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HMS ''Duncan'' was the lead ship of the six-ship of Royal Navy pre-dreadnought battleships. Commissioned in 1903, she served with the Mediterranean Fleet until 1905, at which she was transferred to the Channel Fleet. Damaged in a collision with in late 1905, she was damaged again when she ran aground off Lundy Island. After a further stint with the Mediterranean Fleet, in 1913 she was assigned to the 6th Battle Squadron and based at Portsmouth, where she served as a gunnery training ship. ''Duncan'' was being refitted when World War I broke out. When the refit was completed, she conducted operations as part of the Northern Patrol, and served with her sister ships in the Channel Fleet. She left the squadron in February 1915 for a further refit after which she was assigned to the 9th Cruiser Squadron on the Finisterre-Azores-Madeira Station. In late 1915, she returned once again to the Mediterranean, conducting operations in support of the Italian Navy and then against Greek royalists. From 1917, she spent the remainder of the war in England waters as a reserve ship and was decommissioned in 1919. ==Technical description== HMS ''Duncan'' was laid down by Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, Leamouth, on 10 July 1899, and launched on 21 March 1901 by Mrs. Hills, wife of Mr. Arnold Hills, chairman of the company. She left the Victoria Dock for Chatham in May 1902, for armament and trials, and was completed in October 1903.〔 ''Duncan'' and her five sister battleships of the ''Duncan'' class were ordered in response to large French and Russian building programmes,〔 including an emphasis on fast battleships in the Russian programme;〔Gibbons, p. 159〕 they were designed as smaller, more lightly armored, and faster versions of the preceding .〔 As it turned out, the Russian ships were not as heavily armed as initially feared, and the ''Duncan''s proved to be quite superior in their balance of speed, firepower, and protection.〔 Armour layout was similar to that of , with reduced thickness in the barbettes and belt.〔 ''Duncan'' and her sisters had machinery capable of more than the ''Formidable''s and ''London''s and were the first British battleships with 4-cylinder triple-expansion engines. They also had a modified hull form to improve speed. The ships had a reputation as good steamers, with a designed speed of and an operational speed of ,〔 good steering at all speeds, and an easy roll. They were the fastest battleships in the Royal Navy when completed, and the fastest pre-dreadnoughts ever built other than the and .〔Burt, p. 202〕 They had the same armament as and a smaller displacement than the ''Formidable''s and ''London''s.〔 Like all predreadnoughts, ''Duncan'' was outclassed by the dreadnought battleships that began to appear in 1906, but she nonetheless continued to perform front-line duties up through the early part of World War I. 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 Duncan (1901)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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