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HMS ''Prince of Wales'' was a ''London''- or ''Queen''-class pre-dreadnought battleship, a sub-class of the ''Formidable''-class battleships of the British Royal Navy. HMS ''Prince of Wales'' (1902) was the sixth of seven ships of the Royal Navy that have had the name HMS ''Prince of Wales''. ==Technical description== HMS ''Prince of Wales'' was laid down at Chatham Dockyard on 20 March 1901, the first keel plate laid down by Lady Wharton, wife of Rear-Admiral Sir William Wharton, Hydrographer to the Admiralty. She was launched by the Princess of Wales (later Queen Mary) on 25 March 1902, in the presence of the Prince of Wales (later King George V), for whom the ship was named. She was completed in March 1904. The ''Formidable''s were similar in appearance to and had the same armament as the ''Majestic'' and ''Canopus'' classes that preceded them. The ''Formidable''s are often described as improved ''Majestic''s, but in design they really were enlarged ''Canopus''es; while the ''Canopus'' class took advantage of the greater strength of the Krupp armour employed in their construction to allow the ships to remain the same size as the ''Majestic''s with increased tonnage devoted higher speed and less to armor without sacrificing protection, in the ''Formidable''s Krupp armour was used to improve protection without reducing the size of the ships.〔''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905'', p. 36〕 The ''Formidable''s thus were larger than the two preceding classes, and enjoyed both greater protection than the ''Majestic''s and the higher speed of the ''Canopus'' class. The ''Formidable''s' armour scheme was similar to that of the ''Canopus''es, although, unlike in the ''Canopus''es, the armour belt ran all the way to the stern; it was long, deep and thick, tapering at the stem to thick and deep, and at the stern to thick and deep. The main battery turrets had Krupp armour, on their sides and on their backs.〔 The ''Formidable''s improved on the main and secondary armament of previous classes, being upgunned from 35-calibre to 40-calibre guns and from 40-caliber to 45-calibre guns. The 12-inch guns could be loaded at any bearing and elevation, and beneath the turrets the ships had a split hoist with a working chamber beneath the guns that reduced the chance of a cordite fire spreading from the turret to the shell and powder handling rooms and to the magazines.〔 The ''Formidable''s had an improved hull form that made them handier at high speeds than the ''Majestic''s. They also had inward-turning propellers, which allowed reduced fuel consumption and slightly higher speeds than in previous classes but at the expense of less maneuverability at low speeds.〔 After the first three, there was a change in design for the last five ships, starting with ; as a result they are often considered to constitute the ''London'' class,〔For example, ''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905'', p. 37, and Burt, pp. 175–194, refer to the ''London''s as a separate class while Gibbons, p. 151, lists them all as part of the ''Formidable'' class. Burt refers to the ''London''s as the ''Bulwark'' class.〕 but also can be viewed as in effect a sub-class of the ''Formidable'' class. The main difference in the ''London''s was thinner deck armor and some other detail changes to the armor scheme. and the consequent lower displacement.〔''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905'', p. 37〕 ''Prince of Wales'' and her sister ship HMS ''Queen'' were the last two ''London''-class ships built. They were identical to the first three ''London''s except that they had open 12-pounder gun batteries mounted in the open on the upper deck amidships, had a lower displacement, and had a few other minor details of their design changed.〔 ''Queen'' and ''Prince of Wales'' were laid down after the ''Duncan'' class battleships that succeeded the ''Formidable''s and ''London''s in order to create with their six sisters a tactical group of eight ships, and were completed after the ''Duncan''s as well. They generally are considered part of the ''Formidable''〔Gibbons, p. 151〕 or ''London'' class,〔 but the difference in the mounting of their 12-pounder guns, their lower displacement, and their later construction than the ''Duncan''s lead some authors to viewed them as constituting a ''Queen'' class separate from the ''Formidable'' and ''London'' classes.〔Burt, pp. 215–228〕 Due to service problems with the water tube Belleville boilers the original plans were changed during construction, and HMS ''Queen'' was fitted with Babcock and Wilcox cylindrical boilers instead. The nearly identical ''Prince of Wales'' was fitted with the problematic water tube Belleville boilers, the last British battleship to be built with them. ''Prince of Wales'' was the last battleship for which Sir William Henry White had sole design responsibility to commission in the Royal Navy. She was also the last of the 29 battleships of the ''Majestic'', ''Canopus'', ''Formidable'', ''London'', ''Duncan'', and ''Queen'' classes which commissioned between 1895 and 1904 and all shared a single, standard design that originated with the ''Majestic''s and was improved over time to reach its final development in ''Queen'' and ''Prince of Wales''. Like all pre-dreadnoughts, ''Prince of Wales'' were outclassed by the dreadnought battleships that began to appear in 1906, although they took on some front-line duties early in 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 Prince of Wales (1902)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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