:HMS Prince of Wales (1902)

The Director of Naval Construction, Sir William White, proposed a further pair of Londons to round out a tactical squadron of eight ships for the 1900 Naval Programme. After some hesitation, the Admiralty agreed, despite the ongoing construction of the smaller and faster {{sclass|Duncan|battleship|4}}. A controversy engendered by Rear-Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, second-in-command of the Mediterranean Fleet, about the retention of obsolete ironclads in the fleet in mid-1900 was largely responsible for the decision.Burt, pp. 215, 217 The two ships were virtually identical to the preceding London sub-class of the Formidables and are generally considered part of the FormidableGibbons, p. 151 or London class,Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 37Parkes, p. 408 but the difference in the distribution of their 12-pounder {{convert|3|in|mm|adj=on}} guns, their lower displacement, and their later construction than the Duncans lead some authors to view them as constituting a Queen class separate from the Formidable and London classes.Burt, pp. 215–228

Prince of Wales had an overall length of {{convert|431|ft|9|in|m|1}}, a beam of {{convert|75|ft|m|1}}, and a mean draught of {{convert|27|ft|3|in|m|1}} at deep load. She displaced {{convert|14140|LT|t|lk=on}} at normal load and {{convert|15380|LT|t}} at deep load,Burt, p. 218 some {{convert|550|LT|t|0}} lighter than the last of the Londons, {{HMS|Venerable|1899|6}}. At deep load the ship had a metacentric height of {{convert|4.27|ft}}. Prince of Wales had a complement of 747 officers and ratings when she was completed in 1904.Burt, pp. 218, 225

The ship was powered by a pair of three-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller, using steam provided by 20 Belleville boilers. She was the last British battleship built with Belleville boilers as they had proven problematic and uneconomical in earlier ships. The engines were designed to produce a total of {{convert|15000|ihp|lk=on}} give her a speed of {{convert|18|kn|lk=in}} and Prince of Wales slightly exceeded this on her sea trials on 8 February 1908, reaching {{convert|18.57|kn|1}}. She carried enough coal to steam {{convert|5400|nmi|lk=in}} at a speed of {{convert|10|kn}}.Burt, pp. 218, 221, 224

The London-class ships' main armament consisted of four breech-loading (BL) BL 12 inch Mk IX naval gun mounted in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. Each gun was provided with 80 rounds.Burt, pp. 216–18 The guns had a maximum range of {{convert|15150|yd}} with their {{convert|850|lb|adj=on}} shells.Friedman, pp. 57–58 Their secondary armament consisted of a dozen BL 6 inch Mk VII naval gun on single mounts positioned in casemates amidships, six on each broadside. Eight of these were mounted on the main deck and the remainder on the upper deck; the main-deck guns were difficult to work in heavy weather. 200 rounds per gun were carried by the ship.Parkes, pp. 408–409 They had a maximum range of approximately {{convert|12200|yd}} with their {{convert|100|lb|adj=on}} shells.Friedman, pp. 80–81 Fourteen quick-firing (QF) QF 12 pounder 12 cwt naval gun were fitted for defence against torpedo boats. Four of these were on the main deck, one pair at each end of the ship and the remaining ten on the upper deck. Prince of Wales also carried six QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss Hotchkiss guns, two in each fighting top and one on each turret roof. The ship was fitted with four submerged 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes, two on each broadside abreast the barbettes.

The Londons' armour scheme was similar to that of the Canopuses, although, unlike in the earlier ships, the waterline armour belt of Krupp cemented armour extended the length of the ship. The {{convert|9|in|mm|adj=on|0}} thick portion was {{convert|238|ft|m|1}} long and ran from just aft of the forward barbette to a point abreast the aft barbette,Burt, pp. 164, 166, 218 and had a total height of {{convert|15|ft|m|1}} of which {{convert|10|ft|6|in|m|1}} was above water and the remainder below water at normal load.Parkes, p. 409 The thickness of the forward belt armour reduced in {{convert|7|-|5|-|3|in|0|adj=on}} steps to the {{convert|2|in|0|adj=on}} stem and there was a {{convert|1|in|adj=on}} belt running from the aft barbette to the stern. A {{convert|9|-|10|in|0|adj=on}} bulkhead extended obliquely from the aft end of the main belt to the rear face of the aft barbette.Burt, pp. 218, 221

