Fullbore Friday
lead with your best
HMS Nelson. One of the more curious, no, the most curious Battleship classes (2) ever built.
The first thing that comes to mind is "Shipmate, where is your stern?" If it looks like a ship built by committee, well that is because it is.
A product of The Washington Treaty, "compromises" were made. Though it was the only RN ship with 16" guns, the ship herself was a tad slow, and once the war was done - like the rest of the RN Battleships - off to the breakers she went.
Best pictures here. Other sites here and here.
Nice video from our friend Drachinifel.
Orig. posted 16JUN06.
Interesting looking ship. At low speeds, the large superstructure aft did cause some maneuvering problems. Also, in reference to Parson Weems, they were also known as the "Cherry Tree" ships, having been cut down by Washington.
This class was the first to have nine main guns in three triple turrets, which became the most common form after this class. But none of those ships had all three turrets forward.
Britain's four surviving King George V class battleships were not scrapped until the late '50s and HMS Vanguard remained in commission until 1960.