Future Aircraft Carrier (CVF)

Queen Elizabeth Class
 

Part 28

Names

For several years speculation was rife as regards the names for the two new aircraft carriers.   Hundreds of names were submitted to the Names Committee, many were traditional Navy names, but the more unconventional would have been more at home in a Star Wars movie, e.g. HMS Death Star and HMS Galaxy Blaster.  HMS Furious was a favourite choice, HMS Eagle, HMS Hermes and [improbably] HMS Ark Royal were also often suggested.  HMS Courageous, Glorious, Warspite, Valiant, Britannia, Formidable, Nelson, Rodney and Hood were just some of the many other possibilities. 

In late November 2003 it was announced that the "Ships’ Names and Badges Committee" at the MoD had recommended that the new carriers be named HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, and that this has been approved by HM the Queen.  A royal source said: “The Queen was consulted about the names and has approved them.  Naturally, she’s delighted and very flattered.”  HMS Queen Elizabeth was particularly appropriate given that that the then planned entry in to service of the first ship would have  coincided with Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee in 2012.

The last HMS Queen Elizabeth was battleship, commissioned 23 December 1914 she took part in the Gallipoli landings in February 1915 and then 25 years later fought in Battle of Matapan in March 1941 during WW2.  She was severely damaged by an Italian frogmen at Alexandria in December 1941 but survived, was repaired and eventually sold for scrap and dismantled in 1948.  The last HMS Prince of Wales was also a battleship, which enjoyed a brief but epic life.  Commissioned 31 March 1941, in May 1941, when still far from being fully operational, the PoW engaged the German battleship Bismark in the Battle of the Denmark Strait.  Just seven months later, as part of "Force Z", she was attacked by Japanese aircraft off Malaysia and sunk with the loss of 327 men on 10 December 1941.

At CVF Main Gate in July 2007, the MOD published the following text:

The history of ships named "HMS Queen Elizabeth"

Only one ship by the name HMS Queen Elizabeth has served with the Royal Navy, although there have been more than twenty ships named Elizabeth in the Royal service, from the Hansa-built ship Elizabeth of 1514, to a 156 ton (158.5 metric tonnes) schooner hired for use as a Q-ship in 1918, and which used the name Elizabeth as one of her 'aliases'. In the four intervening centuries the name was also used for more conventional warships, including five line-of-battle ships. The list of Battle Honours for ships named Elizabeth is long: Armada 1588; Cadiz 1596; Montecristo 1652; Orfordness 1666; Barfleur 1692; Sadras 1758; Negapatam 1758; Porto Novo 1759 and Guadeloupe 1810.

A plan shows the new carriers in comparison to those of the USA and France, as well as to the UK's current Invincible-class ships. Click on the image to enlarge it [Image: DE&S] HMS Queen Elizabeth was lead ship of an important and innovative class of battleships, and both she and her sisterships served with great distinction in both World Wars.

In just a few years the gun-power of British Dreadnoughts had increased from 12-in (30.4cm), firing a 850lb (385.5kg) shell, to 13.5 in (34.3cm) firing 1,400lb (635kg) shells in 1909; by 1911 foreign navies were developing battleships with 14-in (35.5cm) guns and the new First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, took the decision to raise the stakes by the introduction of the 15-in (38cm) gun, capable of firing a 1,950lb (884.5kg) projectile 35,000 yards (32km). For secrecy's sake, the new gun was known throughout its hurried development as the '14-in (35.5cm) experimental'.

Bigger guns needed bigger ships to carry them, and the tactical need for speed – War College studies had recommended fast battleships capable of 25 knots (46kph), 4 to 5 knots (7-9kph) faster than existing ships – led to the decision to adopt for the first time oil-fired furnaces in British battleships. Aside from increased speed, oil-burning gave ships greater range, they were quicker to raise steam, and their crews were spared the oft-repeated labour and filth of 'coaling ship'. However, the move away from British-produced steaming coal to foreign-sourced oil fuel was a giant step, and shifted one of the bases of Britain's naval supremacy. The Government's acquisition of a controlling interest in the Anglo-Persian Oil Co in August 1914 was just one consequence of the decision.

The Queen Elizabeth, first and name ship of the new class of 'super-Dreadnoughts' was laid down at Portsmouth Dockyard on 21 October – Trafalgar Day – 1912, and launched just under a year later on 16 October 1913. She was commissioned on 22 December 1914 but only officially completed at the end of January 1915; on the 29 January she sailed from Portsmouth to join the Mediterranean Fleet off the Dardanelles, carrying out full power and gunnery trials on the way.

