HMS Marlborough was an of the Royal Navy, named in honour of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. She was built at Devonport Royal Dockyard between January 1912 and June 1914, entering service just before the outbreak of the First World War. She was armed with a main battery of ten guns and was capable of a top speed of .
Marlborough served with the Grand Fleet for the duration of the war, primarily patrolling the northern end of the North Sea to enforce the blockade of Germany. She saw action at the Battle of Jutland (31 May – 1 June 1916), where she administered the coup de grâce to the badly damaged German cruiser . During the engagement, Wiesbaden hit Marlborough with a torpedo that eventually forced her to withdraw. The damage to Marlborough was repaired by early August, though the last two years of the war were uneventful, as the British and German fleets adopted more cautious strategies due to the threat of underwater weapons.
After the war, Marlborough was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet, where she took part in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War in the Black Sea in 1919–1920, and she rescued members of the Imperial Family from Yalta in 1919. She was also involved in the Greco-Turkish War. In 1930, the London Naval Treaty mandated that the four Iron Duke-class battleships be discarded; Marlborough was used for a variety of weapons tests in 1931–1932, the results of which were incorporated into the reconstruction programme for the s.
Design
The four Iron Duke-class battleships were ordered in the 1911 building programme, and were an incremental improvement over the preceding . The primary change between the two designs was the substitution of a heavier secondary battery in the newer vessels. Marlborough was long overall and had a beam of and an average draught of . She displaced as designed and up to at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of four Parsons steam turbines, with steam provided by eighteen Babcock & Wilcox boilers. The engines were rated at and produced a top speed of . Marlboroughs cruising radius was at a more economical . She had a crew of 995 officers and ratings; during wartime this increased to up to 1,022.Preston, p. 31
The ship was armed with a main battery of ten BL Mk V naval guns mounted in five twin gun turrets. They were arranged in two superfiring pairs, one forward and one aft; the fifth turret was located amidships, between the funnels and the rear superstructure. Close-range defence against torpedo boats was provided by a secondary armament of twelve BL Mk VII guns. Marlborough was also fitted with a pair of QF 3-inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft guns and four 3-pounder guns."Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 20 cwt referring to the weight of the gun. As was typical for capital ships of the period, she was equipped with four torpedo tubes submerged on the broadside.
Marlborough was protected by a main armoured belt that was thick over the ship's ammunition magazines and engine and boiler rooms, and reduced to toward the bow and stern. Her deck was thick in the central portion of the ship, and reduced to elsewhere. The main battery turret faces were thick, and the turrets were supported by thick barbettes.
Service history Marlborough was laid down at Devonport Royal Dockyard on 25 January 1912. She was launched nearly ten months later, on 24 October, and was commissioned on 2 June 1914. The ship was completed on 16 June 1914, a month before the First World War broke out on the Continent.Willmott, p. 154 Marlborough initially joined the Home Fleets, where she served as the flagship for Sir Lewis Bayly.Jellicoe, p. 7 Following the British entry into the war in August, the Home Fleets was reorganised as the Grand Fleet, commanded by Admiral John Jellicoe. Marlborough was assigned as the flagship of the 1st Battle Squadron, where she served for the duration of the conflict.Preston, p. 32
First World War
On the evening of 22 November 1914, the Grand Fleet conducted a fruitless sweep in the southern half of the North Sea to support Vice Admiral David Beatty's 1st Battlecruiser Squadron. The fleet was back in port at Scapa Flow by 27 November.Jellicoe, pp. 163–165 Marlborough and most of the fleet initially remained in port during the German raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on 16 December 1914, though the 3rd Battle Squadron was sent to reinforce the British forces in the area. After receiving further information about the possibility of the rest of the German fleet being at sea, Jellicoe gave the order for the fleet to sortie to try to intercept the Germans, though by that time they had already retreated.Jellicoe, pp. 177–179 Vice Admiral Cecil Burney replaced Bayley aboard Marlborough in December;Heathcote, p. 37 at that time, Marlborough became the second-in-command flagship for the Grand Fleet. On 25 December, the fleet sortied for a sweep in the North Sea, which concluded on 27 December without event.Jellicoe, pp. 183–184 Marlborough and the rest of the fleet conducted gunnery drills during 10–13 January 1915 west of Orkney and Shetland.Jellicoe, p. 190 On the evening of 23 January, the bulk of the Grand Fleet sailed in support of Beatty's Battlecruiser Fleet but the rest of the fleet did not become engaged in the ensuing Battle of Dogger Bank the following day.Jellicoe, pp. 194–196
