COURAGEOUS CLASS

NAME               BUILDER                  LAID DOWN        LAUNCHED       COMMISSIONED

Courageous       Armstrong Whitworth      28/03/15                05/02/16                05/05/28

Glorious            Harland and Wolff          01/05/15                 20/05/16              10/03/30     

Specification 

TYPE: fleet aircraft-carrier Displacement: 22, 500 tons standard and 26, 500 tons full load

Dimensions: length 239. 5 m ('185.75 ft); beam 2'1.6 m (90.5 ft); draught 7.32 m (24 ft)

Propulsion: 4-shaft geared steam turbines delivering 90, 000 shp (67113 kW)

Speed:31 kts

Armour: belt 38-76 mm ( 1.5-3 in); hangar deck 25-76 mm ( 1-3 in) Armament: 16 120-mm (4. 7in) AA guns Aircraft: about 45

Complement: 1,215 including aircrew

NOTES

Known, for political reasons, as large light cruisers, Jackie Fisher's famous trio of light battle-cruisers were supposed to be the largest units of a 600strong; shallow-draught armada constructed to realize his vision of landing an army on the Baltic coast of Germany, only 130 km (80 miles) from Berlin. The plan died with Fisher's departure from the Admiralty in 1915 but his strange ships were completed as a legacy. Ready for sea in 1917, the first two were HMS Courageous and HMS Glorious (laid down in 1915, and launched in February and April 1916), but were found to be virtually unemployable in the active fleet, unprotected and, with only four of their great 381mm ( 15-in) guns, slow to get on to the target. On the only occasion when they saw serious action, against conventional light cruisers, they suffered more damage than they inflicted.

Under the terms of the Washington 'Treaty, the two ships were eligible for conversion into aircraft-carriers. Rebuilding of both started in 1924, the Courageous completing in 1928 and the Glorious in 1930. Furious (with no island) had had her uptakes led well aft, detracting from her hangar space, but these later conversions had the benefit of developments on the Hermes and Eagle, their combined funnel and bridge structure boosting their air complement considerably. The Courageous and Glorious had similar forward flight decks, which terminated about 20 per cent of the ship's length back from the bows. The hangar deck was extended forward at forecastle level, allowing fighters to take off from the lower level in favourable circumstances. Both ships were extensively bulged to improve stability.

The Courageous was the Royal Navy's first major casualty of World War II, being sunk only a fortnight after hostilities commenced. Her loss brought the Glorious back from the Mediterranean as a replacement and she, too, was lost only nine months later during the evacuation of Norway.