As completed HMS Queen Elizabeth was 639 ft 9 in (194.9m) length overall, 90 ft 6 in (27.5m) breadth, 29 ft 6 in (8.9m) mean draught, on a load displacement of 32,950 tons (33,478.7 metric tonnes). Her main armament of eight 15-in (38cm) was mounted in four twin turrets (which would become the 'classic' battleship layout), and she had a secondary battery of sixteen 6-in (15cm) guns (quite soon reduced to fourteen), with four submerged 21-in (53cm) torpedo tubes and a rudimentary anti-aircraft outfit of two 3-in (7.6cm) and some machine guns. Her main armour protection was up to 13 in (33cm) thick.

Her advanced propulsion machinery developed twice as much horse power (57,000 SHP) as the preceding 'Iron Duke' class's, giving a 4 knot increase in speed to just over 24 knots (44kph).

HMS Queen Elizabeth's first action was the bombardment of the Seddul Bahr fort guarding the Gallipoli side of the entrance to the Dardanelles on 25 February 1915, and for the next three months she provided gunfire support to operations in that area, including the attempt by the Franco-British fleet to force the passage on 18 March, the landings on the Gallipoli peninsula on 25 April and, throughout, bombardments of Turkish positions and shipping. Nevertheless, shore bombardment was not the most appropriate use for the Royal Navy's most modern battleship, and her vulnerability to mines and torpedoes while in such confined waters – German U-Boats were known to be en route for the Eastern Mediterranean – led to the decision to withdraw her from the area, and she sailed for Gibraltar on 14th May. On 15 May the pre-Dreadnought HMS Goliath was torpedoed and sunk by a Turkish torpedo boat, and on the 27 May the Majestic was sunk by U-21.

Arriving at Scapa at the end of May, the Queen Elizabeth joined the Grand Fleet, and with the other 'Queen Elizabeths' formed the 5th Battleship Squadron in November 1915; the 5th BS was the 'fast battleship wing' of the Grand Fleet, and the most powerful battleship squadron the world had seen. HMS Queen Elizabeth was refitting at Rosyth from May 1916 and did not take part in the battle of Jutland, where her sister ships Malaya, Warspite, Valiant and Barham were attached to the Battlecruiser Squadron and in the thick of the early fighting.

In November 1916 the Queen Elizabeth became Flagship of the Grand Fleet, and though she saw no further action in the Great War, it was in her Admiral's Cabin that Admiral Sir David Beatty dictated the terms of the naval armistice to the German naval plenipotentiary in November 1918.

HMS Queen Elizabeth was Flagship of the Atlantic Fleet from 1919 to 1924, when, with the rest of her class, she transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet, again as Flagship. She underwent a thorough refit and modernisation at Portsmouth from May 1926 to the end of 1927 before rejoining the Mediterranean Fleet in early 1928, and resuming her place as Flagship of the Royal Navy's most important overseas station. By the time she entered Portsmouth Dockyard for a prolonged refit in August 1937 HMS Queen Elizabeth had been the peacetime flagship of no fewer than eight Commanders-in-Chief of either the Grand Fleet, the Atlantic Fleet or the Mediterranean Fleet. She had been senior flagship at King George V's Jubilee Review at Spithead in July 1935 and was also present at the Coronation Review in May 1937.

The refit amounted more or less to a total reconstruction, involving 90 per cent of the ship's structure, with modifications made to her hull form and armour protection, a completely new outfit of boilers and machinery, modified and improved main armament and twenty 4.5 in (11.4cm) guns in twin turrets as secondary armament replacing her original 6 in (15cm) gun positions. Her light anti-aircraft armament consisted of four eight-barrelled 2 pdr (0.9kg) pom-poms (to be later augmented by no fewer than fifty-four 20mm Oerlikons). Tonnage increased to over 36,000 tons (36,577.7 metric tonnes).

She was still in dockyard hands when war broke out in 1939, and owing to the threat of air attack was removed to Rosyth, where her reconstruction was completed in February 1941.

After working up with the Home Fleet, she escorted an important Malta convoy through the Straits of Gibraltar in May, before joining the Mediterranean Fleet engaged in operations off Crete and in the evacuation of the island. From May until August she took part in operations and diversions of the Mediterranean Fleet and on 1 September she hoisted the Flag of Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, C-in-C Mediterranean.

