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The ''Majestic'' class of nine pre-dreadnought battleships were built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1890s under the Spencer Programme, named after the First Lord of the Admiralty, John Poyntz Spencer. With nine units commissioned, they were the largest class of battleships in history in terms of the number of member ships. The nine ships, , , , , , , , , and , were built between 1894 and 1898 as part of a programme to strengthen the Royal Navy versus its two traditional rivals, France and Russia, which were perceived to be increasing their navies. They introduced a number of significant improvements over earlier British battleships, including armoured gun shields for the barbette-mounted main battery guns; these shields later became known as turrets. The ships were armed with a main battery of four BL 12-inch Mark VIII guns, the first large-calibre weapon in the Royal Navy to use smokeless propellant, which made it superior in almost all respects to earlier, larger guns. They were also the first British ships to incorporate Harvey armour, which allowed them to carry a much more comprehensive level of protection. The ships proved to be among the most successful designs of their day, and they were widely copied in foreign navies, including the Japanese and the battleship , which were modified versions of the ''Majestic'' design. The nine ships served in a variety of roles throughout their careers. They primarily served in the Channel Fleet, though several took rotations in the Mediterranean Fleet, and ''Victorious'' served on the China Station in 1900–02. No longer frontline ships by the outbreak of World War I in July 1914, the vessels were used to protect the crossing of the British Expeditionary Force and various points on the British coast. In 1915, several of the ships were disarmed, their guns going to equip the . The disarmed battleships were used as troop ships during the Dardanelles Campaign, and ''Prince George'' and ''Majestic'' were used to bombard enemy positions before ''Majestic'' was torpedoed by a German U-boat. The surviving ships were employed in secondary roles from 1915 onwards, and after the war, all were sold for scrapping in 1920–22. Only one, ''Prince George'', avoided the breakers' yards by wrecking off Camperduin. == Design == In 1891 Rear Admiral Jackie Fisher, then the Controller of the Royal Navy, issued a request for a new battleship design based on the , but that incorporated a recently designed gun and Harvey armour, which was significantly stronger than compound armour. The Director of Naval Construction, William Henry White, prepared a preliminary design for a ship armed with four of the 12 in guns and protected with an armour belt that was thick. White submitted the design on 27 January 1892 to the Board. Since Harvey armour was so much stronger than compound plate, less of it could be used for the same level of protection, allowing for a significant savings in weight. As a result, the protection scheme could be made stronger and more comprehensive than in the ''Royal Sovereign''s, while keeping the rise in displacement to a minimum. This included the fitting of fully enclosed armoured gun shields for the main battery guns. The Board approved the design and intended to lay down three ships under the 1892 programme, but work on the 12 in gun was taking longer than predicted, and so construction was delayed to the 1893 programme. By that time, the third ship of what was to be the ''Majestic'' class was redesigned as a second-class battleship, , leaving only two ships to be laid down under the 1893 estimates. By August 1893, however, the public perceived the strength of the Royal Navy to have fallen relative to its traditional rivals, the French and Russian navies. John Spencer, the First Lord of the Admiralty, proposed a large naval expansion plan referred to as the Spencer Programme that included seven more ''Majestic''-class battleships to soothe public opinion. The ''Majestic''s were to be a benchmark for all successor pre-dreadnoughts. While the preceding ''Royal Sovereign''-class battleships had revolutionised and stabilised British battleship design by introducing the high-freeboard battleship with four main-battery guns in twin mountings in barbettes fore and aft, it was the ''Majestic''s that settled on the 12 inch (305 mm) main battery and began the practice of mounting armoured gunhouses over the barbettes; these gunhouses, although very different from the old-style, heavy, circular gun turrets that preceded them, would themselves become known as "turrets" and became the standard on warships worldwide. The ''Majestic'' class, the largest class of battleships ever built, were some of the most successful battleships of their time, and they were widely copied. Indeed, the Japanese and the battleship were based directly on the ''Majestic''s. 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「Majestic-class battleship」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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