Monmouth class cruiser

HMS Monmouth, on postcard
Class overview
Name:	Monmouth
Preceded by:	Drake class cruiser
Succeeded by:	Devonshire class cruiser
Completed:	10
Lost:	2
General characteristics
Type:	armoured cruiser
Displacement:	9,800 tons
Length:	463 ft 6 in (141.27 m) overall
Beam:	66 ft (20 m)
Draught:	25 ft (7.6 m)
Propulsion:	4-cylinder triple-extension steam engines two shafts 31 Belleville (majority of class), Niclausse (Berwick and Suffolk), or Babcock (Cornwall) boilers 22,000 hp (16,400 kW)
Speed:	approximately 23 knots (43.6 km/h) 24 knots (44.4 km/h) in Lancaster and 24.7 knots (45.7 km/h) in Suffolk
Complement:	678
Armament:	14 × BL 6-inch (152.4 mm) Mk VII guns (2 x 2, 10 × 1) 10 x QF 12-pounder (76-mm) guns (10 x 1) 3 × QF 3-pounder (47-mm) guns (3 × 1) 2 × 18 inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes, submerged
Armour:	4 in (102 mm) belt 5 in (127 mm) barbette 5 in (127 mm) turret

The Monmouth-class was a ten-ship class of 10,000 ton armoured cruisers built around 1901 to 1903 for the Royal Navy and designed specifically for commerce protection. The ships were also referred to as County-class cruisers as they carried the names of British counties.

Design

Left elevation and deck plan as depicted in Jane's Fighting Ships 1914

Aft port casemate guns on HMS Berwick, illustrating the unfortunate positioning

Expected only to fight light cruisers and armed merchant ships, they were armed with fourteen 6-inch guns at a time when most British armoured cruisers also carried at least a pair of 9.2 inch guns: Four of the guns were mounted in two twin turrets at a good height, the remaining ten were installed in hull-mounted casemates, 5 on each side. The lower casemate guns were just a few feet above water, making them impossible to use in heavy seas. Sir John Fisher commented that "Sir William White designed the County class but forgot the guns."^[1]. On the other hand, they were relatively fast ships for their time.

Building programme

The following table gives the build details and purchase cost of the members of the Monmouth class. Standard British practice at that time was for these costs to exclude armament and stores. The compilers of The Naval Annual revised costs quoted for British ships between the 1905 and 1906 editions. The reasons for the differences are unclear.^[2]

Ship	Builder	Engine Maker	Date of			Cost according to
			Laid Down	Launch	Completion	(BNA 1905)[3]	(BNA 1906)[4]
Monmouth	London and Glasgow Shipping Company	London & Glasgow Shipping Company	29 Aug 1899	13 Nov 1901	2 Dec 1903	£709,085	£979,591
Bedford	Fairfield, Govan	Fairfield	19 Feb 1900	31 Aug 1901	11 Nov 1903	£734,330	£706,020
Essex	Pembroke Dockyard	J Brown	1 Jan 1900	29 Aug 1901	22 Mar 1903	£770,325	£736,557
Kent	Portsmouth Dockyard	Hawthorn	12 Feb 1900	6 Mar 1900	1 Oct 1903	£733,940	£700,283
Berwick	W. Beardmore & Company	Humphrys	19 Apr 1901	20 Sept 1902	9 Dec 1903	£776,868	£750,984
Cornwall	Pembroke Dockyard	Hawthorne	11 Mar 1901	29 Oct 1902	1 Dec 1905	£789,421	£756,274
Cumberland	London & Glasgow Shipping Company, Glasgow	London & Glasgow Shipping Company	19 Feb 1901	16 Dec 1902	1 Dec 1904	£751,508	£718,168
Donegal	Fairfield, Govan	Fairfield	14 Feb 1901	4 Sep 1902	5 Nov 1903	£752,964	£715,947
Lancaster	Armstrongs, Elswick	Hawthorn	4 Mar 1901	22 Mar 1903	5 Apr 1904	£763,084	£732,858
Suffolk	Portsmouth Dockyard	Humphrys	25 Mar 1901	15 Jan 1903	21 May 1904	£783,054	£722,681

Service

Notes and references

1. ^ 'Castles of Steel, Robert K. Massie, 2004, Balantine Books, ISBN 0345408780
2. ^ The 1906 figure for Monmouth is particularly high. but is as quoted in the original. The 1914 edition also quotes £979,591 as the cost of Monmouth.
3. ^ Brassey's Naval Annual 1905, p234-243
4. ^ Brassey's Naval Annual 1906, p208-215

Bibliography

• Chesnau, Roger and Kolesnik, Eugene (Ed.) Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905. Conway Maritime Press, 1979. ISBN 0-83170-302-4
• Brassey, T.A. (ed)The Naval Annual 1905
• Leyland, J. and Brassey, T.A. (ed)The Naval Annual 1906

External links

• The Dreadnought Project Technical details of the ships.