“On this day in history” Royal Navy battleship HMS Mars placed in commission, 1897

On this day in history 8 June 1897, the Royal Navy Majestic-class battleship HMS Mars was placed in commission.

HMS Mars underway, 1898.

Built by Laird Brothers, Birkenhead, Mars was a pre-dreadnought battleship carrying main armament of four Vickers 12-inch Mk VIII guns mounted in twin turrets. Secondary armament included twelve QF 6-inch guns mounted in casemates and twelve QF 12-pounder guns.

Mars served in the Portsmouth Division of the Channel Fleet and took part in the Fleet Review for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 and for Edward VII’s Coronation in 1902.

HMS Mars departing Portsmouth, 1901.

During the First World War, Mars served as guard ship on the Humber, then transferred to the Dover Patrol. In 1915, she had her main armament removed and recommissioned as a troopship for service in the Dardanelles campaign. Later, she served as an accommodation ship at Invergordon. Mars was sold for scrap in 1921.

Accomodation ships Algiers, Akbar (former Temeraire), and Mars at Invergordon.

 

“On this day in history” Royal Navy battleship HMS Jupiter placed in commission

On this day in history 8 June 1897, the Royal Navy Majestic-class battleship HMS Jupiter was placed in commission.

HMS Jupiter anchored at Spithead, 1899.

Built by J & G Thomson, Clydebank, Jupiter was a pre-dreadnought battleship carrying main armament of four Vickers 12-inch Mk VIII guns mounted in twin turrets.

Vickers BL 12-inch Mk VIII naval gun.

Secondary armament included twelve QF 6-inch guns mounted in casemates and twelve QF 12-pounder guns.

Jupiter served with the Channel Fleet and took part in the Fleet Review for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 and for Edward VII’s Coronation in 1902. During the First World War, Jupiter served in the Channel, the Mediterranean, and the Red Sea. She paid off at Devonport in 1916 to provide crews for new antisubmarine vessels and served the remainder of the war as an accommodation ship. Jupiter met her fate at the breaker’s yard in 1920.

HMS Jupiter, Brassey’s Naval Annual, 1902.

India launches first “Indigenous Aircraft Carrier”

Currently, India relies on its 1940s-vintage aircraft carrier the INS Viraat (ex HMS Hermes) . that will remain in service until at least 2018 (pos. 2020) when the INS Vikrant will be commissioned.

An additional aircraft carrier, the INS Vikramaditya (ex Soviet carrier Baku) is currently undergoing sea trials and aviation trials with a mixed Russian/Indian crew and is expected to be handed over in November 2013… ish… provided the date doesn’t slip… again.

A second Vikrant class aircraft carrier, provisionally named INS Vishal, is in the design stage, pending funding… and, more importantly, a decision on whether further ships in the class will be conventionally or nuclear powered.

The former INS Vikrant (ex HMS Hercules) was decommissioned from the Indian Navy in 1997 and is alongside as a ‘sometimes open, sometimes closed’ museum ship in Mumbai and may be sent for scrap if funds are not found for her continued preservation. That would be a shame, as she’s the only Second World War era British aircraft carrier that is preserved as a museum ship.

Indian-built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant launched

The INS Vikrant was launched amid chanting from ancient Hindu scriptures at the Kochi shipyard in the southern state of Kerala

India has unveiled its first home-built aircraft carrier from a shipyard in southern Kerala state.

The 37,500 tonne INS Vikrant is expected to go for extensive trials in 2016 before being inducted into the navy by 2018, reports say.

With this, India joins a select group of countries capable of building such a vessel.

Other countries capable of building a similar ship are the US, the UK, Russia and France.

Monday’s launch of INS Vikrant marks the end of the first phase of its construction.

The ship will be then re-docked for outfitting and further construction.

The ship, which will have a length of 260m (850ft) and a breadth of 60m, has been built at the shipyard in Cochin.

It was designed and manufactured locally, using high grade steel made by a state-owned steel company.

Vice-Admiral RK Dhowan of India’s navy has described the launch as the “crowning glory” of the navy’s programme to produce vessels on home soil.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-23662726

I Relieve You Sir (1975)

On 3 June 1969 the destroyer USS Frank E. Evans sailed under the bow of aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne and was cut in two.