St Vincent-class battleship

St Vincent at anchor, 1909
Class overview
Name	St Vincent class
Builders	Devonport Dockyard Portsmouth Dockyard Vickers Armstrongs
Operators	Royal Navy
Preceded by	Bellerophon class
Succeeded by	HMS Neptune
Built	1907–1910
In service	1910–1922
In commission	1910–1922
Completed	3
Lost	1
Scrapped	2
General characteristics (as built)
Type	Dreadnought battleship
Displacement	19,700 long tons (20,000 t) (normal)
Length	536 ft (163.4 m) (o/a)
Beam	84 ft 2 in (25.7 m)
Draught	28 ft (8.5 m)
Installed power	24,500 shp (18,300 kW) 18 × water-tube boilers
Propulsion	4 × shafts; 2 × steam turbine sets
Speed	21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Range	6,900 nmi (12,800 km; 7,900 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	755–835
Armament	5 × twin 12 in (305 mm) guns 20 × single 4 in (102 mm) guns 3 × 18 in (450 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour	Belt: 8–10 inches (203–254 mm) Bulkheads: 5 and 8 inches (127 and 203 mm) Deck: .75–3 inches (19–76 mm) Turrets: 11 inches (279 mm) Barbettes: 5–10 inches (127–254 mm) Conning towers: 8 and 11 in (203 and 279 mm)

The St Vincent-class battleships were a group of three dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. The sister ships spent their entire careers assigned to the Home and Grand Fleets. Aside from participating in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and the inconclusive action of 19 August several months later, their service during the First World War generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea. Vanguard was destroyed in 1917 by a magazine explosion with the near total loss of her crew. The remaining pair were obsolete by the end of the war in 1918, and spent their remaining time either in reserve or as training ships before being sold for scrap in the early 1920s.

Vanguard's wreck was extensively salvaged before it was declared a war grave. Since 2002, it has been designated as a controlled site under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 and diving on the wreck is generally forbidden.