HMS Majestic (1895) was a British first class battleship, which was in service with the Royal Navy between 1895 and 1915. She was the first capital ship of the Royal Fleet to be protected by steel armor instead of iron plates used for the iron-clad types. Using steel instead of iron as armor saved her a lot of weight; otherwise she would have had more displacement and draft. She was also fitted with modern steam engines, with twin smoke funnels set up side by side. She was the lead vessel of the Majestic class, which comprised a total of nine battleships.
HMS Majestic boasted four 12-in (305-mm) and twelve 6-in (152-mm) guns. Being a development of the Royal Sovereign class, she was laid down at the Portsmouth's shipyards in February 1894. She was launched on January 31, 1895, entering service in December 1895. She assigned to the Channel Fleet as the flagship, carrying out patrol duties off the coast of the British Isles. When World War I broke out, she and her sister ship HMS Prince George took part in the Gallipoli Campaign in March 1915. That year, on May 27, HMS Majestic was hit by torpedoes fired from a German U-boats and sank within fifteen minutes, with the loss of forty human lives; the other members of her compliment were rescued.
Specifications
Type: first class battleship (pre-dreadnought)
Displacement: 14.560 tons (empty)
Length: 128.3 m (421 feet)
Beam: 22.9 m (75 feet)
Draft: 8.2 m (27 feet)
Propulsion: two 3-cylinder, triple-expansion steam engines, with two shafts, fed by 8 boilers, generating 10,000 HP
Maximum Speed: 17 knots
Range: 4,000 nautical miles
Armor: 299-mm-thick on belt; 102-mm on deck; 360-mm on barbettes.
Compliment: 672 sailors and officers
Below, a photo of HMS Majestic taken in April 1905 in the Aegean Sea, a few weeks before she was sunk.
The Majestic battleship in 1901.
The lead ship of her class sinking in the waters of the Dardanelles on May 27, 1915.
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