- Author
- A.N. Other and NHSA Webmaster
- Subjects
- Ship design and development, Ship histories and stories
- Tags
- None noted.
- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- December 1983 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
THE SHIP THAT CHANGED NAVAL THINKING visited Sydney in December and despite a refusal on Government level to use the Captain Cook Graving Dock won vast public support. Here is the history of the Invincibles and the vital statistics of the ship.
Five ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name Invincible. The present Invincible is the sixth in the famous line which began with the French 74-gun L’Invincible, captured off Finisterre in 1747.
The second Invincible was a third-rate, 74-gun ship launched at Deptford in 1765. Her adventurous career included three historic sea battles and ended when she was wrecked off the
Norfolk coast in 1801.
Number three was built at Woolwich in 1808, and she was again a third-rate carrying 74 guns. This ship was broken up at Plymouth in 1861. Invincible number four, an armour-plated ‘broadsideship’, was built by Napier on the Clyde in 1869. She mounted 14 guns and saw action in the Egyptian War before being relegated to depot ship duties at Portsmouth. She foundered off Portland while under tow in 1914.
The fifth Invincible was built by Armstrong Whitworth on the Tyne in 1907. She was a battle cruiser, and during the 1914-18 war saw action off Heligoland before steaming off secretly and at speed to avenge a British defeat at Coronel in the Battle of the Falkland Islands. She blew up at Jutland, with the loss of all her complement, save six.
The story of the present Invincible is too well known and too fresh in the minds of readers to repeat in detail here. Suffice it to say her presence off the Falkland Islands with her complement of Sea Harriers turned the scales in a battle against superior air force.
Battle Honours
- St. Vincent – 1780
- Chesapeake – 1781
- St.Kitts- 1782
- Glorious First of June – 1794
- Trinidad – 1797
- Alexandria- 1882
- Heligoland – 1914
- Falkland Isles- 1914
- Jutland – 1916
- Falkland Islands – 1982
Details of HMS Invincible
- Dimensions:
- Length Overall – 206.6m
- Beam – 27.5m
- Flight Deck – 167.7 x 12.8m
- Depth – 6.4m
- Speed – Max. – 28 knots
- Speed – Cruising – 18 knots
- Displacement (standard) – 16,257 tonnes
- Machinery:
- Type – COGAG
- Turbines – 4 x Rolls Royce Olympus TM3B marine gas turbines
- Electrical – 8 x RP200 1.75MW Diesel Generators
- Weapons:
- Missiles – 1 x twin SEA DART SAM
- Aircraft:
- 5 Sea Harrier VSTOL aircraft
- 9 Sea King helicopters
- Sensors:
- HMS Invincible is fitted with a wide variety of sensors which provide the information for the Group Commander to exercise control of forces over a wide area and for the ship to deploy and control her weapons and aircraft. These sensors include a complex of modern radars, sonars and electronic warfare equipment.
- Complement:
- The complement of HMS Invincible is 114 officers, 109 Fleet Chief and Chief Petty Officers, 127 Petty Officers and 584 junior ratings, totalling 934. This includes the Squadrons, when embarked – 58 officers and 226 men.
- Cost:
- Total Cost £175M (includes £19M design costs)