On 7–10 March 1915, the Grand Fleet conducted a sweep in the northern North Sea, during which it undertook training manoeuvres. Another such cruise took place during 16–19 March.Jellicoe, p. 206 On 11 April, the Grand Fleet conducted a patrol in the central North Sea and returned to port on 14 April; another patrol in the area took place during 17–19 April, followed by gunnery drills off Shetland on 20–21 April.Jellicoe, pp. 211–212 The Grand Fleet conducted a sweep into the central North Sea during 17–19 May without encountering German vessels.Jellicoe, p. 217 Another patrol followed during 29–31 May; it too was uneventful.Jellicoe, pp. 218–219 The fleet conducted gunnery training in mid-June.Jellicoe, p. 221 During 2–5 September, the fleet went on another cruise in the northern end of the North Sea and conducted gunnery drills.Jellicoe, p. 243 Throughout the rest of the month, the Grand Fleet conducted numerous training exercises.Jellicoe, p. 246
On 13 October, the majority of the fleet conducted a sweep into the North Sea, returning to port on 15 October.Jellicoe, p. 250 During 2–5 November, Marlborough participated in a fleet training operation west of Orkney.Jellicoe, p. 253 Another such cruise took place during 1–4 December.Jellicoe, pp. 257–258 The typical routine of gunnery drills and squadron exercises occurred in January 1916.Jellicoe, pp. 267–269 The fleet departed for a cruise in the North Sea on 26 February; Jellicoe had intended to use the Harwich Force to sweep the Heligoland Bight, but bad weather prevented operations in the southern North Sea. As a result, the operation was confined to the northern end of the sea.Jellicoe, p. 271 On the night of 25 March, Iron Duke and the rest of the fleet sailed from Scapa Flow, to support the Battlecruiser Fleet and other light forces that raided the German zeppelin base at Tondern.Jellicoe, pp. 279–280
On 21 April, the Grand Fleet conducted a demonstration off Horns Reef to distract the Germans, while the Russian Navy relaid its defensive minefields in the Baltic Sea.Jellicoe, p. 284 The fleet returned to Scapa Flow on 24 April and refuelled, before proceeding south in response to intelligence reports that the Germans were about to launch a raid on Lowestoft. The Grand Fleet did not arrive in the area until after the Germans had withdrawn.Jellicoe, pp. 286–287Marder, p. 424 During 2–4 May, the fleet conducted another demonstration off Horns Reef to keep German attention focused on the North Sea.Jellicoe, pp. 288–290
Battle of Jutland
In an attempt to lure out and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, the German High Seas Fleet with 16 dreadnoughts, six pre-dreadnoughts, six light cruisers and 31 torpedo boats commanded by Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer, departed Jade Bight early on the morning of 31 May. The fleet sailed in concert with Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper's five battlecruisers and supporting cruisers and torpedo boats.Tarrant, p. 62 The Royal Navy's Room 40 had intercepted and decrypted German radio traffic containing plans of the operation. The Admiralty ordered the Grand Fleet of 28 dreadnoughts and 9 battlecruisers, to sortie the night before to cut off and destroy the High Seas Fleet.Tarrant, pp. 63–64 On the day of the battle, Marlborough was stationed toward the rear of the British line in the 6th Division of the 1st Battle Squadron.Campbell, p. 16
The initial action was fought primarily by the British and German battlecruiser formations in the afternoon,Campbell, p. 37 but by 18:00,The times used in this section are in UT, which is one hour behind CET, which is often used in German works. the Grand Fleet approached the scene.Campbell, p. 116 Fifteen minutes later, Jellicoe gave the order to turn and deploy the fleet for action. The transition from their cruising formation caused congestion with the rear divisions, forcing Marlborough and many of the other ships to reduce speed to to avoid colliding with each other.Campbell, p. 146 The British ships initially had poor visibility and Marlborough could only faintly make out a group of German s at 18:17. In the span of four minutes, she fired seven salvos, first at and then at . Marlboroughs gunners claimed to have made hits with the fifth and seventh salvos, but these claims are unlikely. Her guns were then masked by a burning cruiser, probably the armoured cruiser .Campbell, p. 155
Marlborough joined the group of battleships battering the German light cruiser at 18:25. She fired five salvos, before a premature detonation in the right barrel of "A" turret disabled the gun.The Royal Navy used letters to refer to the locations of the gun turrets aboard warships; "A" and "B" turrets were located forward, the centre turret was "Q", and the rear pair were "X" and "Y". She also engaged the ship with her secondary battery. At 18:39, Marlborough again engaged what appeared to be a Kaiser-class ship, firing a salvo before the German vessel disappeared into the haze.Campbell, pp. 156–157 During the engagement with Wiesbaden, the German cruiser launched one or two torpedoes at around 18:45, one of which struck Marlborough around the starboard diesel generator room. The detonation tore a hole in the hull and causing significant flooding, that forced the forward boilers on that side of the ship to be extinguished and reduced the ship's speed to . Burney initially reported to Jellicoe that his ship had struck a mine or had been hit by a torpedo at 18:57. Several more torpedoes, this time from the torpedo boat , forced Marlborough and the rest of the ships in her division to take evasive action.Campbell, pp. 164, 167, 179–180
At 19:03, Marlborough engaged Wiesbaden again, firing four salvos at ranges of . She hit the German cruiser with probably three shells from the last two salvos and these finally neutralised the ship, although it took several more hours before Wiesbaden sank.Campbell, pp. 205, 246 Marlborough then shifted fire to the s leading the German line at 19:12. She fired thirteen salvos in the span of six minutes at at ranges of , scoring three hits, though she incorrectly claimed a fourth hit.Campbell, p. 206 During this phase of the battle, Marlborough fired two torpedoes, both of which missed their targets: the first at Wiesbaden at 19:10 and the second at at 19:25.Campbell, p. 209