Built by the Devonport Dockyard for the Royal Navy as a first class armoured battleship of the London class of which five were built.
20 March 1899 laid down.
18 October 1899 launched under the name HMS BULWARK.
Displacement 14.500 tons standard, full load, 15.700 tons. Dim. 400 x 75 x 26.9ft. (draught).
Powered by 2 sets of 3-cyl. vertical inverted triple expansion steam engines, manufactured by Hawthorn Leslie, 15.000 ihp., speed 18 knots, twin screws. Steam supplied by 20 Belleville boilers.
Bunker capacity 2.100 tons, consumption 8½ ton an hour by 10.000 hp. and a speed of 15 knots.
Range 8.000 mile by a speed of 10 knots.
Armament 4 – 12 inch, 12 – 6 inch, 16 – 12pdrs. O.F., 6 – 3pdrs Q.F., 4 – 18 inch torpedo tubes submerged.
Crew 714/733.
March 1902 completed, building cost £997.846.
18 March 1902 commissioned under command of Capt. F.T. Hamilton..
1902-1904 Flagship of C and C Admiral Sir Compton E Domville in the Mediterranean.
1905-1907 Flagship of C and C Admiral Lord Charles Beresford.
12 February 1907 commissioned as flagship of Rear Admiral in command of the Home Fleet in the Nore.
26 October 1907 grounded about 10 miles S.E. of Leman Light in the North Sea, when avoiding fishing boats, for repairs dry-docked.
30 May 1908 Captain R.F. Scott of Antarctic fame joined her, the most junior Captain in command of a battleship.
1910 – 1911 Flagship of the Vice Admiral commanding the Third and Fourth Divisions of the Home Fleet.
1911 – 1912 Refitted in Chatham.
May 1912 during post-refit trials she twice grounded on Barrow Deep off the Nore.
1912 – 1914 5th Battle Squadron.
After Word War I broke out used for patrol service in the English Channel.
Under command of Capt G.I Sclater the BULWARK arrived on 15 November 1914 at Sheerness.
26 November 1914, still at Sheerness, by taking on board ammunition she blew up early in the morning at 07.53, of the crew of 750 officers and men only 12 were saved.
An Admiralty Court endeavoured to ascertain the cause of the disaster from the meagre evidence placed before it, but was finally compelled to state that it could not account for the explosion.
She is on Maldives 2001 RF5 sg ?, scott
Source: Devonport built Warships since 1860 by Lt. Cdr. K.V. Burns. Dictionary of Disasters at Sea during the age of Steam. Jane’s Fighting Ships 1914.