&sq=Envato&lang=en&file=File:HMS_Duncan_(1901)_postcard.jpg) A 1905 postcard depicting HMS Duncan, painting by William Frederick Mitchell
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMS Duncan |
| Namesake | Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan |
| Builder | Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, Leamouth |
| Laid down | 10 July 1899 |
| Launched | 21 March 1901 |
| Completed | October 1903 |
| Commissioned | 8 October 1903 |
| Decommissioned | March 1919 |
| Fate | Sold for scrapping 18 February 1920 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Duncan-class pre-dreadnought battleship |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 432 ft (132 m) (loa) |
| Beam | 75 ft 6 in (23.01 m) |
| Draught | 25 ft 9 in (7.85 m) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion | |
| 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 |
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| Armour | |
HMS Duncan was the lead ship of the six-ship Duncan class of Royal Navy pre-dreadnought battleships. Built to counter a group of fast Russian battleships, Duncan 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. Duncan was built between her keel laying in July 1899 and her completion in October 1903.
Duncan served with the Mediterranean Fleet until 1905, at which she was transferred to the Channel Fleet. During this period, she was damaged in a pair of accidents, the first a collision with HMS Albion in late 1905 and the second when she ran aground off Lundy Island the following year. Duncan served with the Atlantic Fleet from 1907 to late 1908, when she was transferred back to the Mediterranean Fleet. In 1912, she was transferred to the Home Fleet when the Mediterranean Fleet was reorganized into a squadron of it, and the next year she became a gunnery training ship. After the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Duncan was being refitted; once she returned to service in September, she joined her sister ships on the Northern Patrol.
In 1915, Duncan was transferred to the 9th Cruiser Squadron based in the central Atlantic. Later that year, she was reassigned to the 2nd Detached Squadron to support the Italian Royal Navy, and in 1916 she was sent to Salonika, Greece. There, she took part in operations against Greek royalists who opposed entering the war on the side of the Allies. Duncan returned to Britain in February 1917 and was converted into a barracks ship before being broken up for scrap in 1920.