Design and Description
HMS Ajax was the last of the four ships of the King George V-class battleships to be laid down. The class had been intended to be a repeat of the preceding Orion class, but experience with this class enabled improvements to be incorporated into Ajax, and her sister HMS Audacious, at an early stage of construction. The most significant of these, and that which added most to her fighting efficiency, was the positioning of the foremast forward of the fore-funnel rather than behind it. It had been found that in ships in which the foremast and the fighting top were aft of the funnel, which arrangement existed in HMS Dreadnought herself and in the Colossus class, funnel smoke could render the fighting top essentially uninhabitable. This ship, together with HMS Audacious, was also designed, unlike her earlier sisters HMS King George V and HMS Centurion to be equipped with director firing which necessitated the provision of a stronger foremast than had been initially envisaged. The internal armour protection was also improved as against the earlier class, the anti-torpedo armament was improved (q.v.) and the speed increased by about one knot.
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