London-class battleship

Common card · No. 419191

The London class was a group of five predreadnought battleships built for the British Royal Navy in the late 1890s and early 1900s. The class comprised London, Bulwark, Venerable, Queen, and Prince of Wales. The ships of the London class were very similar to the preceding Formidable class, with the main differences being their armour layout. They were armed with a battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns and they had top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). They are sometimes referred to as being part of the Formidable class due to their similarity, or as being a class of three ships, with the last two forming their own Queen class. The five ships were built between 1898 and 1904 at the Portsmouth, Devonport, and Chatham Dockyards. All five ships of the class served with the Mediterranean Fleet at the start of their careers; their peacetime years were uneventful, apart from accidental collisions with other ships. Starting in 1907, the Royal Navy began transferring the ships back to home waters...

Read on Wikipedia · Image H. Symonds & Co—IWM shows no record of which specific employee of this company took the picture, Public domain