London-class battleship

The London class was a group of five pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy between 1898 and 1904 at the Portsmouth, Devonport and Chatham dockyards: London, Bulwark, Venerable, Queen and Prince of Wales. They closely followed the Formidable class, differing mainly in armour layout, and carried four 12-inch guns with a top speed of 18 knots from triple-expansion steam engines. All five began service in the Mediterranean, later moved to home waters, and served in the First World War, where Bulwark was destroyed by an accidental magazine explosion in November 1914 and the others went to the Dardanelles and the Adriatic. Chatham's contribution was the Prince of Wales, launched in 1902.