The Ships of Brawling Battleships Steel: Great Britain Battle Cruiser Queen Mary

Laid down on March 6, 1911, launched on March 20, 1912 and commissioned on April 9, 1913, Queen Mary 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 fire to both sides. Queen Mary was part of the three-ship Lion battle cruiser class, widely known in the Royal Navy as the "splendid cats." Because of the larger gun, the Lion class was considered to be the battle cruiser equivalent to the "super dreadnought" battleships and they were also considerably bigger and faster than earlier British battle cruisers. The class was powered by turbines with coal-fired boilers. Although improved over earlier battle cruisers, the "splendid cats" were still built to carry all-big-guns at high speeds without the armor protection of true battleships. The Queen Mary name honored the consort of Britain’s current King George V. As with most British battle cruisers, she spent the war with the Grand Fleet or the Battle Cruiser Squadron and put to sea whenever there was even a rumor of a German sortie. The Queen Mary was at Heligoland Bight on August 28, 1914 and at the Battle of Jutland on May 31, 1916, where she was pounded by the German battle cruisers Derfflinger and Seydlitz and blew up, leaving only 9 survivors from a crew of 1,287.

See other British battle cruisers: Indefatigable, Invincible, Tiger