Ian Johnston - The Battleship Builders: Constructing and Arming British Capital Ships

THE BATTLESHIP BUILDERS. The development of the firms associated with battleship construction until the First World War.

Copyright Ian Johnston & Ian Buxton 2013

First published in Great Britain in 2013 by

Seaforth Publishing

An imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street, Barnsley

S Yorkshire S70 2AS

www.seaforthpublishing.com

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Published and distributed in the United States of America and Canada by

Naval Institute Press

291 Wood Road

Annapolis, Maryland 21402-5034

This edition is authorized for sale only in the United States of America, its territories and possessions and Canada.

First Naval Institute Press eBook edition published in 2016.

ISBN 978-1-61251-946-3 (eBook)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP data record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing of both the copyright owner and the above publisher.

The right of Ian Johnston and Ian Buxton to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

Typeset and designed by Stephen Dent

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

CHAPTERS

APPENDICES

The authors would like to thank the following individuals and organisations for their support in writing this book.

For their expertise and checking draft chapters:

Brian Newman of the Marine Technology Special Collection at Newcastle University for his expertise in marine engineering, shipbuilding and cranes, Nathan Okun for his unrivalled knowledge on armour, John Brooks for fire control and ammunition, Tony Arnold for shipbuilders finances and especially Vickers at Barrow, Simon Harley for naval personalities and Richard Osborne of the World Ship Society for use of the late D K Browns photographs.

For guidance and access to key documents:

Jeremy Michell, Andrew Choong and Bob Todd at the plans and photographs department of the National Maritime Museum, the staff at Tyne & Wear Archives, the staffat Glasgow University Business Archives, Frank Bowles and the staff of the Manuscripts section at Cambridge University Library, Jenny Wraight and the staff of the Naval Library, Portsmouth, The National Archives, Wirral Archives, the Mitchell Library Glasgow, Newcastle Central Library, Sheffield Archives, Sheffield Central Library, Barrow Archives.

For assistance on specific points:

Paul Sweeney and Tommy Vaughn of BAE Systems; William Kane; Stephen Dent, John Jordan, Steve McLaughlin.

T HE BATTLESHIP WAS FOR LONG considered to be the ultimate weapon of war at sea until technological change rendered the type obsolete. Throughout a century of development, the British Admiralty was responsible for most of the major as well as incremental design iterations of the battleship, notably