HMS Indefatigable ( 1909 ) HMS " Indefatigable " was a battlecruiser of the Royal Navy and the lead ship of her class . Her keel was laid down in 1909 and she was commissioned in 1911 . She was an enlarged version of the earlier with a revised protection scheme and additional length amidships to allow her two middle turrets to fire on either broadside . When the First World War began , " Indefatigable " was serving with the 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron ( BCS ) in the Mediterranean , where she unsuccessfully pursued the battlecruiser and the light cruiser of the German Imperial Navy as they fled towards the Ottoman Empire . The ship bombarded Ottoman fortifications defending the Dardanelles on 3 November 1914 , then , following a refit in Malta , returned to the United Kingdom in February where she rejoined the 2nd BCS . " Indefatigable " was sunk on 31 May 1916 during the Battle of Jutland , the largest naval battle of the war . Part of Vice - Admiral Sir David Beatty ' s Battlecruiser Fleet , she was hit several times in the first minutes of the " Run to the South " , the opening phase of the battlecruiser action . Shells from the German battlecruiser caused an explosion ripping a hole in her hull , and a second explosion hurled large pieces of the ship 200 feet ( 60 m ) in the air . Only two of the crew of 1 , 019 survived . Design and description . No battlecruisers were ordered after the three " Invincible " - class ships in 1905 until " Indefatigable " became the lone battlecruiser of the 1908 – 09 Naval Programme . A new Liberal Government had taken power in January 1906 and demanded reductions in naval spending , and the Admiralty submitted a reduced programme , requesting dreadnought s but no battlecruisers . The rejected this proposal in favour of two outmoded armoured cruisers but finally acceded to a request for one battlecruiser instead , after the Admiralty pointed out the need to match the recently published German naval construction plan and to maintain the heavy gun and armour industries . " Indefatigable " s outline design was prepared in March 1908 , and the final design , slightly larger than " Invincible " with a revised protection arrangement , was approved in November 1908 . A larger design with more armour and better underwater protection was rejected as too expensive . Note ; plan is of " Invincible " - class battlecruisers ; the " Indefatigable " - class has a third superstructure element with ' P ' & ' Q ' turrets more widely spaced . The ship had an overall length of , a beam of , and a draught of at deep load . She normally displaced and at deep load . Her turbines were designed to produce a total of , but reached over during sea trials in 1911 . She was designed for , but reached during trials . " Indefatigable " s main armament was eight breech - loading BL 12 - inch Mark X guns mounted in four hydraulically powered twin turrets . Two turrets were mounted fore and aft on the centreline , identified as ' A ' and ' X ' respectively . The other two were wing turret s mounted amidships and staggered diagonally : ' P ' was forward and to port of the centre funnel , while ' Q ' was situated starboard and aft . ' P ' and ' Q ' turrets had some limited ability to fire to the opposite side . Her secondary armament consisted of sixteen BL 4 - inch Mark VII guns positioned in the superstructure . She mounted two submerged torpedo tube s , one on each side aft of ' X ' barbette , and twelve torpedoes were carried . " Indefatigable " was unique among British battlecruisers in having an armoured spotting and signal tower behind the conning tower , protected by of armour . However , the spotting tower was of limited use , as its view was obscured by the conning tower in front of it and the legs of the foremast and superstructure behind it . During a pre - war refit , a rangefinder was added to the rear of the ' A ' turret roof , and this turret was equipped to control the entire main armament as an emergency backup for the normal fire - control positions . Wartime modifications . " Indefatigable " received a single QF 3 - inch 20 cwt anti - aircraft gun on a high - angle Mark II mount in March 1915 . It was provided with 500 rounds . All of her 4 - inch guns were enclosed in casemate s and given gun shield s during a refit in November 1915 to better protect the gun crews from weather and enemy action , although two aft guns were removed at the same time . She received a fire - control director between mid - 1915 and May 1916 that centralised fire control under the director officer who now fired the guns . The turret crewmen merely had to follow pointers transmitted from the director to align their guns on the target . This greatly increased accuracy since the ship ' s roll no longer dispersed the shells as each turret fired on its own ; also , the fire - control director could more easily spot the fall of the shells . Service . Early career . " Indefatigable " was laid down at the Devonport Dockyard , Plymouth on 23 February 1909 . She was launched on 28 October 1909 and was completed on 24 February 1911 . Upon commissioning , " Indefatigable " served in the 1st Cruiser Squadron , which in January 1913 was renamed the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron ( BCS ) . In December 1913 , she transferred to the Mediterranean , where she joined the 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron . Pursuit of Goeben and Breslau . " Indefatigable " , accompanied by the battlecruiser and under the command of Admiral Sir Berkeley Milne , encountered the German battlecruiser " Goeben " and the light cruiser " Breslau " on the morning of 4 August 1914 , which were headed east after a cursory bombardment of the French Algerian port of Philippeville . Britain and Germany were not yet at war , so Milne turned to shadow the Germans as they headed back to Messina to re - coal . All three battlecruisers had problems with their boilers , but " Goeben " and " Breslau " were able to break contact and reached Messina by the morning of the 5th . By this time Germany had invaded Belgium and war had been declared , but an Admiralty order to respect Italian neutrality and stay more than six miles ( 10 km ) from the Italian coast precluded entering the Strait of Messina , from which they could have observed the port directly . Therefore Milne stationed and " Indefatigable " at the northern exit of the strait , expecting the Germans to break out to the west where they could attack French troop transports . He stationed the light cruiser at the southern