On 19 December 1941 the Queen Elizabeth was severely damaged by an Italian 'human torpedo' while at anchor in the harbour at Alexandria; the battleship Valiant was also successfully attacked in this very daring and skilful raid. Temporary repairs at Alexandria, which took until May 1942, were necessary to make her seaworthy enough for the passage to Norfolk, Virginia where she remained under repair until mid-1943.

HMS Queen Elizabeth returned to home waters in July 1943 to work up, and in December 1943 she left Scapa in company with HM Ships Renown and Valiant for the Eastern Fleet, arriving at Trincomalee at the end of January 1944. In May 1944 she became Flagship of Admiral Sir James Somerville, C-in-C Eastern Fleet, and took part in carrier air strikes on Sabang and Sourabaya; in July she returned to bombard Sabang once more.

In January 1945 she covered the landing on Ramree Island, bombarded Sabang yet again and covered anti-shipping air strikes off Sumatra. In April and May she bombarded positions in the Andaman Islands, intercepted Japanese shipping in the Malacca Strait and participated in the operations that led to the sinking of the Japanese cruiser Haguro. In July she began the voyage home, and arrived at Rosyth on 10 August.

In March 1946 she reduced to Category B Reserve at Portsmouth, and on 21 January 1948 the decision to scrap her was announced in the House of Commons. In July 1948 she was taken to the Clyde for demolition.

The history of ships named "HMS Prince of Wales"

The Royal Navy's first ship named HMS Prince of Wales was originally a French privateer, commissioned on behalf of the ex-King James, then taken as prize by HMS York in 1693 and brought into service as a Sixth Rate ship, armed with 14 guns. She disappears from lists of the Royal Navy by 1699.

The next Prince of Wales was a Hired Armed Ship, taken up between 1756 and 1758, and armed with 18 guns. She had a crew of 120 men, civilian merchant seamen provided by her civilian owners but operating under the direction of commissioned Royal Navy sea officers and under naval discipline; the 20th century analogy would be the Armed Merchant Cruisers of the First and Second World Wars.

A digital mock-up showing the scale of the UK's Future Aircraft Carriers if moored on the Thames in Central London [Picture: MOD] The third HMS Prince of Wales was a Third Rate 74 gun line-of-battle ship built to the design of the 'Monarch/Ramilles' class at Milford in 1765. She was launched in 1765 and measured 168 ft 6 in (51m) length, 138 ft 3¾ in (42m) on the keel, 46 ft 9 in (14m) breadth and 19 ft 9 in (6m) depth, giving a tonnage of 1,607 tons (1,632.8 metric tonnes). She was armed with twenty-eight 32 pounder (14.5kg) guns on her gundeck, a similar number of 18 pdrs (8kg) on the upperdeck and fourteen 9 pdrs (4kg) on the quarterdeck with four 9 pdr (4kg) chase guns on the forecastle. She had a full crew of 600 officers and ratings.

She was first commissioned in 1770 in response to a dispute with Spain over possession of the Falkland Islands, but paid off early in 1771. She was again in commission from October 1776, under the command of the Honourable Samuel Barrington. As his flagship, the Prince of Wales took a central part in the successful defence of St Lucia against superior forces under the French Admiral d'Estaing in December 1778; in July 1779 Vice Admiral Barrington in HMS Prince of Wales led the van of Vice Admiral Byron's fleet in the battle off Grenada, again against superior numbers of French warships under the command of d'Estaing. The Prince of Wales had the heaviest casualties of the day – 26 killed and 46 wounded.

She returned home to pay off in 1780, and was broken up in 1783.

A new ship of the name was launched at Portsmouth in June 1794. She was a 'Boyne' Class Second Rate 98-gun three-decker, armed with twenty-eight 32 pdr (14.5kg) guns on her gundeck, thirty 18 pdrs (8kg) on the middle deck and thirty upper deck 12 pdrs (5.4kg). She had eight 6 pdrs (2.7kg) on the quarterdeck and two forecastle chase guns. She was 182 ft (55.4m) long on deck, 149 ft 8 in (45.6m) on the keel, 50 ft 3 in (15m) beam, and 21 ft 9 in (6.6m) depth, and measured 2,010 tons (2,042 metric tonnes). She carried a complement of 750 officers and men.

The 90/98 gun Second Rate was, as a ship-type, best described as a 'budget' First Rate; powerful enough to stand in the heart of the line of battle, with enough accommodation and prestige for a fleet flagship, but more economical of scarce building timber and dockyard resources than a First Rate of 100+ guns. However, their sailing qualities were generally woeful – many captains described them as sailing 'like haystacks'.

