HMS Defence
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HMS Defence

1907 Minotaur-class armoured cruiser


Country
Norway
Service Entry
1907
Commissioning Date
February 09, 1909
Operator
Royal Navy
Vessel Type
armored cruiser, Minotaur-class armored cruiser
Shipwrecked Date
May 31, 1916
Current Location
56° 58' 2", 5° 50' 50"

* This information from Wikidata is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

HMS Defence was a British armoured cruiser built in 1907 and served in World War I. It was the lead ship of its class and was armed with a main battery of four 9.2-inch guns. The ship had a top speed of 22 knots and was well-regarded for its speed and protection. In 1916, while part of the Grand Fleet, HMS Defence participated in the Battle of Jutland, where it was sunk by the German fleet. The ship's loss was a significant blow to the British Navy, as it was one of the largest warship losses of the battle. Over 900 crew members perished in the sinking, with only a handful of survivors. The sinking of HMS Defence highlighted the vulnerability of large armoured cruisers to modern naval warfare tactics and weaponry. The ship's wreck was discovered in 2016, lying in the North Sea at a depth of around 66 meters. HMS Defence's legacy lives on as a symbol of the sacrifices made by naval personnel during World War I.

This description has been generated using GPT-3.5-TURBO based on the Vessel's wikidata information and then modified by ShipIndex.org staff.

Ships

9 ship citations (1 free) in 6 resources

Defence (1907) Subscribe to view
Defence (Great Britain/1907) Subscribe to view
Defence, H.M.S. (1907) Subscribe to view
Defence, HMS (1907)
Book Ships of the World: An Historical Encyclopedia Illustration
Author Lincoln P. Paine
Published Houghton Mifflin, Boston,
ISBN 0585109486, 9780585109480, 0395715563, 9780395715567
Pages 135, 268