The gun turrets were protected by Krupp armour, {{convert|8|in|mm|0}} on their faces and 10 inches on their backs, with roofs 2 to 3 inches thick. The Krupp armour of the barbettes was 12 inches thick above the main deck, but 10 inches on the face and sides and 6 inches on the rear below it. The casemates were protected by 6 inches of Krupp armour. The thicknesses of the mild steel decks ranged from {{convert|1|to|2.5|in|mm|0}}. The walls of the forward conning tower were 10 inches of Harvey armour with a {{convert|4|in|adj=on|0}} roof and the aft conning tower had three inches of nickel steel.Burt, pp. 184, 218, 221

Prince of Wales, named after the title conferred upon the eldest son of the monarch,Silverstone, p. 257 was the fifth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy.Colledge, p. 277 The ship was laid down at Chatham Dockyard on 20 March 1901, the first keel plate laid by Lady Wharton, wife of Rear-Admiral Sir William Wharton, Hydrographer to the Admiralty.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Naval & Military Intelligence |date=21 March 1901 |page=10 |issue=36408}} 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),{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The Prince and Princess of Wales at Chatham |date=26 March 1902 |page=8 |issue=36725}} for whom the ship was named. Upon completion in March 1904, HMS Prince of Wales immediately went into reserve at Chatham Dockyard. The ship commissioned there on 18 May for service with the Mediterranean Fleet.Burt, p. 228 While in the Mediterranean, she collided with the merchant steamer {{SS|Enidwen}} off Oran, French North Africa, on 29 July 1905, Enidwen{{'}}s anchor being pushed through her main deck plating. On 16 April 1906, Prince of Wales had an engine-room explosion in which three men were killed and four injured.Parkes, p. 410 On 28 May, she ended her first Mediterranean tour by paying off for a refit at Portsmouth Dockyard that lasted from June to November. On 8 September, the ship again commissioned for Mediterranean Fleet service. She became the flagship of the second-in-command of the fleet in August 1907, and underwent another refit at Malta in 1908.

Prince of Wales transferred to the Atlantic Fleet as flagship of the fleet's commander in February 1909{{refn|Gardiner & GrayGardiner & Gray, p. 8 and Parkes say that this transfer occurred in November 1908.|group=Note}} and was damaged by an explosion in one of her stokeholds on 2 July. In December 1910, Rear-Admiral John Jellicoe, later commander of the Grand Fleet and First Sea Lord, hoisted his flag in Prince of Wales.Heathcote, p. 130 The ship underwent a refit at Gibraltar in February–May 1911 before she was transferred to the Home Fleets on 13 May 1912. Initially Prince of Wales became flagship of the 3rd Battle Squadron of the First Fleet, but then reverted to a private ship in the squadron on 13 May. The ship later became the flagship of the second-in-command of the Second Fleet, at Portsmouth. and part of the 5th Battle Squadron. By 18 February 1913, she was serving as the flagship for the second-in-command of the 5th Battle Squadron.{{cite web|title=The Navy List|url=https://archive.org/details/navylistmar1913grea|website=National Library of Scotland|date=18 February 1913|publisher=His Majesty's Stationery Office|location=London|access-date=1 April 2016|page=269b}} On 2 June 1913, she was accidentally rammed by the submarine HMS C32 while participating in exercises, but suffered no damage. By 18 May 1914, Prince of Wales had relieved her sister ship, {{HMS|Queen|1902|2}}, as flagship of the 5th Battle Squadron.{{cite web|title=The Navy List|url=https://archive.org/details/navylistjun1914grea|website=National Library of Scotland|date=18 December 1913|publisher=His Majesty's Stationery Office|location=London|access-date=1 April 2016|page=269b}}

When World War I broke out in August 1914, the squadron was assigned to the newly reconstituted Channel Fleet on 7 NovemberCorbett, I, p. 74 and based at Portland, from which it patrolled the English Channel. Prince of Wales was now the flagship of Rear-Admiral Bernard Currey and the first task of the squadron was to protect the transfer of the British Expeditionary Force over the English Channel to France. They patrolled the eastern end of the Channel while the 7th and 8th Battle Squadrons covered the cruiser squadron at the western entrance. The Germans made no significant effort to interfere with the traffic in the Channel and the 5th BS was allowed to return to Portland after the bulk of the BEF was across on 23 August. Several days later, the squadron ferried the Portsmouth Marine Battalion to Ostend, Belgium.Corbett, I, pp. 75–82, 95, 97 On 14 November, the squadron transferred to Sheerness to guard against a possible German invasion of the United Kingdom, but it transferred back to Portland on 30 December 1914.Burt, p. 170

