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HMS ''Defence'' was a armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century, the last armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy. She was stationed in the Mediterranean when the First World War began and participated in the pursuit of the German battlecruiser and light cruiser . The ship was transferred to the Grand Fleet in January 1915 and remained there for the rest of her career. ''Defence'' was sunk on 31 May 1916 during the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle of the war. Escorting the main body of the Grand Fleet, the ship was fired upon by one German battlecruiser and four dreadnoughts as she attempted to engage a disabled German light cruiser. She was struck by two salvoes from the German ships that detonated her rear magazine. The fire from that explosion spread to the ship's secondary magazines, which exploded in turn. There were no survivors. ==Description== ''Defence'' displaced as built and at deep load. The ship had an overall length of , a beam of and a mean draught of . She was powered by a pair of four-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, which developed a total of and gave a maximum speed of . The engines were powered by 24 Yarrow water-tube boilers. The ship carried a maximum of of coal and an additional of fuel oil that was sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate. At full capacity, she could steam for at a speed of . ''Defence'' was designed to carry 779 officers and men.〔Burt, pp. 93–94〕 The ship's main armament consisted of four BL 9.2-inch Mark X guns in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft. Her secondary armament of ten BL 7.5-inch Mark II guns were mounted amidships in single turrets. Anti-torpedo boat defence was provided by sixteen QF 12-pounder (three-inch) 18-cwt guns.〔"Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 18 cwt referring to the weight of the gun.〕 ''Defence'' also mounted five submerged 17.7-inch torpedo tubes, one of which was mounted in the stern.〔Burt, p. 94〕 The waterline belt consisted of of Krupp cemented armour roughly between the fore and aft 7.5-inch gun turrets, but was reduced in steps to three inches to the ends of the ship. The gun turrets and barbettes were protected by of armour. The thickness of the lower deck was . The armour of the conning tower was thick.〔Burt, p. 86〕 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 Defence (1907)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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