File:HMS Lord Nelson (1906) Model.jpg

English: Contemporary builder’s model of the Lord Nelson Class semi-dreadnought battleship HMS Lord Nelson at the Science Museum, South Kensington, 15 November 2008.

The Lord Nelson Class of pre-dreadnoughts have also been described as semi-dreadnoughts since their secondary armament was very much heavier than the older pre-dreadnoughts and capable of doing serious damage on opposing battleships at long ranges.

The first semi-dreadnoughts had been the 8 King Edward Class of 1905-06 which had been little more than an enlarged extrapolation of the Canopus/Queen Classes and their secondary armament had been only 4x9.2” guns. The Lord Nelsons, on the other hand, were a completely fresh design by Philip Watts with much heavier secondary armament. They represented the link between the old battleships designed by Sir William White and the ground breaking HMS Dreadnought, Watts’ next battleship design. Ironically, HMS Dreadnought was built in record time and was completed a year before the first Lord Nelson Class ship, HMS Agamemnon, was completed in 1907; both Lord Nelsons were thus obsolete before they were commissioned.

The Lord Nelsons had 16,750 ihp coal-fired reciprocating engines, had a designed maximum speed of 18.5 kts, measured 445 ft x 79.5 ft x 26 ft and had a displacement of 16,500 tons. They were armed with 4x12” (2x2), 10x9.2”( 4x2), (2x1), 24x12 pdrs (24x1) & 12x3 pdrs (12x1) guns and 5x18”TT (fixed singles). Both served in WWI including in the Dardanelles campaign.

HMS Lord Nelson was built by Palmers and launched in their Yarrow yard in 1906 and completed in 1908. She was scrapped in 1920, although her sister HMS Agamemnon was converted to a radio-controlled target and was not scrapped until 1927.