H.M.S. Majestic (1895)

H.M.S. Majestic (1895)
Pendant Number:	D.04 (1914)
Builder:	Portsmouth Royal Dockyard
Ordered:	1893
Laid down:	5 Feb, 1894
Launched:	31 Jan, 1895
Completed:	Dec, 1895
Commissioned:	12 Dec, 1895
Torpedoed:	27 May, 1915
Fate:	by U 21 off Helles

H.M.S. Majestic was a battleship of the Royal Navy, and the lead ship of the Majestic class. She served as the flagship of the Channel Squadron from commissioning for eight years whence she went in and out of reserve until the Great War. She was relegated to secondary duties when recommissioned and for the Dardanelles Campaign she was despatched as a mine clearer. She was struck by two torpedoes while anchored off Gaba Tepe on 27 May, 1915, and capsized with the loss of forty crew.

Service

Early Career

Majestic's keel plate was laid down in No. 13 dock in the Portsmouth Royal Dockyard on 5 February, 1894. She was named by the Princess Louise and floated out of her dock on 31 January, 1895. Her construction was rumoured to have been delayed by armour plate being diverted to the construction of H.M.S. Magnificent at Chatham Royal Dockyard.

She completed her two days torpedo trials at Spithead on the evening of 24 September, 1895. Firing from a standstill and from full speed at static targets provided satisfactory results. She underwent gun trials on the following days. Although she suffered a grounding at Spithead, by October she had only one trial left to complete: a thirty-hour half speed trial to test her fuel consumption.

Majestic was commissioned as flagship of the Channel Squadron at Portsmouth on 12 December 1895 under Captain Arthur Barrow with a crew transferred from H.M.S. Royal Sovereign. She served as fleet flagship until 1904.

In February of 1904, she paid off at Portsmouth before being recommissioned in July into the renamed Channel Fleet. On 14 December she suffered a coal gas explosion which left one sailor dead and two injured.

In late November 1904, while operating with the Channel Fleet, she suffered a fracture of the "A" tube near the muzzle in two of her Mark VIII 12-in guns. This mishap prompted an inspection of the same weapons in eleven other vessels. The initial response from the D.N.O. was to surmise that the guns had been fired with tampeons in place. However, fourteen of the forty-four guns inspected were found to be defective and were withdrawn from their ships. It was deemed that the sleeves were contracting near the muzzle, generally after about fifty full charge firings.

In August, 1906 she joined the Atlantic Fleet and in October was commissioned into the Reserve. In February, 1907 she was attached to the Nore Division of the Home Fleet before undergoing a refit at H.M. Dockyard, Chatham which lasted until January, 1908. There she was refitted with Fire Control devices (which necessitated alteration to her fighting tops) and wireless equipment. Majestic then commissioned back into the Home Fleet before temporarily joining the Nore Division from February until June. From then until August, 1909 she was placed in the Devonport Division of the Home Fleet (with a nucleus crew, effectively in reserve).

In June, 1910 Majestic participated in manœuvres where in heavy fog she collided with H.M.S. Victorious. Majestic suffered no damage but Victorious had her stern-walk damaged and her starboard engine temporarily disabled. No blame was afterwards placed. From August, 1910 to May, 1912 she acted as a parent ship for other battleships in Devonport. With the reorganisation of the fleet on 1 May, 1912 she became part of the Third Fleet (of the Home Fleet), manned by a care and maintenance crew. She remained in reserve as part of the 4th Division in Devonport until the mobilisation at the outbreak of war.

In mid-July, 1914, the ship was ordered to take up station in the Humber as part of a force of four Majestic class battleships and two Cressy class cruisers being sent there to be demobilised on the 25th. Her crew was to be transferred to Ocean.

Great War

On the outbreak of war Majestic was commissioned into the Seventh Battle Squadron of the Channel Fleet. In between 3–14 October, 1914 she formed part of the escort to the convoy bringing the first contingent of Canadian soldiers across the Atlantic Ocean for service in France. Until early 1915 she was engaged in patrolling the English Channel and had occasion to bombard the Belgian village of Lombardsijde. She was fitted as a "mine-bumper" and sent to participate in the first major naval assault on the Dardanelles on 18 March, under the command of Captain H. F. G. Talbot. She lent supporting gunfire in the Dardanelles until 26 May, 1915, when she became the flagship of Rear-Admiral Stuart Nicholson at Gaba Tepe.

