Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In the early morning of 13 December 1939, a force consisting of Achilles, Ajax and Exeter detected smoke on the horizon, which was confirmed at 06:16 to be a pocket battleship, thought to be the German battleship Admiral Scheer but which turned out to be Admiral Graf Spee. A fierce battle ensued, at a range of about 11 nautical miles (20 km).
She became a base ship in 1902 and was renamed HMS Hibernia. She was renamed HMS Egmont in 1904, HMS Egremont in 1916 and HMS Pembroke in 1919. She was sold in 1923. HMS Achilles (1905) was a Warrior-class armoured cruiser launched in 1905 and sold in 1921. Achilles II was an armed trawler, hired in 1914 and sunk by a mine on 26 June 1918. [1]
The name of Achilles has been used for at least nine Royal Navy warships since 1744—both as HMS Achilles and with the French spelling HMS Achille. A 60-gun ship of that name served at the Battle of Belleisle in 1761 while a 74-gun ship served at the Battle of Trafalgar. Other battle honours include Walcheren 1809.
The Battle of the River Plate was fought in the South Atlantic on 13 December 1939 as the first British naval battle of the Second World War.. The Kriegsmarine heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee, commanded by Captain Hans Langsdorff, engaged a Royal Navy squadron, [1] [2] commanded by Commodore Henry Harwood, [3] comprising the light cruisers HMS Ajax, HMNZS Achilles (on loan to the New Zealand ...
The ship carried 750 long tons (760 t) of coal, [8] enough to steam 1,800 nautical miles (3,300 km; 2,100 mi) at 6.5 knots (12.0 km/h; 7.5 mph). [3] As built, Achilles was ship-rigged with four masts, called bow, fore, main and mizen from fore to aft, and she was the only British warship ever to have four masts. [9]
The list of battleships includes all battleships built between 1859 and 1946, listed alphabetically. The boundary between ironclads and the first battleships, the so-called ' pre-dreadnought battleship ', is not obvious, as the characteristics of the pre-dreadnought evolved in the period from 1875 to 1895.
The original 1920s edition of the H. P. Gibson naval board game Dover Patrol used a number of real RN ship names, but generally attached them to different ship classes. Thus the " Flagships " were H.M.S. Nelson and Drake , and the " Super Dreadnoughts " were H.M.S. Australia , New Zealand , Canada and India , but few of these resembled the ...
Lyon, David and Winfield, Rif, The Sail and Steam Navy List, All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889, pub Chatham, 2004, ISBN 1-86176-032-9 Parkes, Oscar British Battleships , first published Seeley, Service & Co. , 1957, published United States Naval Institute Press, 1990.