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

Laid down on June 20, 1912, launched on December 15, 1913 and commissioned on October 3, 1914, Tiger carried a main armament of eight 13.5 inch main guns mounted two per turret; two centerline superfiring forward and two centerline aft, one on a raised deck to enable it to fire over the other. Originally to be the fourth ship in the Lion class, Tiger was revised in light of lessons learned while building the Kongo for Japan and was the only ship completed in her battle cruiser class. She was the last British battle cruiser powered by turbines with coal-fired boilers and the last prewar battle cruiser design. The Tiger name had a long history as a ship name in the Royal Navy and the Spanish Armada fight of 1588 is one of the battle honors attached to the name. 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 a German sortie. The Tiger was at the Battle of Dogger Bank on January 24, 1915, where she shook off 3 hits but, despite firing off large amounts of ammunition, her guns failed to score a single hit in response. It has been suggested that this poor performance was caused by a crew that included many captured deserters and draft dodgers (shades of the old press gangs of the age of sail). She participated in the Battle of Jutland on May 31, 1916 and proved to be the toughest of the British battle cruisers there, taking 15 heavy 11 inch hits and remaining in action. In November 1917, she participated in operations in the German Bight. After the war, Tiger served with the Atlantic Fleet until 1922 and then as a gunnery training ship from 1924 through 1929. She was taken out of service in March 1931 and sold for scrap in March 1932.

See other battle cruisers: Repulse, Courageous, Seydltz