On 27 May Majestic was anchored inshore amongst transports and esorts when a periscope was sighted 400 yards away and a torpedo wake streaming through a gap in the nearby ships. Despite her anti-torpedo nets being out, the torpedo fired by U 21 passed straight through the heavy mesh and hit her amidships. It was followed by another one and within seven minutes Majestic, betraying the lack of internal torpedo protection common to her generation, capsized. Forty men were killed, mostly by the exploding torpedoes, and the upturned ship rested on the remains of her masts for months, her keel protruding above the water, until at the end of 1915 they collapsed and she sank beneath the waves.

Funnel Bands

Majestic class ships had a pair of funnels abreast each other with idiosyncratic numbers of slender steam vent pipes afore and abaft each (in all cases somewhat shorter than the funnel). In Majestic's case, her port funnel had 2 vents abaft, and her starboard funnel a single vent abaft.

Majestic's funnels wore 2 red bands as of 1914.

Radio

By the end of 1901, she was fitted or due to receive a Marconi W/T set.

Semaphore

Majestic was supplied with a masthead semaphore upon her completion. Its 13-foot arms required her topmast to be removed to permit longer spars to be substituted.

Torpedoes

Though it was initially planned that she would carry twenty-four torpedoes, in 1895, Majestic and Magnificent were the first ships provided the newest torpedoes, each being given seventeen 18-in Mark IX torpedoes and five 14-in Mark IV torpedoes for use with their boats.

In June 1898, the Illustrious and Majestic became the second and third ships in the Royal Navy to receive torpedoes fitted for gyroscopes (but only two gyroscopes were provided), drawn from the Portsmouth Depot:

• two 18-in Mark IV torpedoes, manufactured by Whitehead, with Side Lugs
• two 14-in Mark IX torpedoes fitted with Side Lugs

Captains

Dates of appointment are provided when known.

• Captain Arthur Barrow, 12 December, 1895 – 7 June, 1897
• Captain H.S.H. Prince Louis of Battenberg, 7 June, 1897 – 27 June, 1899  (in command for the Annual Manoeuvres of 1897)
• Captain George Le C. Egerton, 28 June, 1899 – 17 April, 1901  (and as Flag Captain to Vice-Admiral Rawson of the Channel Squadron)
• Captain Edward E. Bradford, 17 April, 1901 – 17 April, 1903  (and as Flag Captain, possibly including Annual Manoeuvres of 1901)
• Captain Hugh Evan-Thomas, 17 April, 1903 – 2 February, 1904  (and as Flag Captain to Vice-Admiral Beresford in Channel Squadron)
• Captain Frederick L. Campbell, 15 July, 1904 – 27 December, 1904
• Captain Charles E. Madden, 26 December, 1904 – 9 January, 1905
• Captain Charles E. Kingsmill, 9 January, 1905 – 14 March, 1906
• Captain Robert G. Fraser, 17 March, 1906 – 30 September, 1907
• Captain Harry H. Stileman, 1 October, 1907 – 9 January, 1908
• Captain Ernest F. A. Gaunt, 7 January, 1908 – 2 January, 1910
• Captain Rowland Nugent, 4 January, 1910 – 8 February, 1910
• Captain Herbert A. S. Fyler, 8 February, 1910 – 1 August, 1910
• Captain Bertram M. Chambers, 2 August, 1910 – 24 February, 1911
• Captain George H. Borrett, 24 February, 1911 – 20 September, 1912  (and for charge of a group of ships in Fourth Division, Home Fleet)
• Captain Guy R. A. Gaunt, 16 October, 1912 – 14 August, 1913
• Captain Edwin V. Underhill, 14 August, 1913 – 9 June, 1914
• Captain Henry F. G. Talbot, 30 July, 1914 – 27 May, 1915  (in command at time of her loss)

See Also

• Wikipedia

Bibliography

• Dittmar, F.J.; Colledge, J.J. (1972). British Warships 1914–1919. London: Ian Allan.
• Jane, Fred T. (editor) (1914, 1969). Jane's Fighting Ships 1914. Published 1914 by Sampson Low Marston, reprinted 1969 by Arco Publishing Company, New York.
• Parkes, O.B.E., Ass.I.N.A., Dr. Oscar (1990). British Battleships 1860–1950. London: Pen & Sword Ltd. ISBN 0850526043. (on Bookfinder.com).