HMS Gorgon (1914)

HMS Gorgon
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Gorgon
BuilderArmstrong Whitworth
Laid down11 June 1913
Launched9 June 1914
Commissioned1 May 1918
DecommissionedSeptember 1919
FateSold for scrap, 26 August 1928
General characteristics
Class and typeGorgon-class monitor
Displacement5,746 long tons (5,838.2 t) at deep load
Length310 ft (94.5 m)
Beam
  • 73 ft 7 in (22.4 m) at bulge
  • 55 ft (16.8 m) at main hull
Draught16 ft 4 in (5.0 m)
Installed power4,000 ihp (2,982.8 kW)
Propulsion
Speed12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Range2,700 nmi (5,000 km; 3,100 mi) at 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph)
Complement305
Armament
Armour

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.