exit , and sent " Indomitable " to coal at Bizerte , where she was ready for action in the Western Mediterranean . The Germans sortie d from Messina on 6 August and headed east , towards Constantinople , trailed by " Gloucester " . Milne , still expecting Rear - Admiral Wilhelm Souchon to turn west , kept the battlecruisers at Malta until shortly after midnight on 8 August when he set sail at a leisurely for Cape Matapan , where " Goeben " had been spotted eight hours earlier . At 2 : 30 p . m . he received an incorrect message from the Admiralty stating that Britain was at war with Austria - Hungary . War would not actually be declared until 12 August , and the order was countermanded four hours later , but Milne gave up the hunt for " Goeben " , following his standing orders to guard the Adriatic against an Austrian break - out attempt . On 9 August Milne was given clear orders to " chase " Goeben " which had passed Cape Matapan on the 7th steering north - east . " Milne still did not believe that Souchon was heading for the Dardanelles , and so he resolved to guard the exit from the Aegean , unaware that the " Goeben " did not intend to come out . On 3 November 1914 , Winston Churchill , then First Lord of the Admiralty , ordered the first British attack on the Dardanelles following the commencement of hostilities between Ottoman Turkey and Russia . The attack was carried out by " Indomitable " and " Indefatigable " , as well as the French pre - dreadnought battleship s and . The intention of the attack was to test the fortifications and measure the Turkish response . The results were deceptively encouraging . In a twenty - minute bombardment , a single shell struck the magazine of the fort at Sedd el Bahr at the tip of the Gallipoli peninsula , displacing ( but not destroying ) 10 guns and killing 86 Turkish soldiers . The most significant consequence was that the attention of the Turks was drawn to strengthening their defences , and they set about expanding the mine field . This attack actually took place before Britain ' s formal declaration of war on 6 November against the Ottoman Empire . " Indefatigable " remained in the Mediterranean until she was relieved by " Inflexible " on 24 January 1915 and proceeded to Malta for a refit ; she then sailed to England on 14 February and joined the 2nd BCS upon her arrival . The ship conducted uneventful patrols of the North Sea for the next year and a half . She was the temporary flagship of the 2nd BCS during April – May 1916 , while her half - sister was under repair after colliding with " Indefatigable " s other half - sister . Battle of Jutland . On 31 May 1916 , the 2nd BCS consisted of " New Zealand " ( flagship of Rear - Admiral William Pakenham ) and " Indefatigable " . The squadron was assigned to Admiral Beatty ' s Battlecruiser Fleet which had put to sea to intercept a sortie by the High Seas Fleet into the North Sea . The British were able to decode the German radio messages and left their bases before the Germans put to sea . Admiral Franz von Hipper ' s battlecruisers spotted the Battlecruiser Fleet to their west at 3 : 20 p . m . , but Beatty ' s ships did not spot the Germans to their east until 3 : 30 . Two minutes later , he ordered a course change to east south - east to position himself astride the German ' s line of retreat and called his ships ' crews to action stations . He also ordered the 2nd BCS , which had been leading , to fall in astern of the 1st BCS . Hipper ordered his ships to turn to starboard , away from the British , to assume a south - easterly course , and to reduce speed to to allow three light cruisers of the 2nd Scouting Group to catch up . With this turn Hipper was falling back on the High Seas Fleet , then about behind him . Around this time Beatty altered course to the east as it was quickly apparent that he was still too far north to cut off Hipper . This began what was to be called the " Run to the South " as Beatty changed course to steer east south - east at 3 : 45 , paralleling Hipper ' s course , now that the range closed to under . The Germans opened fire first at 3 : 48 , followed by the British . The British ships were still in the process of making their turn as only the two leading ships , and , had steadied on their course when the Germans opened fire . The British formation was echeloned to the right with " Indefatigable " in the rear and furthest to the west , and " New Zealand " ahead of her and slightly further east . The German fire was accurate from the beginning , but the British overestimated the range as the German ships blended into the haze . " Indefatigable " aimed at and " New Zealand " targeted while remaining unengaged herself . By 3 : 54 , the range was down to and Beatty ordered a course change two points to starboard to open up the range at 3 : 57 . Around 4 : 00 , " Indefatigable " was hit around the rear turret by two or three shells from " Von der Tann " . She fell out of formation to starboard and started sinking towards the stern and listing to port . Her magazines exploded at 4 : 03 after more hits , one on the forecastle and another on the forward turret . Smoke and flames gushed from the forward part of the ship and large pieces were thrown into the air . The most likely cause of her loss was a deflagration or low - order explosion in ' X ' magazine that blew out her bottom and severed the steering control shafts , followed by the explosion of her forward magazines from the second volley . " Von der Tann " fired only fifty - two shells at " Indefatigable " before she exploded . Of her crew of 1 , 019 , only two survived . While still in the water , two survivors found " Indefatigable ' s " captain , C . F . Sowerby , who was badly wounded and died before they could be rescued . The two survivors , Able Seaman Elliott and Leading Signalman Falmer , were rescued by the German torpedo boat . A third survivor , Signalman John Bowyer , is suspected to have been rescued by the Germans , but the ship that picked him out of the water is unknown . There is little additional evidence that there was a third survivor . " Indefatigable " today . " Indefatigable " , along with the other Jutland wrecks , was belatedly declared a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 , to discourage further damage to the resting place of 1 , 017 men . Mount Indefatigable in the Canadian Rockies was named after the battlecruiser in 1917 . The wreck was identified by nautical archaeologist Innes McCartney in 2001 , when it was found to have been heavily salvaged sometime in the past .