RADIO CONTROLLED BOATS

RADIO CONTROLLED BOATS

© RN Communications Branch Museum/Library

Many of you will have heard of HMS Agamemnon simply because Lord Nelson was one of her captains during the Napoleonic Wars of the late 18th century early 19th century. Many of you will know that we had a battleship in WW1 called HMS Agamemnon and this little piece tells you about her history. As a comparison for the information below: HMS Lord Nelson was built by Palmer, in Jarrow, laid down May 1905, completed October 1908, cost £651,339.



HMS AGAMEMNON	BUILT	William Beardmore and Company, Dalmuir, laid down May 1905, completed June 1908, cost £652,347.
	SIZE	Length 435 feet waterline 443 feet 6 inches overall, beam 79 feet 6 inches, draught 30 feet, displacement 15,358 load 17,820 tons deep.
	PROPULSION	2 shaft Triple Expansion, 16,750 ihp, 18kts. Trials: Lord Nelson 17,526 ihp = 18.73 knots. Agamemnon 16,616 ihp = 18.61 knots.
	ARMOUR	12-8in belt, 12in barbettes, 12in gun houses, 4-1in decks.
	ARMAMENT	4 x 12in 45 cal BL (2 x 2), 10 x 9.2 in BL (4 x 2, 2 x 1), 24 x 12pounder QF (24 x 1), 2 x 3pounder (2 x 1), 5 x 18in TT.
	COMMENTS	Designed to provide a considerable step forward in British battleship capabilities. The 9.2 inch guns were increased in numbers to replace the 6 inch guns giving the class a very heavy secondary armament although spotting for gunnery control of such a heavy secondary gun was not easy - one of the reasons for the 'all big gun' armament of future battleships. Both the 12 inch and 9.2 inch guns were of new improved types and a much heavier anti-torpedo boat armament was also carried. Protection was also substantially increased and subdivision and pumping arrangements were improved. Crew 752.
	WORLD WAR 1 SERVICE	Lord Nelson: 5th Battle Squadron Channel Fleet as flagship. February 1915 transferred to Dardanelles. 19 February 1915 onwards involved in various attacks on forts and support of landings. Hit by artillery on several occasions but no serious damage. 6 May brief engagement with battlecruiser Yavuz Sultan Selim (ex Goeben). May-June 1915 refit at Malta. 2 December 1915 took part in destruction of Kavak Bridge. January 1916 Eastern Mediterranean Squadron. October 1918 refit at Malta. November 1918 part of Allied squadron through the Dardanelles to Constantinople. Sold for scrap 1920. Agamemnon 5th Battle Squadron Channel Fleet. February 1915 transferred to Dardanelles. 19 February 1915 onwards involved in various attacks on forts and support of landings. Hit by artillery on several occasions but no serious damage. May-June 1915 refit at Malta. 2 December 1915 took part in destruction of Kavak Bridge. January 1916 Eastern Mediterranean Squadron. 5 May 1917 shot down Zeppelin L85. 30 October 1918 Ottoman Empire signed Armistice on board. November 1918 led Allied squadron through the Dardanelles to Constantinople. Sold for scrap 1927.

HMS Agamemnon. The first battleships for which Philip Watts was responsible for the design. Some of the earlier sketches for the class were of an 'all big gun' variety but these were rejected as too radical and expensive until further experience with a heavy calibre secondary armament had been obtained.A few lines above, it states that the old Agamemnon was sold for scrap in 1927, actually on the 24th January to a breaker in Newport South Wales, but it doesn't mention what happened to her from the end of WW1 in 1918 until 1927. From the title of this page you may have guessed, and probably correctly, that she became a target-ship and a radio controlled one at that.

It takes some imagination to think of this huge ship 'tearing' around the ocean being controlled from another warship by radio waves, but, as we will read, it actually happened and Agamemnon went down into the history books, not as she would have wanted, as a fighting battleship, but as a very special target ship which was pigeon-holed as "THE DISTANT CONTROL OF A TARGET SHIP [HMS AGAMEMNON]". The Agamemnon was very much lighter than her documented 17'odd thousand tons displacement she having been de-stored, disarmed/de-ammunitioned and most of her internal fitting and fixtures stripped and landed, but she was nevertheless a very large ship.

The following two files cover the story of the Agamemnon, the first the text of the story and the second the supporting pictures:-

HMS AGAMEMNON Story HMS AGAMEMNON - Images

The text in the document is very wobbly and skewed leading to some poor reproductions although still very readable.

Wouldn't mind one of these for my grandkids - t'would look pretty good on Canoe Lake at Southsea !