Nevertheless, the Prince of Wales saw much action throughout the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. She was present at the battle sometimes known as 'Bridport's Action' off the Île de Groix in June 1795, was Rear Admiral Harvey's flagship at the capture of Trinidad in February 1797, and was flagship of the force under Vice Admiral Lord Hugh Seymour that forced the surrender of the Dutch colony of Surinam in 1799.

She was Sir Robert Calder's flagship in July 1805 when the squadron under his command intercepted the French Admiral Villeneuve's Combined Fleet off Ferrol. In a confused action in poor visibility, two Spanish ships were taken. The battle, generally known as 'Calder's Action' was a tactical success – the numerically superior Franco-Spanish fleet suffered heavier casualties and lost two ships, and was forced to divert from its intended destination – but even more of a strategic victory, as the diversion completely scuppered any prospect of success for Napoleon's invasion plans. Despite this, public and press clamour at home led to Calder being court martialled and severely reprimanded for 'not having done his utmost'.

HMS Prince of Wales next saw action as Sir James Gambier's flagship for the expedition against Copenhagen in 1807, which culminated in the bombardment of the Danish capital and the surrender of the Danish fleet. She paid off at Chatham at the end of 1807.

The Prince of Wales recommissioned in December 1811, first for the blockade of the Scheldt – an uncomfortable station in such an unhandy ship - then to the Mediterranean fleet, where she served to the end of the war in 1814.

She was broken up in 1814.

The fifth HMS Prince of Wales was laid down at Portsmouth Dockyard in June 1848 as a First Rate sailing line-of-battle ship, to carry 120 guns, but in 1853 the decision was taken to convert her to steam propulsion while still on the stocks. The conversion of the partially completed hull began in 1856, and she was launched as a steam screw ship in January 1860. She was 252 ft (76.8m) long on deck (lengthened from 210 ft (64m) as a sailing vessel), 213 ft (64.9m) on the keel, 60 ft (18m) beam and 24 ft 8 in (7.5m) depth, for a tonnage of 3,099 tons (3,099.7 metric tonnes). Her 800 nhp machinery by Penn gave her a top speed of 12½ knots (23kph) on trials, and her armament was to consist of ten 8 in (20cm) twenty-five 32 pdrs (14.5kg) on the gundeck, six 8 in (20cm) and thirty 32pdrs (14.5kg) on the main deck, thirty-eight 32 pdrs (14.5kg) on the upperdeck, and with twenty 32 pdrs (14.5kg) and a single 68 pdr (30.8kg) on the spar deck.

However, she was never put into commission, and in 1869 she was renamed HMS Britannia to become the second ship of that name to serve as Cadets' Training Ship at Dartmouth. Between 1869 and 1905, when the College buildings on shore at Dartmouth were opened, something like 4,000 Cadets had passed through their early naval education on board the Britannia.

She was hulked in 1909 and sold for breaking in 1914.

The sixth ship to be named HMS Prince of Wales was a battleship of the 'Queen' Class, built at Chatham and launched in March 1902. She was completed in March 1904.

The 'Queens' were very similar to the 'Formidable' and 'London' Class, and measured 431 ft (131m) overall length, 75 ft (22.8m) beam and 26 ft (7.9m) deep. Armed with four 12 in (30.5cm) guns in two twin turrets, twelve 6 in (15.2cm) secondary armament, sixteen 12 pdr (5.4kg) anti-torpedo boat guns and four torpedo tubes, HMS Prince of Wales had an average deep displacement of 15,700 tons (15,951.9 metric tonnes). Her compound engines developed 15,000 indicated horsepower for a maximum speed of 18 knots (33kph). She had a complement of 714 officers and ratings.

She served with the Mediterranean Fleet until February 1909, when she transferred to the Atlantic Fleet as Flagship. In May 1912 she joined the Home Fleet, and on the outbreak of war in August 1914 was assigned to the Channel Fleet's 5th Battle Squadron as Flagship. At the end of the month she transported the Portsmouth Marine Battalion to Ostend.

In March 1915 she was ordered to the Dardanelles, and in April gave fire support to the Anzac landings at Gaba Tepe. From May 1915 she was part of the 2nd Detached Squadron, based at Taranto, and she remained in the Adriatic until February 1917 when she was ordered home to Portsmouth to pay off. She was then used as an overflow accommodation ship, before being sold for scrapping in early 1920.

