HMS Orion was the lead ship of her class of four dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the early 1910s. She spent the bulk of her career assigned to the Home and Grand Fleets, generally serving as a flagship. Aside from participating in the failed attempt to intercept the German ships that had bombarded Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in late 1914, the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and the inconclusive action of 19 August, her service during World War I generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea.
After the Grand Fleet was dissolved in early 1919, Orion was transferred to back to the Home Fleet for a few months before she was assigned to the Reserve Fleet. She served as a gunnery training ship from mid-1921 until she was listed for disposal the following year. The ship was sold for scrap in late 1922 and subsequently broken up.
Design and description The Orion-class ships were designed in response to the beginnings of the Anglo-German naval arms race and were much larger than their predecessors of the to accommodate larger, more powerful guns and heavier armour. In recognition of these improvements, the class was sometimes called "super-dreadnoughts". The ships had an overall length of , a beam of and a deep draught of . They displaced at normal load and at deep load as built; by 1918 Orions deep displacement had increased to . Her crew numbered 754 officers and ratings as of 1914.Burt, p. 136
The Orion class was powered by two sets of Parsons direct-drive steam turbines, each driving two shafts, using steam provided by 18 Babcock & Wilcox boilers. The turbines were rated at and were intended to give the battleships a speed of .Parkes, p. 525 During her sea trials in September 1911, Orion reached a maximum speed of from . The ships carried enough coal and fuel oil to give them a range of at a cruising speed of .Burt, pp. 136, 139–40
Armament and armour
The Orion class was equipped with 10 breech-loading (BL) Mark V guns in five hydraulically powered twin-gun turrets, all on the centreline. The turrets were designated 'A', 'B', 'Q', 'X' and 'Y', from front to rear. Their secondary armament consisted of 16 BL Mark VII guns. These guns were split evenly between the forward and aft superstructure, all in single mounts. Four saluting guns were also carried. The ships were equipped with three 21-inch (533 mm) submerged torpedo tubes, one on each broadside and another in the stern, for which 20 torpedoes were provided.
The Orions were protected by a waterline armoured belt that extended between the end barbettes. Their decks ranged in thickness between and 4 inches with the thickest portions protecting the steering gear in the stern. The main battery turret faces were thick, and the turrets were supported by barbettes.Burt, pp. 134, 136, 139
Modifications In 1914 the shelter-deck guns were enclosed in casemates. By October 1914, a pair of anti-aircraft (AA) guns had been added.Friedman, pp. 123, 199 A fire-control director was installed on a platform below the spotting top in April–May 1915. Additional deck armour was added after the Battle of Jutland in May 1916. Around the same time, three 4-inch guns were removed from the aft superstructure and the ship was modified to operate kite balloons.Burt, p. 140 In mid-to-late 1917, Orion was the only battleship in the Royal Navy to receive a director for her secondary armament. Two flying-off platforms were fitted aboard the ship during 1917–1918; these were mounted on 'B' and 'Q' turret roofs and extended onto the gun barrels. A high-angle rangefinder was fitted in the forward superstructure by 1921.Burt, p. 142; Friedman, pp. 123, 198–200, 205
Construction and career
Orion, named after the mythological hunter, Orion,Silverstone, p. 256 was the fourth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy (RN).Colledge, p. 251 The ship was laid down at HM Dockyard, Portsmouth on 29 November 1909. She was launched on 20 August 1910,Preston, p. 28 and was commissioned on 2 January 1912. Including her armament, her cost is variously quoted at £1,855,917 or £1,918,773. Orion was assigned to the 2nd division of the Home Fleet as the flagshipBurt, p. 146 of Rear-Admiral Sir Herbert King-Hall, the division's second-in-command. The ship was slightly damaged on 7 January when the pre-dreadnought battleship broke loose from her moorings and collided with Orions bow. The division was redesignated as the 2nd Battle Squadron (BS) on 1 May. The ship, together with her sister ships and , participated in the Parliamentary Naval Review on 9 July at Spithead. They then participated in training manoeuvres. King-Hall was relieved by Rear-Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss on 29 October. On 13 November, the ship participated in comparative gunnery trials with Thunderer to evaluate the effectiveness of the latter's gunnery director. Thunderer decisively outshot Orion, although some of her success was because her director was above the smoke that obscured the target from Orions guns. The test was repeated in better conditions on 4 December and Orion performed much better, apparently beating Thunderer.Brooks, pp. 164–65 The three sisters were present with the 2nd BS to receive the President of France, Raymond Poincaré, at Spithead on 24 June 1913 and then participated in the annual fleet manoeuvres in August. Wemyss was relieved in his turn by Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Arbuthnot, 4th Baronet on 28 October. Captain Frederic Dreyer assumed command of Orion that same day. On 4 November, Orion, Thunderer, the dreadnought and the predreadnought fired at and sank the target ship to give their crews experience in firing live ammunition against a real ship.Brown, p. 29
