Operational History
All six ships were launched in 1901; all were completed in 1903 except Cornwallis, which was completed in 1904. Before World War I, the ships served in the Mediterranean Fleet, Channel Fleet, Atlantic Fleet, and Home Fleet; Montagu, was lost prematurely when she was wrecked in 1906.
During World War I, the ships saw early service in the Grand Fleet and Channel Fleet. Later, Albemarle continued to serve in the Grand Fleet and in North Russia, while the others all were involved in service in the Mediterranean, where some saw action in the Dardanelles Campaign and members of the class served in the Atlantic Ocean, Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea, and Indian Ocean. Russell and Cornwallis were lost off Malta; the survivors went into reserve in 1917 and were scrapped in 1919–1920.
Read more about this topic: Duncan Class Battleship
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“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)