HMS Defence (1907)

Stern view of Defence
History
United Kingdom
Name	Defence
Ordered	1904-05 Naval Programme
Builder	Pembroke dockyard
Laid down	25 February 1905
Launched	24 April 1907
Commissioned	9 February 1909
Fate	Sunk at the Battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916
General characteristics
Class and type	Minotaur-class armoured cruiser
Displacement	14,600 long tons (14,800 t)
Length	490 ft (149.4 m) pp 519 ft (158.2 m) overall
Beam	74.5 ft (22.7 m)
Draught	26 ft (7.9 m)
Installed power	24 Yarrow water-tube boilers 27,000 ihp (20,000 kW)
Propulsion	2 shafts 2 triple-expansion steam engines
Speed	23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph)
Range	8,150 nmi (15,090 km; 9,380 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	779
Armament	2 twin BL 9.2-inch Mk XI guns 10 × single BL 7.5-inch Mk V guns 16 single QF 12-pounder, 18 cwt guns 5 × 18-inch torpedo tubes[Note 1]
Armour	Belt: 3–6 in (76–152 mm) Deck: 1.5–2 in (38–51 mm) Barbettes: 7 in (178 mm) Gun turrets: 4.5–8 in (114–203 mm) Conning tower: 10 in (254 mm)

HMS Defence was a Minotaur-class armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century, the last armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy. She was stationed in the Mediterranean when the First World War began and participated in the pursuit of the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben and light cruiser SMS Breslau. The ship was transferred to the Grand Fleet in January 1915 and remained there for the rest of her career.

Defence was sunk on 31 May 1916 during the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle of the war. Escorting the main body of the Grand Fleet, the ship was fired upon by one German battlecruiser and four dreadnoughts as she attempted to engage a disabled German light cruiser. She was struck by two salvoes from the German ships that detonated her rear magazine. The fire from that explosion spread to the ship's secondary magazines, which exploded in turn. The entire crew are believed to have been killed, although newspapers of the time made unverified claims of possible survivors.^[1][2]

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