The Warrior class consisted of four armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. After commissioning, all four sister ships were assigned to the Channel and Home Fleets until 1913 when was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet. After the start of World War I in August 1914, Warrior participated in the pursuit of the German battlecruiser and light cruiser and her three sisters were assigned to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet. Warrior joined the 1st Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet in late 1914. Neither squadron participated in any of the naval battles in the North Sea in 1915. was destroyed by a magazine explosion in late 1915 and only two of the ships participated in the Battle of Jutland in 1916. was not engaged during the battle, but Warrior was heavily damaged and sank the following morning.
was assigned to blockade duty after the battle and sank a German commerce raider in early 1917. Both of the surviving sisters became convoy escorts in 1917 before returning home in 1918. Cochrane supported the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War in mid-1918. She ran aground in the River Mersey in late 1918 and broke in two. Achilles became a training ship in late 1918 and was sold for scrap in 1921.
Design and description
The four armoured cruisers of the 1903–1904 Naval Programme were originally intended to be repeats of the preceding , but complaints from the fleet that the low placement of the secondary armament of earlier ships of this type meant that the guns could not be fought in anything other than a dead calm sea caused the issue to be reviewed by the Board of Admiralty in late 1903 and early 1904. Based on the Duke of Edinburghs, the Warriors were expected to be lighter, which allowed weight to be used for changing the secondary armament. Officers from the fleet suggested changing the armament to four guns in single-gun turrets raised to the upper deck. As the ships had only just begun construction, the change would cost a total of £250,000 for all four ships and the Admiralty approved the change on 30 March 1904.
The Warrior-class ships were designed to displace , but they proved to be lighter as built, even after the change in armament, displacing at normal load and (fully loaded). The ships had an overall length of and a length between perpendiculars of . They had a beam of and a deep draught of forward and aft.
The ships' complement was 770 officers and enlisted men. They were much steadier gun platforms than their predecessors, with a metacentric height of , so much so that Achilles and Natal were the best-shooting ships in the fleet in 1907 and 1909 respectively. Very good sea boats, according to naval historian Oscar Parkes, "they gained the reputation of being the best cruisers we (the British) ever built."
The cruisers were powered by two 4-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, which produced a total of and gave a maximum speed of . The engines were powered by steam from 19 Yarrow boilers and six cylindrical boilers that had a working pressure of . The ships carried a maximum of of coal and an additional of fuel oil that was sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate. At full capacity, they could steam for at a speed of .
Armament
The Warriors' main armament consisted of six 45-calibre BL 9.2-inch Mk X guns in single-gun turrets. The guns were distributed in two centreline turrets, one each fore and one aft of the superstructure, and four wing turrets disposed in the corners about the funnels. The centreline turrets could traverse a total of 285° while the wing turrets were limited to 120° on the broadside due to muzzle blast. The gun had an elevation range of −5° to +15°. The shell weighed and was fired at a maximum muzzle velocity of . This gave it a range of at maximum elevation. The gun's rate of fire was about three rounds per minute and the ships carried 100 rounds for each gun.
Their secondary armament of four 50-calibre BL 7.5-inch Mk II guns was arranged in four turrets amidships. The guns could only traverse about 110° on the broadside. They had an elevation range of −7.5° to +15° that gave them a range of at an elevation with their shell. The guns had a rate of fire of about four rounds per minute and each gun was provided with 100 rounds.