HMS CANOPUS

Name: HMS Canopus
Namesake:The star Canopus

Ordered: 1896 Programme

Builder: Portsmouth Dockyard

Cost: ?921,316

Laid down: 4 January 1897 Launched:12 October 1897
Completed:5 December 1899
Commissioned: 5 December 1899
Decommissioned: April 1919

Fate: Sold for scrapping 18 February 1920

General characteristics

Class and type: Canopus-class pre-dreadnought battleship

Displacement:12,950 tons
Length:431 ft (131.4 m) Beam:74 ft (22.6 m)
Draught:26 ft (7.9 m)

Propulsion:2 shafts, water tube boilers, vertical triple expansion steam engines, 15,400 ihp (11,500 kW)

Speed: 18 knots (33 km/h)

Complement: 750

Armament:

2 ? 2 BL 12-inch (304.8 mm) 35-caliber Mk VIII guns
12 ? QF 6-inch (152.4 mm) 40-caliber guns
10 ? 12-pounder quick-firing guns
6 x 3-pounder guns
4 ? 18-inch (450-mm) torpedo tubes (underwater)

Armour:

Belt 6 inches (152 mm)
Bulkheads 10-6 inches (254-152 mm)
Barbettes 12 inches (305 mm)
Gun houses 8 inches (203 mm)
Casemates 6 inches (152 mm)
Conning tower 12 inches (305 mm)
decks 2 inches-1 inch (51 mm-25.4 mm)

HMS Canopus was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the British Royal Navy and the lead ship of the Canopus class. At the beginning of the First World War she was involved in the search for the German East Asia Squadron of Admiral Graf Spee. Too slow to follow Craddock's cruisers, she missed the Battle of Coronel, but fired the first shots of the Battle of the Falklands. Transferred to the Mediterranean she took part in the Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign.

Technical description

HMS Canopus was laid down at Portsmouth Dockyard on 4 January 1897, launched on 12 October 1897, and completed on 5 December 1899. She was named after the ancient city of Canopus, Egypt, where the Battle of the Nile took place.