The most recent HMS Prince of Wales was a 'King George V' Class battleship, built by Cammell, Laird and launched at Birkenhead in May 1939. When completed in March 1941 she displaced over 42,000 tons () at deep load, measured 745 ft (227m) long, 103 ft (31m) beam, and 32 ft 7 in (9.9m) mean draught. Her 111,900 shp machinery gave her a maximum speed of 27½ knots (50.8kph). She had a main armament of ten 14 in (35.5cm) guns, arranged in two quadruple turrets in 'A' and 'Y' positions, and one twin turret in 'B' positions, with a secondary armament of sixteen 5.25 in (13cm) guns (in eight twin turrets) and a close-range anti-aircraft outfit, in its final configuration, of forty 2-pdr (0.9kg) pom-poms, eleven 20mm Oerlikons and a single 40mm Bofors. She carried a complement of over 1,600 officers and men.

The career of HMS Prince of Wales was tragically short, but encompassed some of the most significant actions of the Second World War.

She first came under enemy attack while she was fitting out at Birkenhead in August 1940 when she was slightly damaged in a low-level bombing raid. The damage was minor, and in January 1941 she was taken round to Rosyth to complete fitting out. She was first commissioned in January 1941 but only officially completed on 31 March, and full power trials began in early May; intensive trials and working-up of the complex and fault-prone main armament systems were still in progress when she was reported operational on 21 May 1941, the day the Bismarck and her consort Prinz Eugen broke out to the Atlantic.

HMS Prince of Wales, in company with the battlecruiser HMS Hood, sailed from Scapa at 0052 hrs on the 22 May, and intercepted the German ships in the Denmark Strait at dawn on the 24 May. In the ensuing action HMS Hood blew up, with the loss of all but three of her crew; the Prince of Wales, plagued with mechanical failures of her main armament and now under the heavy and accurate fire of both German ships, broke off the action to repair her defects and take up a shadowing position. However, she had already inflicted on the Bismarck the damage that would force her to give up her intended mission against the Allied convoy routes, and make for port in France.

After a dramatic chase the Bismarck was cornered and destroyed by the guns of the battleships HMS Rodney and HMS King George V; torpedoes from HMS Dorsetshire and scuttling charges triggered as the German crew abandoned ship finally sent her to the bottom.

In August 1941 the Prince of Wales carried Winston Churchill to Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, for the historic 'Atlantic Charter' meeting with President Roosevelt, a declaration of the policies and principles guiding both Great Britain and the United States 'in the face of Nazi aggression' – the USA was still neutral at this stage of the war.

On the return passage to Scapa Flow the Prince of Wales passed through the ranks of a homeward-bound convoy as the merchant ships cheered and sounded their sirens – and then repeated the manœuvre twice more at Churchill's insistence.

In September 1941 HMS Prince of Wales joined Force 'H' at Gibraltar for Operation 'Halberd', the passage of a trooping and supply convoy to Malta. The escort comprised three battleships, the Nelson, Prince of Wales and Rodney, an aircraft carrier, HMS ARK ROYAL, five cruisers and eighteen destroyers. Italian aerial attacks were beaten off, and a threat from Italian battleships – seen by the British fleet as more of an opportunity – failed to materialise. One merchant ship was lost, without casualties, HMS Nelson was damaged by an aerial torpedo, and an Italian submarine was destroyed.

In October 1941 HMS Prince of Wales was ordered to the Far East, and with the battlecruiser HMS Repulse formed Force 'Z', to be deployed to Singapore with the intention of deterring any Japanese aggression. However, Force 'Z' was overtaken by events, and the two capital ships, with only a light destroyer escort, left Singapore on 8 December 1941 to intercept a Japanese invasion convoy reported to be in the Gulf of Siam.

On 10 December the ships were attacked by successive waves of Japanese aircraft; the old battlecruiser Repulse quickly succumbed to bombs and torpedoes and sank with heavy losses. HMS Prince of Wales, with speed and manoeuvrability reduced by two torpedo hits aft, resisted a while longer, but following four more hits and a two hour struggle to stay afloat, the ship capsized. The escorting destroyers HM Ships Electra, Express and Vampire rescued nearly 1,300 survivors, but more than 300 officers and men were lost.

Battle Honours: HMS Prince of Wales

St. Lucia 1778; Groix Island 1795; Dardanelles 1915; 'Bismarck' 1941; Malta Convoys 1941.

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