The Ships of Brawling Battleships Steel: Great Britain Battle Cruiser New Zealand

Laid down on June 20, 1910, launched on July 1, 1911 and commissioned on November 9, 1912, New Zealand carried a main armament of eight 12 inch main guns mounted two per turret, with one forward, one aft and one wing turret per side that could fire fore and aft and to both sides. The New Zealand was a member of the three-ship Indefatigable battle cruiser class that also included the class name ship built for Great Britain and the Australia, which was built for Australia. They were powered by marine turbines with coal-fired boilers. British battle cruisers were built to carry all-big-guns with armor protection sacrificed for speed to replace the earlier armored cruisers of the pre-dreadnought era. The big guns plus thin armor concept proved to be a failure whenever their aggressive captains steered these large but poorly-protected ships into harm’s way–into the range of large caliber enemy guns. New Zealand’s construction was paid for by the Dominion of New Zealand but she was turned over to the British Royal Navy on completion. Operating with the Grand Fleet and the Battle Cruiser Squadron, the ship saw considerable activity at the Battle of Heligoland Bight on August 28, 1914, the Battle of Dogger Bank on January 24, 1915, in a collision with her sister ship Australia on April 22, 1916, in the Battle of Jutland on May 31, 1916 and in an action in the German Bight on November 17, 1917. After a post war world cruise (February 1919–February 1920) covering 33,000 miles, she was taken out of service in 1921 to conform to the Washington Naval Agreement and broken up starting in December 1922.

See other battle cruisers: Invincible, Lion, Courageous