HMS Marlborough (1912)

HMS Marlborough
HMS Marlborough
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Marlborough
NamesakeJohn Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
Ordered1911
BuilderDevonport Dockyard
Laid down25 January 1912
Launched24 October 1912
CommissionedJune 1914
Stricken1932
FateSold for scrap, 27 June 1932
General characteristics
TypeIron Duke-class battleship
Displacement
Length622 ft 9 in (190 m) o/a
Beam90 ft (27.4 m)
Draught29 ft 6 in (8.99 m)
Installed power
Propulsion
Speed21.25 kn (39.4 km/h; 24.5 mph)
Range7,800 nmi (8,976 mi; 14,446 km) at 10 kn (11.5 mph; 18.5 km/h)
Complement995–1,022
Armament
Armour

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.