page_title: Bellerophon-class battleship
section_title: Background and description
hierarchical_section_title: Bellerophon-class battleship / Background and description
caption_attribution_description: Section view of dreadnought HMS Bellerophon showing armour scheme
context_page_description: The Bellerophon-class battleship was a group of three dreadnought battleships that were built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. The sister ships spent most of their careers assigned to the Home and Grand Fleets. Aside from participating in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916, and the inconclusive Action of 19 August several months later, their service during the First World War generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea.
  In late 1918, Temeraire and Superb were transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet and supported Allied forces in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea after the war ended in November. The Bellerophons were deemed obsolete by this time and were reduced to reserve in 1919 and were then used as training ships. Superb was used for gunnery experiments in 1920 and then became a target ship in 1922 before being sold for scrap later that year. Bellerophon and Temeraire were sold in late 1921 and subsequently broken up.
context_section_description: The Admiralty's 1905 draft building plan envisioned four battleships in the 1906–1907 Naval Programme, but the new Liberal government cut one of these ships in mid-1906. The Bellerophon-class design was a slightly larger and improved version of the revolutionary preceding HMS Dreadnought, with better underwater protection and a more powerful secondary armament.
  The Bellerophon-class ships had an overall length of 526 feet (160.3 m), a beam of 82 feet 6 inches (25.1 m), and a normal draught of 27 feet (8.2 m). They displaced 18,596 long tons (18,894 t) at normal load and 22,211–22,540 long tons (22,567–22,902 t) at deep load. Their crews numbered about 680 officers and ratings upon completion and 840 in 1914.
  The Bellerophons were powered by two sets of Parsons direct-drive steam turbines, each of which was housed in a separate engine room. The outer propeller shafts were coupled to the high-pressure turbines and these exhausted into low-pressure turbines which drove the inner shafts. Separate cruising turbines were provided for each shaft. The turbines used steam from eighteen water-tube boilers at a working pressure of 235 psi (1,620 kPa; 17 kgf/cm²). They were rated at 23,000 shaft horsepower (17,000 kW) and were intended to give the ships a maximum speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). Refinements to the hull shape allowed the larger Bellerophon class to match Dreadnought's speed despite the same horsepower rating. During their sea trials, the ships handily exceeded their designed speed and horsepower. To save weight, they carried slightly less fuel than Dreadnought: 2,648 long tons (2,690 t) of coal and an additional 840 long tons (853 t) of fuel oil that was sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate. This gave them a range of 5,720 nautical miles (10,590 km; 6,580 mi) at a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).
caption: Left elevation view from Jane's Fighting Ships, 1915; darkened areas show armour
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