HMS Shannon was a Minotaur-class armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1900s.

HMS Shannon (1906) guns being assembled at Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering in Barrow-in-Furness in England

British armored cruiser HMS Shannon as built with short funnels

Shannon after her funnels were lengthened.

Before the First World War, she served with the Home Fleet, generally as the flagship of a cruiser squadron. The ship remained with the Grand Fleet, as the Home Fleet was renamed when the war began, for the entire war, but only participated in a single battle, the Battle of Jutland in May 1916. Shannon spent most of the war unsuccessfully patrolling the North Sea for German warships and commerce raiders. She was paid off in 1919 and sold for scrap in 1922.

Contents

• 1Description
• 2Construction and career
• 3Notable commanding officers
• 4Notes
• 5Footnotes
• 6References
• 7Further reading
• 8External links

Description[edit]

Shannon displaced 14,600 long tons (14,800 t) as built and 16,630 long tons (16,900 t) at deep load. The ship had an overall length of 519 feet (158.2 m), a beam of 75 feet 6 inches (23.0 m) and a mean draught of 26 feet (7.9 m). Her beam was 1 foot (0.3 m) wider and her draught one foot less than her sisters in the belief that she would prove to be the fastest ship in the class. Shannon was powered by a pair of four-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, using steam provided by 24 Yarrow water-tube boilers. The engines were designed to reach a total of 27,000 indicated horsepower (20,000 kW) and were intended to give a maximum speed of 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph). Shannon proved to be the slowest ship in the class; during her sea trials on 3 December 1907 her engines reached 29,644 indicated horsepower (22,106 kW), but she only reached a speed of 22.592 knots (41.8 km/h; 26.0 mph) The ship carried a maximum of 2,060 long tons (2,090 t) of coal and an additional 750 long tons (760 t) of fuel oil that was sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate. At full capacity, she could steam for 8,150 nautical miles (15,090 km; 9,380 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). Shannon was designed to carry 779 officers and ratings, but had a complement of 819 in 1908 and 842 in 1912.^[1]

The ship’s main armament consisted of four BL 9.2-inch Mark XI guns in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft. Her secondary armament of ten BL 7.5-inch Mark II guns were mounted amidships in single turrets. Anti-torpedo boat defence was provided by sixteen QF 12-pounder (3-inch) 18-cwt guns.^{[Note 2]} Shannon also mounted five submerged 17.7-inch torpedo tubes, one of which was mounted in the stern.^[2]

The waterline armour belt consisted of 6 inches (152 mm) of Krupp cemented armour roughly between the fore and aft 7.5-inch gun turrets, but was reduced in steps to three inches to the ends of the ship. The gun turrets and barbettes were protected by 6–8 inches (152–203 mm) of armour. The thickness of the lower deck was 1.5–2 inches (38–51 mm). The armour of the conning tower was 10 inches (254 mm) thick

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