HMS Erin

HMS Erin in Moray Firth, August 1915.
Ottoman Empire
Name:	Reşadiye
Namesake:	Mehmed V
Fate:	Seized 22 August 1914
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Erin
Namesake:	Erin
Laid down:	1 August 1911
Launched:	3 September 1913
Commissioned:	August 1914
Decommissioned:	December 1922
Fate:	Scrapped
General characteristics
Type:	Battleship
Displacement:	27,500 long tons (27,940 t) (normal) 30,250 long tons (30,740 t) (full load)
Length:	559 ft 6 in (170.54 m)
Beam:	91 ft (27.7 m)
Draught:	28 ft (8.5 m)
Installed power:	26,500 shp (19,800 kW)
Propulsion:	4 × Parsons steam turbines 15 × Babcock boilers 4 × shafts
Speed:	21 kn (38.9 km/h)
Complement:	1,070
Armament:	10 × 13.5-inch (343 mm) Mk VI guns (5x2) 16 × 6-inch (152.4 mm) guns 6 × 6-pounder (57 mm) guns 2 × 3-inch (76 mm) 20 cwt anti-aircraft guns 4 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour:	Belt: 12 in (30.5 cm) (main); 9 in (22.9 cm) (upper) Turrets: 4–11 in (10.2–27.9 cm)
Service record
Part of:	Royal Navy Grand Fleet, 4th Battle Squadron at Scapa Flow (September–October 1914) Grand Fleet, 2nd Battle Squadron at Scapa Flow (October 1914-October 1919) Reserve at the Nore (October–December 1919) Turret drill ship at Chatham (December 1919-December 1922) Refit at Devonport (July–August 1920) Broken up at Queenborough (December 1922)
Operations:	World War I Battle of Jutland

Royal Navy

World War I

HMS Erin was a dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy which was originally built in response to an order placed by the Ottoman government with the British Vickers company. She was intended, when accepted for service in the Ottoman Navy, to be named Reşadiye, as the first of two Reşadiye-class battleships. The Ottoman intention was to procure a battleship which was at least the equal of any other ship currently afloat or building. The design was based on that of King George V, but with some features of Iron Duke. In August 1914, when the First World War broke out, the ship was nearly completed; but at the orders of Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, she was seized (together with another dreadnought battleship under construction in Britain for the Ottoman Navy, Sultan Osman I, which was renamed as HMS Agincourt) for use by the Royal Navy.

The design was based closely on the design of King George V, but with a number of modifications. British battleships of the period were required by the Admiralty to be of a size that could be accommodated by existing docks, which imposed absolute limitations on beam and on draught. Erin was built with a greater beam and a shorter length than King George V, the greater stability so produced allowing for the installation of a heavier secondary battery and the positioning of "Q" turret one deck higher. She had only a single mast, the foremast, which supported the fighting top and was situated ahead of the forefunnel. The legs of the tripod foremast spread forward rather than the more usual aft orientation; This was to allow the ship's boats to be worked by booms from this mast, in the absence of a mainmast. As a further result of this mast arrangement the charthouse could not be built as part of the conning tower, but was built as a separate structure around the base of the mast.