The Ships of Brawling Battleships Steel: Great Britain Battle Cruiser Lion

Laid down on November 29, 1909, launched on August 6, 1910 and commissioned on June 4, 1912, Lion carried a main armament of eight of the new 13.5 inch main guns mounted two per turret; two centerline superfiring forward, one centerline aft and one centerline amidships that could be fired to both sides. Because of the larger gun, the Lions were considered to be the battle cruiser equivalent to "super dreadnought" battleships and they were also considerably faster than any of the earlier British battle cruisers. Lion was the name ship of a three-ship battle cruiser class and they were widely known as the "splendid cats," a designation first employed in the British press. They were powered by turbine engines with coal-fired boilers. Although improved over earlier battle cruisers, the "splendid cats" were still built to carry all-big-guns at high speeds but lacked the armor protection of true battleships. The concept proved to be a failure whenever these large but poorly-protected ships, which looked like battleships but were not, sailed into the range of large enemy guns. The Lion name had a long history as a ship name in the Royal Navy, going back to a ship captured from Scotland in 1511 and the Golden Lion, which fought the Spanish Armada in 1588. Like most British battle cruisers, she spent the war with the Grand Fleet or the Battle Cruiser Squadron and put to sea whenever there was an indication of a German sortie. The Lion was at Heligoland Bight on August 28, 1914 and, as Admiral David Beatty’s (1871–1936) flagship, at the Battle of Dogger Bank on January 24, 1915, where she took 18 hits, went out of control and had to be towed back to Britain by another battle cruiser, H. M. S. Indomitable. She participated in the Battle of Jutland on May 31, 1916, again as Beatty’s flagship, and took 12 hits. The Lion remained in action but the magazine and shell room of the amidships turret had to be flooded to save the ship. In November 1917, she participated in operations in the German Bight. She was taken out of service for the Washington Naval Agreement and sold for scrap in January 1924.

See other battle cruisers: Queen Mary, Invincible, Indefatigable