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HMS ''Blanche'' was the second of two ''Blonde''-class scout cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She led the 1st Destroyer Flotilla from completion until 1912. During World War I, she was assigned to battleship squadrons of the Grand Fleet. She was present at, but did not fight in, the Battle of Jutland in mid-1916. The ship was converted into a minelayer in early 1917 and made 16 sorties to lay mines during the war. She was paid off in 1919 and sold for scrap in 1921. ==Design and description== Designed to provide destroyer flotillas with a command ship capable of outclassing enemy destroyers with her 10 guns, ''Blanche'' proved too slow in service from the start of her career. Her speed was inadequate to match the speeds of the destroyers she led in her flotilla.〔Gardiner & Gray, p. 50〕 Displacing ,〔 the ship had an overall length of , a beam of and a deep draught of . She was powered by four Parsons steam turbines, each driving one shaft. The turbines produced a total of , using steam produced by 12 Yarrow boilers, and gave a maximum speed of . She carried a maximum of of coal and of fuel oil.〔Friedman 2009, p. 295〕 Her crew consisted of 314 officers and enlisted men.〔 Her main armament consisted of 10 breech-loading (BL) four-inch Mk VII guns. The forward pair of guns were mounted side by side on a platform on the forecastle, three pairs were port and starboard amidships, and the two remaining guns were on the centreline of the quarterdeck, one ahead of the other.〔 The guns fired their shells to a range of about .〔Friedman 2011, pp. 75–76〕 Her secondary armament was four quick-firing (QF) s and two submerged torpedo tubes.〔 As a scout cruiser, the ship was only lightly protected to maximize her speed. She had a curved protective deck that was thick on the slope and on the flat.〔 Her conning tower was protected by four inches of armour.〔 ==Construction and service== ''Blanche'', the seventh ship of that name,〔 was laid down at Pembroke Royal Dockyard, on 14 April 1909 and launched on 25 November 1910. She was completed in November 1910 and became the leader of the 1st Destroyer Flotilla through 1912.〔 At 1:30 am on 3 October 1911 she struck a rock on the Pentland Skerries and suffered damage to her bow and stern.〔http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000325/19111004/054/0006〕 She was assigned to the 3rd Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet in Scapa Flow at the start of the war.〔Corbett, Vol. I, p. 439; Vol. II, pp. 413, 417〕 On 15 December she was badly damaged due to severe weather in the Pentland Firth as she sortied to intercept German ships bombarding ports in Yorkshire and had to return to port for repairs.〔Massie, p. 335〕 On 28 February 1916 ''Blanche'' was one of three cruisers dispatched to patrol off the Norwegian coast during the hunt for the German raider SMS ''Greif'', although she did not come into contact with the German ship before she was sunk. She was transferred to the 4th Battle Squadron before the Battle of Jutland; she was assigned to a position at the rear of the squadron during the battle and did not fire her guns.〔Corbett, Vol. III, pp. 270, 345〕 In March 1917 ''Blanche'' was converted into a minelayer and laid 1,238 mines on 16 sorties during the war. Paid off in 1919,〔 she was sold for scrap on 27 July 1921 and broken up by Fryer, of Sunderland.〔Colledge, p. 41〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「HMS Blanche (1909)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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