On 19 March 1915, Prince of Wales was ordered to the Dardanelles to participate in the Dardanelles Campaign. She departed Portland on 20 March 1915 and was assigned to the British 5th Squadron of the Allied Fleet off the Dardanelles,Corbett, II, 310–11 where she arrived on 29 March. Prince of Wales supported the landings of the 3rd Brigade, Australian Army, at Gaba Tepe and Anzac Cove on 25 April. Her time at the Dardanelles was destined to be short as the Anglo-French-Italian Naval Convention of 10 May required that the British furnish a squadron of four battleships to reinforce the Italian Navy against the Austro-Hungarian Navy after Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary. Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel, the Italian naval chief of staff, believed that the threat from Austro-Hungarian submarines and naval mines in the narrow waters of the Adriatic was too serious for him to use the fleet in an active way. He therefore kept his most modern battleships, plus the British ones, at Taranto to blockade the Austro-Hungarians in the Adriatic Sea.Halpern, pp. 141–145, 150

On 22 May, Prince of Wales, along with the battleships Implacable, London, and Queen, was transferred to the Adriatic to form the 2nd Detached Squadron and Prince of Wales arrived at her new base on 27 May. The ship became the flagship of the squadron in March 1916. She ended her flagship duties in June 1916, when she went to Gibraltar for a refit and then returned to the Adriatic.

In February 1917, Prince of Wales was ordered to return to the United Kingdom. On her voyage home, she called at Gibraltar from 28 February 1917 to 10 March 1917 and arrived at Devonport Dockyard later in March. She was placed in reserve on arrival and used as an accommodation ship. Prince of Wales was placed on the disposal list on 10 November 1919, and was sold for scrap to Thos. W. Ward on 12 April 1920. The ship arrived at Milford Haven, Wales, to be broken up in June 1920.

{{Commons category}}

{{reflist|group=Note}}

{{Reflist|20em}}

• {{cite book|last=Burt|first=R. A.|title=British Battleships 1889-1904|year=1988|publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|isbn=0-87021-061-0}}
• {{Cite Colledge2006}}
• {{cite book|title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905|editor1-last=Chesneau|editor1-first=Roger|editor2-last=Kolesnik|editor2-first=Eugene M.|publisher=Conway Maritime Press|location=Greenwich|year=1979|isbn=0-8317-0302-4 |name-list-style=amp|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/conwaysallworlds0000unse_l2e2}}
• {{cite book|last=Corbett|first=Julian|author-link=Julian Corbett|title=Naval Operations to the Battle of the Falklands | url = https://archive.org/details/navaloperations04corb|edition=2nd, reprint of the 1938|series=History of the Great War: Based on Official Documents|year=1920 |volume=I|publisher=Imperial War Museum and Battery Press|location=London and Nashville, Tennessee|isbn=0-89839-256-X}}
• {{cite book|last=Corbett|first=Julian|author-link=Julian Corbett|title=Naval Operations|edition=reprint of the 1929 second|series=History of the Great War: Based on Official Documents|volume=II|year=1997|publisher=Imperial War Museum in association with the Battery Press|location=London and Nashville, Tennessee|isbn=1-870423-74-7}}
• {{cite book|last=Friedman|first=Norman|title=Naval Weapons of World War One|publisher=Seaforth|location=Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK|year=2011|isbn=978-1-84832-100-7}}
• {{cite book |editor1-last=Gardiner|editor1-first=Robert|editor2-last=Gray|editor2-first=Randal|title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921|year=1985|location=Annapolis, Maryland|publisher=Naval Institute Press|isbn=0-85177-245-5 |name-list-style=amp}}
• {{cite book|last=Gibbons|first=Tony|title=The Complete Encyclopedia of Battleships: A Technical Directory of Capital Ships from 1860 to the Present Day|publisher=Crescent Books|location=New York|year=1983|isbn=0-517-37810-8}}
• {{cite book |last=Halpern|first=Paul G.|title=A Naval History of World War I|year=1995|location=Annapolis, Maryland|publisher=Naval Institute Press|isbn=1-55750-352-4}}
• {{cite book|last=Heathcote |first=Tony |title=The British Admirals of the Fleet 1734 – 1995 |publisher=Leo Cooper|location=Barnsley, UK|year=2002 |isbn=0-85052-835-6}}
• {{cite book|last=Parkes|first=Oscar|title=British Battleships|publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|year=1990|edition=reprint of the 1957|isbn=1-55750-075-4}}
• {{cite book|last=Silverstone|first=Paul H.|title=Directory of the World's Capital Ships|year=1984|publisher=Hippocrene Books|location=New York|isbn=0-88254-979-0}}

{{London class battleship}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prince Of Wales (1902)}}

Category:London-class battleships

Category:Ships built in Chatham

Category:1902 ships

Category:World War I battleships of the United Kingdom