World War I
Between 17 and 20 July 1914, Orion took part in a test mobilisation and fleet review as part of the British response to the July Crisis. Arriving in Portland on 25 July, she was ordered to proceed with the rest of the Home Fleet to Scapa Flow four days later to safeguard the fleet from a possible surprise attack by the Imperial German Navy.Massie, p. 19 In August 1914, following the outbreak of World War I, the Home Fleet was reorganised as the Grand Fleet, and placed under the command of Admiral Sir John Jellicoe.Preston, p. 32 On 8 August, Orion was towing a target for the dreadnought and Monarch when the latter reported that she had been unsuccessfully attacked by a torpedo and the gunnery exercise was terminated. Almost two weeks later, the ship began having serious problems with her condensers and Jellicoe ordered that they be retubed while she was detached to the coaling base at Loch Ewe, on the northwest coast of Scotland. Orion rejoined the Grand Fleet on 9 September. Repeated reports of submarines in Scapa Flow led Jellicoe to conclude that the defences there were inadequate and he ordered that the Grand Fleet be dispersed to other bases until the defences be reinforced. On 16 October the 2nd BS was sent to Loch na Keal on the western coast of Scotland. The squadron departed for gunnery practice off the northern coast of Ireland on the morning of 27 October and the dreadnought struck a mine, laid a few days earlier by the German armed merchant cruiser . Thinking that the ship had been torpedoed by a submarine, the other dreadnoughts were ordered away from the area, while smaller ships rendered assistance. Shortly afterwards, Orion had to be sent to Greenock for repairs to her turbine mounts.Burt, pp. 146, 150; Goldrick, p. 156; Jellicoe, pp. 93, 103, 105, 121, 143–44, 152
Bombardment of Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby
The Royal Navy's Room 40 had intercepted and decrypted German radio traffic containing plans for a German attack on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in mid-December using the four battlecruisers of Konteradmiral (Rear-Admiral) Franz von Hipper's I Scouting Group. The radio messages did not mention that the High Seas Fleet with fourteen dreadnoughts and eight predreadnoughts would reinforce Hipper. The ships of both sides departed their bases on 15 December, with the British intending to ambush the German ships on their return voyage. They mustered the six dreadnoughts of Vice-Admiral Sir George Warrender's 2nd BS, including Orion and her sisters, Monarch and , and the four battlecruisers of Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty.Tarrant, pp. 28–30
The screening forces of each side blundered into each other during the early morning darkness and heavy weather of 16 December. The Germans got the better of the initial exchange of fire, severely damaging several British destroyers, but Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl, commander of the High Seas Fleet, ordered his ships to turn away, concerned about the possibility of a massed attack by British destroyers in the dawn's light. A series of miscommunications and mistakes by the British allowed Hipper's ships to avoid an engagement with Beatty's forces. One of these occurred when Orions lookouts spotted the light cruiser and failed to engage because Arbuthnot refused to allow the ship to open fire without a command from Warrender.Goldrick, pp. 200–14
1915–1916
Jellicoe's ships, including Orion, conducted gunnery drills on 10–13 January 1915 west of Orkney and the Shetland Islands. Rear-Admiral Arthur Leveson relieved Arbuthnot on 15 January. On the evening of 23 January, the bulk of the Grand Fleet sailed in support of Beatty's battlecruisers, but Orion and the rest of the fleet did not participate in the ensuing Battle of Dogger Bank the following day. On 7–10 March, the Grand Fleet conducted a sweep in the northern North Sea, during which it conducted training manoeuvres. Another such cruise took place on 16–19 March. On 11 April, the Grand Fleet conducted a patrol in the central North Sea and returned to port on 14 April; another patrol in the area took place on 17–19 April, followed by gunnery drills off Shetland on 20–21 April.Jellicoe, pp. 190–91, 194–96, 206, 211–12 Orion was given a brief refit in late April in Devonport.
The Grand Fleet conducted sweeps into the central North Sea on 17–19 May and 29–31 May without encountering any German vessels. During 11–14 June, the fleet conducted gunnery practice and battle exercises west of ShetlandJellicoe, pp. 217–19, 221–22 and more training off Shetland beginning on 11 July. The 2nd BS conducted gunnery practice in the Moray Firth on 2 August and then returned to Scapa Flow. On 2–5 September, the fleet went on another cruise in the northern end of the North Sea and conducted gunnery drills. Throughout the rest of the month, the Grand Fleet conducted numerous training exercises. The ship, together with the majority of the Grand Fleet, conducted another sweep into the North Sea from 13 to 15 October. Almost three weeks later, Orion participated in another fleet training operation west of Orkney during 2–5 November and repeated the exercise at the beginning of December.Jellicoe, pp. 228, 234–35, 243, 246, 250, 253, 257–58