TIGER (Dec., 1913).

• Normal displacement, 28,500 tons. Full load, about 35,000 tons.
• Complement 1185.
• Length (waterline), 675 feet. Beam, 90.5 feet. Mean draught, 28.3 feet. Max. 34 feet; Length (o.a.) 704 feet. Length (p.p.) 660 feet
• Guns: 8 - 13.5 inch (M.V.) Dir. Con.; 12 - 6 inch (M. XII) Dir. Con.; 2 - 3 inch (anti-aircraft); 4 - 3 pdr.; 5 M.G. (1 landing)
• Torpedo tubes (21 inch): 4 submerged (broadside)
• Armour - Vertical (K.C.): 9" Lower belt; 6" Upper belt; 3" Under lower belt; 4" Bulkheads; 6" Battery (1" traverses); 5", 4" Battery (Bulk'ds); 6" Casemates (2." rear); 9" - 8" Barbettes; 9" Gunhouses; 2" C.T. base; 4" Com. Tube; 10" C.T.; 6" - 3" hood over C.T.; 6" Torpedo C.T. (4" tube)
• Armour - Deck (H.T.); 1.5" - 1" Fo'xle; 1.5" - 1" Upper; 1" Amidships (lower); 3" Bow (lower).
• Special protection; 2.5" - 1" H.T. magazine screens.
• Machinery: Turbines (Brown-Curtis direct drive). 4 screws. Boilers: 39 Babcock. Designed H.P. 85 000 = 28 kts. (108,000 = 30 attained).
• Coal: normal 1000 tons, maximum 3320 tons coal and 3480 tons oil fuel.

Armour Notes: Armour as Lion Class, but 6" battery and extra H.T. decks added. Barbettes, 4", 3", 1", as they descend through decks behind belts. .75" rear screen to 6" battery. Internal magazine protection is not continuous between barbettes.

Engineering Notes: 4-shaft turbines in 2 sets, each set has H.P. ahead and H.P. astern turbine on wing shaft, one L.P. ahead and one L.P. astern, in same casing on inner shaft. Boilers in 5 rooms. The enormous fuel capacity (6800 tons coal and oil) does not give this ship any exceptional radius of action, for she burns about 1200 tons of fuel per day at 60,000 S.H.P.

General Notes: Begun under 1911 Estimates by J. Brown & Co., Clydebank; machinery by builders. Completed October, 1914. Estimated cost was £2,593,095 but this was exceeded. As first designed, this ship was to have been very much like the Lion class. A year after the Tiger was laid down the Japanese battle-cruiser Kongo was completed and passed her trials. Comparison between the Lion and Kongo designs showed the Japanese ship to be superior in armament and protection. Work was suspended on the Tiger, and her design was altered to embody certain improvements displayed by the Kongo. These alterations resulted in the Tiger being one and a half years on the stocks before launching. Until Hood was launched in 1918, Tiger was the largest ship in H.M. Navy. She was also a remarkably handsome ship until the present hideous rig was adopted in 1918.

Ahead: 4 - 13.5 in., 4 - 6 in. ;    Broadside: 8 - 13.5 in., 6 - 6 in., 2 - 21 in. tubes ;   Astern: 2 or 4 - 13.5 in., 2 - 6 in.

Source: As extracted from Jane's Fighting Ships © for 1919 - Page 64-5

© Jane's Information Group

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