HMS Glorious
Service
- as GloriousJanuary 1917 — 8 June 1940281 days of the war
- Name
- HMS Glorious
- Builder
- Harland and Wolff, Belfast
- Ordered
- 14 March 1915
- Laid down
- 1 May 1915
- Launched
- 20 April 1916
- Commissioned
- January 1917
- Fate
- Sunk by German battleship Scharnhorst and German battleship Gneisenau, 8 June 1940 (1940)
- Status
- Wreck
Specifications — As battlecruiser
- Displacement, standard
- 19,180 long tons (19,488 t)
- Displacement, full load
- 22,360 long tons (22,719 t)
- Length
- 239.57 m (786 ft) OA
- Beam
- 24.69 m (81 ft)
- Draught
- 7.62 m (25 ft)
- Speed
- 32 knots (59.3 km/h, 36.8 mph)
- Range
- 6,000 nmi (11,112 km)
- Complement
- 842
- Main gun
- 381 mm (15 in)
HMS Glorious was a aircraft carrier of the Courageous-class battlecruiser in service with the Royal Navy. Harland and Wolff, Belfast laid her keel on 1 May 1915. She entered service in January 1917, having been launched on 20 April 1916.
Three ships of the class were built. The class followed the HMS Eagle (1918) and was succeeded by the HMS Ark Royal (91).
Displacement was 19,180 long tons standard and 22,360 long tons at full load. She measured 239.6 m (786 ft) long with a beam of 24.7 m (81 ft). Her designed speed was 32 knots, and she carried a complement of 842.
Her main battery was four 381 mm (15 in) guns in two twin mountings. Her machinery developed 90,000 shp through four shafts.
She was in commission for 281 days of the Second World War.
She was sunk on 8 June 1940, at 68°38′N 3°50′E. The wreck survives.
Written from the harvested record. Every figure above is sourced; the wording is this site's own.
Armament and machinery
This vessel is recorded in 2 configurations. Wartime refits changed armament and complement substantially, so each is kept separately rather than averaged into one set of figures. The figures above are as built.
As battlecruiser
- Propulsion
- 4 shafts; 4 geared steam turbines
- Power
- 18 Yarrow boilers
- 90000 shp
- Armament
- 2 × twin 15 in (381 mm) guns
- 6 × triple 4 in (102 mm) guns
- 2 × single 3 in (76 mm) AA guns
- 2 × 21 in torpedo tubes
- Armour
- Belt: 2 - 3 in
- Decks: .75 - 3 in
- Barbettes: 3 - 7 in
- Turrets: 7 - 9 in
- Conning tower: 10 in
As aircraft carrier
- Displacement, standard
- 24,970 long tons (25,371 t)
- Displacement, full load
- 27,419 long tons (27,859 t)
- Length
- 239.57 m (786 ft) OA
- Beam
- 27.43 m (90 ft)
- Draught
- 8.46 m (27.8 ft)
- Speed
- 30 knots (55.6 km/h, 34.5 mph)
- Range
- 5,860 nmi (10,853 km)
- Complement
- 793
- Main gun
- 120 mm (4.7 in)
- Armament
- 16 × single 4.7 in (120 mm) DP guns
- Armour
- Belt: 2 - 3 in
- Decks: .75 - 1 in
- Bulkhead: 2 - 3 in
- Aircraft
- 48
Sister ships
Sources
- Facts harvested from HMS Glorious on Wikipedia. Figures only — no wording is taken from it.
- Photograph: Royal Navy official photographer — http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib//20/media-20122/large.jpg This photograph FL 22991 comes from the collections of the Imperial War Museums — Public domain — Wikimedia Commons