HMS Erin
| Sketches showing the transformation from Reshadiye to Erin |
Sketches showing the transformation from Reshadiye to Erin | | Career | |
|---|
| Ordered: |
| Laid down: | 1 August 1911 |
| Launched: | 3 September 1913 |
| Commissioned: | August 1914 |
| Decommissioned: | December 1922 |
| Fate: | Scrapped |
| Struck: |
| General Characteristics |
|---|
| Displacement: | 27,500 tons normal
30,250 tons full load |
| Length: | 559 ft 6 in (171 m) |
| Beam: | 91 ft (27.7 m) |
| Draught: | 28 ft (8.7 m) |
| Propulsion: | Parsons 4 shaft steam turbines,
15 Babcock boilers,
26,500 hp (20 MW) |
| Speed: | 21 knots (39 km/h) |
| Range: | 5,300 nautical miles (9,800 km) |
| Complement: | 1,070 |
| Armament: | 10 x 13.5 in (345 mm) guns (5 twin turrets)
16 x 6 in (152 mm) guns
6 x 6 pdr in (57 mm) guns
2 x 3 in (76 mm) anti-aircraft guns
4 x 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes |
| Armour: | 12 in (305 mm) main belt,
6 in (152 mm) upper belt,
10 to 3 in (203 to 305 mm) over turrets |
HMS Erin was a
battleship of the
Royal Navy, originally
Reshadiye, ordered for the navy of the
Ottoman Empire but seized by the
United Kingdom on the outbreak of
World War I.
After the
Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, Sultan
Abdulhamid II withdrew the
Ottoman Navy from use and left the ships to rot. One of the important reasons of this decision was his fear of dethronement like Sultan
Abdulaziz I. In 1903, the
First Lord of the Admiralty,
William Palmer, 2nd Earl of Selborne, inspected the condition of the Ottoman Navy and reported that "there was no navy!"
However, the naval arms race of the early 20th century prompted the Ottoman government to embark upon a programme of re-armament by purchasing ships from the best shipbuilders in the world: at that time, in the United Kingdom. By 1914 this programme had purchased forty ships from British yards.
Other navies were undergoing similar programmes of naval expansion. A naval rivalry between
Argentina and
Brazil led the latter to order a battleship from
Armstrong Whitworth in the spring of 1911, to be named
Rio de Janeiro. However, by 1913 the two nations had solved their conflicts and Brazil ceased her payments to Armstrong.
The Ottoman Navy placed two orders for battleships: one with
Vickers to be called
Reshadiye, and one with Armstrong to be called
Mahmud Resad V. However, financial difficulties led the latter to be abandoned; instead the Ottoman Navy took over the contract for
Rio de Janeiro, renaming her
Sultan Osman I. A third ship, to be named
Fatih, was ordered from Vickers in 1914 but cancelled on the outbreak of war.
The battleships cost Turkey 4 million pounds. In that period, Ottoman government was in a financial deadlock and for the budget of these battleships, people's donations were asked. In taverns, cafes, schools, markets everybody donated some amount of money for the Ottoman Navy. To encourage this campaign, plentiful donations were awarded with a medal called "Navy Donation Medal".
George Thurston's design for
Reshadiye was based on contemporary British battleships of the
King George V class, but had a heavier main armament and accommodation differences, particularly Turkish-style lavatories. The coal bunkerage and endurance were also less British practice and the armour belt was shallower.
When on
27 July 1914 Mr. Rauf went to Newcastle on behalf of the Ottoman government to arrange for transportation of
Sultan Osman I, the First Lord of Admiralty
Winston Churchill was aware that an embargo would mean a diplomatic crisis but he could not take the risk that these battleships would be engaged against the Royal Navy.
Accordingly, on
3 August 1914, Churchill declared that the British government had embargoed the two battleships. Mr. Rauf in his memories says, "We paid the last instalment (700,000 Turkish liras). The manufacturer and we agreed on that the ships would be hand over on 2 August 1914. Nevertheless, after we made our payment and half an hour before the ceremony, the British declared that they have requisitioned the ships … Although we have protested, nobody paid attention."
When the UK declared war on
4 August 1914 the two ships were taken over by the United Kingdom without compensation because the Ottoman Empire was allied with the German Empire. This caused resentment in the Ottoman Empire and helped push Turkey into declaring war on Germany's side on
October 29 1914.
 |
Crew members - 1914 |
Reshadiye was commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS
Erin, and
Sultan Osman I became
HMS Agincourt.
Erin joined the 2nd Battle squadron of the
Grand Fleet, and fought in the
Battle of Jutland. She became flagship of the
Nore Reserve in 1919 and was scrapped in 1922 to comply with the
Washington Naval Treaty.
* Conway's
All the world's fighting ships 1906–1921* D. K. Brown,
The Grand Fleet, Chatham, 1999.
*
Maritimequest HMS Erin Photo Gallery
