HMS Temeraire (1907)

HMS Temeraire was a Bellerophon-class battleship in the Royal Navy built at the Royal Dockyard, Devonport.

She was ordered under the 1906 Naval Estimates at the cost of £1,641,114. Although not externally much different from her predecessor HMS Dreadnought (1906), internally she and others of the Bellerophon-class were much improved, with better sub-division of bulkheads against torpedo attack. A heavier secondary armament (originally, 16 single-mounted 4 inch in casemates placed in the superstructure) was believed to be capable of fighting off torpedo boat attacks.

World War I
For the majority of the war, Temeraire was a member of the 4th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet. On a sweep of the North Sea on 18 March 1915, she unsuccessfully attempted to ram U-29 which had just attacked HMS Neptune (1909). During the summer of that year, she refitted at HM Dockyard, Devonport.

At the Battle of Jutland, Temeraire, under the command of Captain E.V. Underhill, fired seventy-two 12 in and fifty 4 in shells, at the crippled German light cruiser SMS Wiesbaden, claiming 2 or three hits, at the battlecruiser SMS Derfflinger and German destroyers. Temeraire received no damage. In October 1918, she was detached to the Eastern Mediterranean Squadron under the overall command of Vice Admiral Gough-Calthrope.

Post war
With the end of hostilities, Temeraire was converted to a cadet training ship (seagoing). With the other members of her class, she was regarded as obsolete; with a view towards the need for compliance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty that was shortly to be signed by Great Britain, she was decommissioned and sold for scrap in 1921.