HMS Queen Mary: Последний линейный крейсер довоенной постройки Великобритании.

Last battlecruiser built by the Royal Navy before World War I
the Royal Navy battlecruiser

HMS Queen Mary was the last battlecruiser built by the Royal Navy before the First World War. The sole member of her class, Queen Mary shared many features with the s, including her eight guns. She was completed in 1913 and participated in the Battle of Heligoland Bight as part of the Grand Fleet in 1914. Like most of the modern British battlecruisers, the ship never left the North Sea during the war. As part of the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron, Queen Mary attempted to intercept a German force that bombarded the North Sea coast of England in December 1914, but was unsuccessful. The ship was refitting in early 1915 and missed the Battle of Dogger Bank in January, but participated in the largest fleet action of the war, the Battle of Jutland in mid 1916. She was hit twice by the German battlecruiser during the early part of the battle and her magazines exploded shortly afterwards, sinking her with the loss of more than 98 percent of the ship’s complement. Her wreck was discovered in 1991 and rests in pieces, some of which are upside down, on the floor of the North Sea. Queen Mary is designated as a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 as it is the grave of 1,266 officers and ratings.

Queen Mary was ordered, together with the four battleships of the , under the 1910–11 Naval Programme. As was the usual pattern of the time, only one battlecruiser was ordered per naval programme. She differed from her predecessors of the Lion class in the distribution of her secondary armament and armour and in the location of the officers' quarters. Every capital ship since the design of the battleship in 1905 had placed the officers' quarters closer to their action stations amidships; after complaints from the Fleet, Queen Mary was the first battlecruiser to restore the quarters to their traditional place in the stern. In addition, she was the first battlecruiser to mount a sternwalk. Queen Mary, the only ship of her name ever to serve in the Royal Navy, was named for Mary of Teck, the wife of King George V. The Queen's representative at the ship's christening on 20 March 1912 was the wife of Viscount Allendale.

Slightly larger than the preceding Lion class ships, Queen Mary had an overall length of 700 feet (213 m), a beam of 89 feet (27 m), and a draught of 32 feet (10 m) at deep load. The ship normally displaced and at deep load, over more than the earlier ships. She had a metacentric height of 5.92 feet (2 m) at deep load. In peacetime, the crew numbered 997 officers and ratings, Maximum bunkerage was of coal and of fuel oil to be sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate. Her range was at a speed of .

Queen Mary mounted eight BL 13.5 inch Mk V guns in four twin hydraulically powered turrets, designated 'A', 'B', 'Q' and 'X' from bow to stern. The guns could be depressed to −3° and elevated to 20°, although the director controlling the turrets was limited to 15° 21' until prisms were installed before the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 to allow full elevation. They fired projectiles at a muzzle velocity of ; at 20° elevation, this provided a maximum range of with armour piercing (AP) shells. The rate of fire of these guns was 1.5–2 rounds per minute. Queen Mary carried a total of 880 rounds during wartime for 110 shells per gun. Her secondary armament consisted of sixteen BL 4 inch Mk VII guns, most of which were mounted in casemates on the forecastle deck, unlike the arrangement in the Lion class. the ship carried 150 rounds per gun. both on high angle mountings. The three inch gun fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of with a maximum effective ceiling of 23000 feet (7010 m). Two submerged torpedo tubes were fitted, one on each broadside.

In February 1913, the Admiralty bought five sets of fire control equipment from Arthur Pollen for comparative trials with the equipment designed by Commander Frederic Dreyer. One set was mounted in Queen Mary and consisted of a 9 feet (3 m) Argo rangefinder located on top of the conning tower that fed range data into an Argo Clock Mk IV (a mechanical fire control computer) located in the transmitting station below the conning tower. The clock converted the information into range and deflection data for use by the guns. The target's data was also graphically recorded on a plotting table to assist the gunnery officer in predicting the movement of the target. The aft torpedo director tower was the backup gunnery control position. All four turrets were provided with 9 foot rangefinders and 'B' and 'X' turrets were further outfitted to serve as auxiliary control positions. Fire control technology advanced quickly during the years immediately preceding World War I, and the development of the director firing system was a major advance. This consisted of a fire control director mounted high in the ship which electrically provided elevation and training angles to the turrets via pointers, which the turret crewmen only had to follow. The guns were fired simultaneously, which aided in spotting the shell splashes and minimized the effects of the roll on the dispersion of the shells. Queen Mary received her director before the Battle of Jutland.

The armour protection given to Queen Mary was similar to that of the Lions; her waterline belt of Krupp cemented armour was also thick between 'B' and 'X' turrets. It thinned to inches towards the ships' ends, but did not reach either the bow or the stern. In addition the ship was given an upper armour belt with a maximum thickness of six inches over the same length as the thickest part of the waterline armour, thinning to abreast the end turrets. Four inch transverse bulkheads closed off the ends of the armoured citadel. High tensile steel plating, cheaper than nickel steel, but equally as effective, was used for the protective decks. The lower armoured deck was generally only thick except outside the citadel where it was The upper armoured deck was situated at the top of the upper armour belt and was also only one inch thick. The forecastle deck ranged from
The gun turrets had nine inch fronts and sides, while their roofs were thick. The barbettes were protected by nine inches of armour above the deck, but it thinned to above the upper armour deck and below it. The forward 4 inch guns were protected by three inch sides and a two inch high tensile steel deck overhead. The conning tower sides were thick, with three inch roofs and communication tubes. Her aft torpedo director tower was protected by six inch walls and a three inch cast steel roof. High tensile steel torpedo bulkheads thick were fitted abreast the magazines and shell rooms. Her funnel uptakes were protected by high tensile steel splinter armour thick on the sides and one inch thick on the ends between the upper and forecastle decks.

Queen Mary was laid down at Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company at their shipyard in Jarrow on 6 March 1911. She was launched on 20 March 1912 and was completed in August 1913 at a total cost of £2,078,491 (including guns). The ship came under the command of Captain Reginald Hall on 1 July and was commissioned on 4 September. Assigned to the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron (BCS) under the command of Rear Admiral David Beatty, Queen Mary and the rest of the 1st BCS made a port visit to Brest in February 1914 and the squadron visited Russia in June.

Queen Marys first action was as part of the battlecruiser force under the command of Beatty during the Battle of Heligoland Bight on 28 August 1914. Beatty's ships had originally been intended as distant support of the British cruisers and destroyers closer to the German coast in case the large ships of the High Seas Fleet sortied in response to the British attacks. They turned south at full speed at 11:35 when the British light forces failed to disengage on schedule, and the rising tide meant that German capital ships would be able to clear the bar at the mouth of the Jade Estuary. The brand new light cruiser had been crippled earlier in the battle and was under fire from the German light cruisers and when Beatty's battlecruisers loomed out of the mist at 12:37. Strassburg was able to duck into the mists and evade fire, but Cöln remained visible and was quickly crippled by fire from the squadron. Beatty, however, was distracted from the task of finishing her off by the sudden appearance of the elderly light cruiser directly ahead of him. He turned in pursuit and reduced her to a flaming hulk in only three salvos at a range of At 13:10, Beatty turned north and made a general signal to retire. Beatty's main body encountered the crippled Cöln shortly after turning north, and she was sunk by two salvos from .

Queen Mary, along with the other Jutland wrecks, has been declared a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 to discourage further damage to the resting place of 1,266 officers and men. Surveys of this site conducted by nautical archaeologist Innes McCartney in 2001–03 have shown the wreck is in three sections, with the two forward sections being heavily damaged and in pieces. Her aft end is upside down and relatively complete except for her propellers, which have been salvaged.