Drake-class cruiser

Drake-class cruiser
HMS Good Hope
Class overview
Name:	Drake
Preceded by:	Cressy class
Succeeded by:	Monmouth class
Completed:	4
General characteristics
Type:	armoured cruiser
Displacement:	14,150 tons
Length:	533.5 ft (162.6 m) overall
Beam:	71.3 ft (21.7 m)
Draught:	26 ft (7.9 m)
Propulsion:	4-cylinder triple-extension steam engines, two shafts, 43 Belleville boilers, 30,000 hp
Speed:	23 knots (24.11 knots, Drake on trials)
Complement:	900
Armament:	2 × BL 9.2-inch (233.7 mm) Mk X guns (2 x 1) 16 x BL 6-inch (152.4 mm) Mk VII guns (16 x 1) 14 × 3 -inch (12 pounder) (14 × 1) QF 3 × 3 pounder QF (3 × 1) 2 × 18 in (450 mm) torpedo tubes, submerged
Armour:	6 in (152 mm) belt 12 in (304.8 mm) conning tower 6 in (152 mm) turret 2½ in (63.5 mm) deck

The Drake-class was a four-ship class of armoured cruisers built around 1900 for the Royal Navy.

Design

Left elevation and deck plan as depicted in Jane's Fighting Ships 1914

The class were enlarged versions of the Cressy class.

History

The ships served in the First World War with only two surviving it. Good Hope was sunk at the Battle of Coronel in 1914 and Drake was torpedoed in 1917. Drake was also used to ferry Russian bullion (gold) in October 1914 from Archangels. The gold (equivalent of 39 million $) was security for western loans. The transfer took place at high seas, 30 miles off the coast in the dead of night.(Translated quote form "Krig og penger" by Eivind Thon, published by Aschehoug & Co, Oslo, 1942)

Ships of the Class

• HMS Drake
• HMS Good Hope (originally to be HMS Africa)
• HMS King Alfred
• HMS Leviathan

Building Programme

The following table gives the build details and purchase cost of the members of the Drake class. Standard British practice at that time was for these costs to exclude armament and stores. The compilers of The Naval Annual revised costs quoted for British ships between the 1905 and 1906 editions. The reasons for the differences are unclear.

Ship	Builder	Engine Maker	Date of			Cost according to
			Laid Down	Launch	Completion	(BNA 1905)	(BNA 1906)
HMS Drake	Pembroke Dockyard	Humphrys	24 Apr 1899	5 Mar 1901	13 Jan 1902	£1,050,625	£1,002,977
HMS Good Hope ex-Africa	Fairfield, Govan	Fairfield	11 Sep 1899	21 Feb 1901	8 Nov 1902	£1,023,629	£990,759
HMS King Alfred	Vickers, Barrow	Vickers	11 Aug 1899	28 Oct 1901	22 Dec 1903	£1,013,772	£978,125
HMS Leviathan	J Brown Clydebank	J Brown	30 Nov 1899	3 Jul 1901	16 Jun 1903	£1,043,097	£1,012,959

Bibliography

• Brassey, T.A. (ed)The Naval Annual 1905
• Brassey's Naval Annual, 1906
• Chesnau, Roger and Kolesnik, Eugene (Ed.) Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860–1905. Conway Maritime Press, 1979. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4
• Leyland, J. and Brassey, T.A. (ed)The Naval Annual 1906

External links

• The Dreadnought Project Technical details of the ships.