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HMS ''King Alfred'' was one of four armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy around 1900. She served as flagship of the China Station from 1906 until relieved in 1910. Upon her return home that year, she was placed in reserve before being recommissioned in mid-1914. She was assigned to the 6th Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet at the beginning of World War I. She was transferred to the 9th Cruiser Squadron in 1915 and assigned to convoy protection duties by the end of the year. ''King Alfred'' participated in the unsuccessful searches for the German commerce raider in 1916–17 before beginning to escort convoys later that year. The ship was torpedoed by a German submarine in 1918, but returned to service. She was sold for scrap in 1920. ==Design and description== ''King Alfred'' was designed to displace . The ship had an overall length of , a beam of and a deep draught of . She was powered by two 4-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, which produced a total of and gave a maximum speed of . The engines were powered by 43 Belleville boilers.〔Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 69〕 She carried a maximum of of coal and her complement consisted of 900 officers and enlisted men.〔Friedman 2012, p. 336〕 Her main armament consisted of two breech-loading (BL) in single gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure.〔 They fired shells to a range of .〔Friedman 2011, pp. 71–72〕 Her secondary armament of sixteen BL 6-inch Mk VII guns was arranged in casemates amidships. Eight of these were mounted on the main deck and were only usable in calm weather.〔Friedman 2012, pp. 243, 260–61〕 They had a maximum range of approximately with their shells.〔Friedman 2011, pp. 80–81〕 A dozen quick-firing (QF) 12-pounder 12 cwt guns were fitted for defence against torpedo boats. Two additional 12-pounder 8 cwt guns could be dismounted for service ashore.〔Friedman 2012, pp. 250, 336〕 ''King Alfred'' also carried three 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns and two submerged torpedo tubes.〔 By April 1918, the ship had all of the lower casemates for her six-inch guns plated over and six of them remounted on the upper deck so they could be used in heavy weather. Several twelve-pounders were removed to make room for the six-inch guns.〔 The ship's waterline armour belt had a maximum thickness of and was closed off by transverse bulkheads. The armour of the gun turrets and their barbettes was 6 inches thick while the casemate armour was 5 inches thick. The protective deck armour ranged in thickness from and the conning tower was protected by of armour.〔 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 King Alfred (1901)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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