Complement	995–1,022
Armament	10 × BL 13.5 in (343 mm)/45 cal Mk V guns 12 × 6 in (152 mm)/45 cal Mk VII guns 2 × QF 3 in (76 mm) 20 cwt AA guns 4 × 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour	Belt: 12 in (305 mm) Deck: 2.5 in (64 mm) Barbettes: 10 in (254 mm) Turrets: 11 in (279 mm)

HMS Marlborough was an Iron Duke-class battleship of the Royal Navy, named in honour of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. She was built at Devonport Royal Dockyard between January 1912 and June 1914, entering service just before the outbreak of the First World War. She was armed with a main battery of ten 13.5-inch (343 mm) guns and was capable of a top speed of 21.25 knots (39.36 km/h; 24.45 mph).

Marlborough served with the Grand Fleet for the duration of the war, primarily patrolling the northern end of the North Sea to enforce the blockade of Germany. She saw action at the Battle of Jutland (31 May – 1 June 1916), where she administered the coup de grâce to the badly damaged German cruiser SMS Wiesbaden. During the engagement, Wiesbaden hit Marlborough with a torpedo that eventually forced her to withdraw. The damage to Marlborough was repaired by early August, though the last two years of the war were uneventful, as the British and German fleets adopted more cautious strategies due to the threat of underwater weapons.

After the war, Marlborough was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet, where she took part in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War in the Black Sea in 1919–1920, and she rescued members of the Imperial Family from Yalta in 1919. She was also involved in the Greco-Turkish War. In 1930, the London Naval Treaty mandated that the four Iron Duke-class battleships be discarded; Marlborough was used for a variety of weapons tests in 1931–1932, the results of which were incorporated into the reconstruction programme for the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships.