M29-class monitor

300px
Class overview
Name:	M29-class monitor
Operators:	Royal Navy
Preceded by:	M15 class
Succeeded by:	Erebus class
Completed:	5
Lost:	1
Preserved:	1
General characteristics
Class & type:	Monitor
Displacement:	535 tons
Length:	170 ft (52 m)
Beam:	31 ft (9.4 m)
Draught:	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)
Propulsion:	Triple expansion Twin screw propellers Yarrow oil fuel 45 tons boilers 400 hp (300 kW)
Speed:	10 knots (19 km/h)
Complement:	75
Armament:	2 × BL Mk XII guns 1 × 6-pdr A/A 1 × 3-inch (76 mm) AA gun for M31 and M33
Armour:	1–3 in magazine box protection 2.25 in belt 1 in deck, turrets and bulkheads

The M29 class comprised five monitors of the Royal Navy, all built and launched during 1915.

The ships of this class were ordered in March, 1915, as part of the Emergency War Programme of ship construction. The contract for construction was granted to Harland & Wolff, Belfast, who sub-contracted the construction of the M29 and M31 to Workman, Clark and Company.

The main armament of the ships, two 6-inch Mk XII guns, came from guns originally intended for the five Queen Elizabeth-class battleships which became surplus when their aft casemate mountings turned out to be unworkable and were dispensed with.

Ships of the class

• HMS M29 - launched on May 22, 1915 and later renamed Medusa and Talbot, she was sold in 1946.
• HMS M30 - launched on June 23, 1915, and sunk on May 14, 1916.
• HMS M31 - launched on June 24, 1915, and broken up for scrap in 1948.
• HMS M32 - launched on May 22, 1915, and sold in January 1920.
• HMS M33 - launched on May 22, 1915, is one of a number of World War I-era warships in existence today and is located in dry-dock near HMS Victory at Portsmouth Naval Base. She is currently being restored and was to be opened to the public in August 2015.

See also

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons The ship is now open to the public

References

• Jane's Fighting Ships of World War One (1919), Jane's Publishing Company