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The Nelson class was a class of two battleships (Nelson and Rodney) of the British Royal Navy, built shortly after, and under the terms of, the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. They were the only British battleships built between the Revenge class (ordered in 1913) and the King George V class, ordered in 1936. The ships were named after famous British admirals: George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, victor of the Battle of Cape St. Vincent and the Battle of the Saintes, and Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, who won the Battles of the Nile and Trafalgar. To comply with the limitations of the Washington Treaty, these ships were of an unusual design with many novel features. They are often referred to as the first treaty battleships. The Nelsons were unique in British battleship construction, being the only ships to carry a main armament of nine 16-inch (406 mm) guns. The most unusual feature however, and one that is immediately noticeable, is that these were all carried forward of the bridge. Commissioned in 1927–29, the Nelsons served extensively in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Indian oceans during World War II. Rodney was made famous by her role in the sinking of the Bismarck in May 1941. At the climax of the battle Rodney, in conjunction with King George V, closed on Bismarck to bombard her at short range. Rodney's main guns were credited with an estimated 100 to 130 hits, contributing greatly to Bismarck's final destruction. Nelson and Rodney participated in the bombardment of targets in northern France during and after D-Day. In particular, during the Caen campaign Nelson was credited with destroying a group of five Tiger tanks which ventured into a red zone [within 40 km (25 mi) of the coast] deemed by the German command to be in range of Allied battleships. Both ships of the class survived the war, but were scrapped in 1948–1949 along with all other British battleships except the four remaining King George V-class battleships and Vanguard. Background and design The Battle of Jutland had shown the value of firepower and protection over speed and manoeuvrability. The next generation of British warships incorporated this lesson. After the First World War, the Admiralty drew up plans for massive, heavily armoured battlecruisers and battleships, far larger and stronger than all previous vessels. The G3-class battlecruisers would carry 16-inch (406 mm) guns, and the proposed N3-class battleships would carry nine 18-inch (457 mm) guns, and would be the most powerful vessels afloat. The Royal Navy was planning to hold its superiority in the burgeoning arms race, despite the large warships planned in Japan and the United States. Development was abruptly curtailed by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, which brought the arms race to a halt. The four battlecruisers that had been ordered were cancelled. Some of the material acquired would later be used in Nelson and Rodney. The Treaty limited all nations' battleships to maximum limits of 35,000 tons and 16-inch guns. The British had successfully ensured that the definition of maximum displacement – the standard displacement – excluded both fuel and boiler feed water. They had argued that having to protect the widespread British Empire meant their ships had to carry more of both and they should not be penalised compared to nations, such as Japan, France and Italy, that operated normally much closer to their home bases. As a result, water-filled internal anti-torpedo bulges could be incorporated, which did not contribute to the "dry" (standard) weights and therefore did not exceed the treaty displacement limits. The limits of the treaty inevitably led to compromises in the design of two new ships, and the resulting Nelson class sacrificed installed power (and hence speed) in order that the ships be well-armed and defended. They were often referred to as the "Cherry Tree" class, because they had been "cut down by Washington". The need to limit displacement resulted in a radical new warship design, drawn from the "G3" and "N3" designs of Eustace Tennyson-d'Eyncourt, Director of Naval Construction from 1912 to 1924. To reduce the weight of armour, the main gun turrets were all mounted forward to shorten the armoured citadel. The "G3" and "N3" had two turrets forward of the bridge with the third between the bridge and the funnels/aft superstructure. However, in the Nelsons, this was taken further and all three were in front of the bridge; "B" mount superfiring over "A", with "X" turret on the forecastle deck behind "B", and therefore unable to fire directly forward or aft. "X" turret is sometimes referred to as "C" turret and one alternative design, designated "O3", had it superfiring over both "A" and "B" turrets. The secondary guns were placed in totally enclosed director-controlled twin turrets at the upper deck level and were grouped aft – another innovative element taken from the G3 and N3 design. The machinery was of necessity limited in weight, size and installed power, and there were only two shafts with quite large screws. All previous British battleships after HMS Dreadnought of 1906 had four screws as did all British battleship classes after Nelson. In order that fuel gasses be kept clear of the superstructure, the boiler rooms were moved behind the engine rooms, exhausting into a single funnel. This orientation also reduced the overall length of the armoured citadel. As a countermeasure to the limited power, the hull was of a very efficient hydrodynamic form, to attain the best possible speed. Description The Nelsons had a length between perpendiculars of 660 feet (201.2 m) and an overall length of 709 feet 10 inches (216.4 m) (Nelson) or 710 feet 3 inches (216.5 m) (Rodney), a beam of 106 feet (32.3 m), and a draught of 30 feet 4 inches (9.2 m) at mean standard load. They displaced 33,300–33,730 long tons (33,830–34,270 t) at standard load and 37,430–37,780 long tons (38,030–38,390 t) at deep load. Their crew numbered 1,361 officers and ratings when serving as flagships and 1,314 as private ships. At deep load, they had a metacentric height of 10.2 feet (3.1 m), which gave them a quick roll between 11.2 and 13.6 seconds. In calm weather, the Nelson-class ships were very manoeuvrable, but the large surface area of the superstructure gave them a large amount of weather helm and they could be a handful in confined spaces with a strong wind as was demonstrated when Nelson ran aground off Southsea beach in 1934. The ships were powered by two sets of Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines, each driving one shaft, using steam from eight Admiralty 3-drum boilers fitted with superheaters that operated at a pressure of 250 psi (1,724 kPa; 17 atm). The turbines were rated at 45,000 shaft horsepower (34,000 kW) and intended to give the ship a maximum speed of 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph). The sister ships exceeded their designed speed during their sea trials in 1927, reaching speeds of 23.6–23.8 knots (43.7–44.1 km/.... Discover the Iain Ballantyne popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Iain Ballantyne books.