- HMS Orion during the Great War -
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HMS Orion
HMS Orion
HMS Orion was a dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy. Launched in 1910, she was the lead ship of her class; she was the first so-called "super-dreadnought", being the first British dreadnought to mount guns of calibre greater than twelve inches, and the first British dreadnought to have all of its main armament mounted on the centreline.
HMS Orion was an Orion-class battleship with a displacement of 22,000 long tons (22,000 t) Length: 581 ft (177 m), Beam: 88 ft 7 in (27.00 m), Draught: 24 ft 6 in (7.47 m)
she was propelled by Steam turbines red by 18 boilers with 4 shafts, giving 27,000 hp (20 MW). Her top speed was 21 kn (39 km/h) She had a crew complement of 750,1,100 officers and ratings. Armament consisted of 10 x BL 13.5-inch (342.9 mm) Mk V guns, 16 x BL 4-inch (101.6 mm) Mk VII guns and 3 x 21 in (530 mm) torpedo tubes (submerged)Orion was laid down in Portsmouth Dockyard on 29 November 1909. She was launched on 20 August 1910, ran her sea trials starting in September 1911 and was commissioned on 2 January 1912. She joined the second division of the Home Fleet as second flag-ship, in which role she relieved the pre-dreadnought battleship Hibernia. On 7 January 1912 she was damaged when Revenge broke loose from her moorings and collided with Orion, causing minor damage to the port side.
At Jutland on 31 May 1916 she carried the flag of Rear-Admiral Arthur Leveson, the second in command of the 2nd Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet. She took part in the general battleship action, claiming no hits and receiving none. In the later part of the action she claimed four hits on the German battlecruiser Lützow. As this battlecruiser did not survive the action confirmation was not possible. She remained with the Grand Fleet, seeing, in common with the rest of the battle-fleet, no more action during the remainder of the war. On 3 October 1919 she became flagship of the Reserve Fleet at Portsmouth, and in June 1921 she became a seagoing gunnery training ship at Portland.
On 12 April 1922 she was paid off onto the disposal list under the terms of the Washington Treaty. On 19 December she was sold to shipbreakers Cox and Danks, and from February 1923 she was broken up at Upnor.
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