HMS Emperor of India was an of the British Royal Navy. She was originally to have been named Delhi but was renamed before she was completed, to honour King George V, who was also Emperor of India at the time. The ship was laid down on 31 May 1912 at the Vickers shipyard, and was launched on 27 November 1913. The finished ship was commissioned a year later in November 1914, shortly after the start of the First World War. She was armed with a main battery of ten guns and was capable of a top speed of .
Upon commissioning, Emperor of India joined the 4th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet, based at Scapa Flow. She took part in numerous sorties into the northern North Sea to enforce the blockade of Germany, along with frequent training exercises and gunnery drills. Emperor of India was in dock for a refit in late May 1916, so she was unavailable for the Battle of Jutland. The increased danger from submarines led both the Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet to pursue more cautious strategies after Jutland, which led to a less eventful war.
After the war, Emperor of India was sent to the Mediterranean Fleet, where she became involved in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War in the Black Sea from 1919–1921. She remained in the Mediterranean until 1926, when she was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet. The London Naval Treaty of 1930 mandated that Emperor of India and her three sister ships be dismantled. In 1931, she and underwent a series of weapons tests that proved to be highly beneficial for future British battleship designs. Emperor of India was ultimately sold for scrap in February 1932, and was broken up shortly thereafter.
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. Emperor of India 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 . Her cruising radius was at a more economical . Emperor of India had a crew of 995 officers and ratings, though during wartime this grew to up to 1,022.Preston, p. 31
Emperor of India 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 battery of twelve BL 6-inch Mk VII guns. The ship 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 (= 1 imperial ton ≈ 1 tonne) 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.
Emperor of India 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
Emperor of India was laid down at the Vickers shipyard on 31 May 1912, originally to have been named Delhi. She was launched on 27 November 1913 and christened Emperor of India. The ship was commissioned into the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet under Admiral John Jellicoe in November 1914 for sea trials, three months after the outbreak of the First World War. The following month she was assigned to the 4th Battle Squadron as the second division flagship, where she served for the first two years of the war.Preston, pp. 31–32Burt 1986, p. 226 On 1 December, Emperor of India and her sister ship arrived at the 4th Squadron to begin working up, before being pronounced fit for service with the fleet on 10 December.Jellicoe, pp. 168–169, 172 During this period, the rearmost 6-inch guns were removed from the four Iron Duke-class ships and their casemates were sealed off, as they were too low in the hull and permitted water to continually enter the ship.Jellicoe, pp. 173–174
First World War On 23–24 December, the 4th and 2nd Squadrons conducted gunnery practice north of the Hebrides.Jellicoe, p. 182 The following day, the entire fleet sortied for a sweep in the North Sea, which concluded on 27 December; this was Emperor of Indias first fleet operation.Jellicoe, pp. 183–184 Another round of gunnery drills followed from 10–13 January 1915 west of the Orkney and Shetland Islands, this time with the entire fleet.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 main fleet did not become engaged in the Battle of Dogger Bank that took place the following day.Jellicoe, pp. 194–196 From 7–10 March, the Grand Fleet conducted a sweep in the northern North Sea, during which it conducted training manoeuvres. Another such cruise took place from 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 from 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 on 17–19 May without encountering any German vessels.Jellicoe, p. 217 In mid-June, the fleet conducted another round of gunnery training.Jellicoe, p. 221 On 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 another sweep into the North Sea, returning to port on the 15th.Jellicoe, p. 250 From 2–5 November, Emperor of India participated in another fleet training operation west of OrkneyJellicoe, p. 253 Another such cruise took place from 1–4 December.Jellicoe, pp. 257–258
The typical routine of gunnery drills and squadron exercises occurred in January.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, Emperor of India 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. By the time the Grand Fleet approached the area on 26 March, the British and German forces had already disengaged and a severe gale threatened the light craft. Iron Duke, the fleet flagship, guided the destroyers back to Scapa while Emperor of India and the rest of the fleet retired independently.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 German High Seas Fleet had withdrawn, however.Jellicoe, pp. 286–287Marder, p. 424 On 2–4 May, the fleet conducted another demonstration off Horns Reef to keep German attention focused on the North Sea.Jellicoe, pp. 288–290 Emperor of India was not available for the Battle of Jutland on 31 May–1 June, as she was in dock for a refit. Following Jutland, she was transferred to the 1st Battle Squadron, where she again served as the second division flagship. She remained in the 1st Squadron for the rest of the war.
On 18 August, the Germans again sortied, this time to bombard Sunderland; Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer, the German fleet commander, hoped to draw out Beatty's battlecruisers and destroy them. British signals intelligence decrypted German wireless transmissions, allowing Jellicoe enough time to deploy the Grand Fleet in an attempt to engage in a decisive battle. Both sides withdrew, however, after their opponents' submarines inflicted losses in the action of 19 August 1916: the British cruisers and were both torpedoed and sunk by German U-boats, and the German battleship was damaged by the British submarine . After returning to port, Jellicoe issued an order that prohibited risking the fleet in the southern half of the North Sea due to the overwhelming risk from mines and U-boats.Massie, pp. 682–684 Later that year, Emperor of India was equipped with equipment to handle a kite balloon. Following the investigation into the Battle of Jutland, the Royal Navy determined that deck protection was insufficient in all of its capital ships; as a result, Emperor of India had an additional of armour over the magazines between October and December 1916.Burt 1986, p. 215
A series of minor modifications followed throughout 1917 and 1918; these included the installation of larger and additional searchlights to improve night combat capabilities, funnel caps to reduce smoke interference with the spotting tops, and rangefinder baffles that were intended to make it more difficult to estimate the range for enemy gunners. The baffles were later removed in 1918.Burt 1986, pp. 215–218 In late 1917, the Germans began using destroyers and light cruisers to raid the British convoys to Norway; this forced the British to deploy capital ships to protect the convoys. In April 1918, the German fleet sortied in an attempt to catch one of the isolated British squadrons, though the convoy had already passed safely. The Grand Fleet sortied too late to catch the retreating Germans, though the battlecruiser was torpedoed and badly damaged by the submarine .Halpern 1995, pp. 418–420
Following the capitulation of Germany in November 1918, the Allies interned most of the High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow. The fleet rendezvoused with the British light cruiser , which led the ships to the Allied fleet that was to escort the Germans to Scapa Flow. The massive fleet consisted of some 370 British, American, and French warships. The fleet remained in captivity during the negotiations that ultimately produced the Treaty of Versailles. Reuter believed that the British intended to seize the German ships on 21 June 1919, which was the deadline for Germany to have signed the peace treaty. That morning, the Grand Fleet left Scapa Flow to conduct training maneuvers, and while they were away Reuter issued the order to scuttle the High Seas Fleet.Herwig, pp. 254–256
Post-war career