HMS Bellerophon (1907) - Design

Design

While revolutionary, HMS Dreadnought had been revealed to have certain shortcomings. Her secondary armament was judged to be insufficient to combat the increased size of torpedo boats, regarded at the time as the principal threat to major surface warships. Hence her secondary armament was strengthened and her anti-torpedo protection was improved in the form of continuous anti-torpedo bulkheads running from the front of the fore magazine to the rear of the aft magazine.

Externally, Bellerophon and the sister-ships of her class appeared similar to Dreadnought, having the same main armament layout of 5 twin 12 inch mounts, a secondary armament of 16 single-mounted 4 inch mounted in casemates on the superstructure and upon the deck, and lighter guns atop the turrets. A torpedo-control tower aft completed the profile. The Bellerophon class was different in having two tripod masts rather than the single such mast shipped in Dreadnought to facilitate sea keeping in peacetime. The 12 inch British dreadnoughts would be unique when later they were fitted with two sets of fire-control equipment.

She was built with 18 Babcock boilers arranged in 3 groups of 6. Her machinery, constructed by Fairfield, consisted of 4 Parsons single reduction steam turbines driving 4 shafts producing 23,000 shp (17 MW). Due to the scaling down of coal bunkerage, her range of 5,720 nautical miles (10,593 km) at 10 knots (18.5 km/h) was considered middling at best. Her machinery was provided by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan.