HMS Queen Mary at the Battle of Jutland

HMS Queen Mary at the Battle of Jutland HMS Queen Mary was a British battlecruiser that entered service in 1913. The last battlecruiser completed for the Royal Navy prior to World War I, it saw action during the early engagements of the conflict. Sailing with the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron, Queen Mary was lost at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916. HMS Queen Mary Nation:  Great BritainType:  BattlecruiserShipyard:  Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron CompanyLaid Down:  March 6, 1911Launched:  March 20, 1912Commissioned:  September 4, 1913Fate:  Sunk at the Battle of Jutland, May 31, 1916 Specifications Displacement:  27,200 tonsLength:  703 ft., 6 in.Beam:  89 ft., 0.5 in.Draft:  32 ft., 4 in.Propulsion:  Parsons direct-drive steam turbines, 42 Yarrow boilers, 4 x propellersSpeed:  28 knotsRange:  6,460 miles at 10 knotsComplement:  1,275 men Armament 4 Ãâ€" 2 – BL 13.5-inch Mk V guns16 Ãâ€" 1 – BL 4-inch Mk VII guns2 Ãâ€" 1 – 21-inch Mk II submerged torpedo tubes Background On October 21, 1904, Admiral John Jackie Fisher became First Sea Lord at the behest of King Edward VII. Tasked with reducing expenditures and modernizing the Royal Navy, he also began advocating for all big gun battleships. Moving forward with this initiative, Fisher had the revolutionary HMS Dreadnought built two years later. Featuring ten 12-in. guns, Dreadnought instantly made all existing battleships obsolete. Fisher next desired to support this class of battleship with a new type of cruiser that sacrificed armor for speed. Dubbed battlecruisers, the first of this new class, HMS Invincible, was laid down in April 1906. It was Fishers vision that battlecruisers would conduct reconnaissance, support the battle fleet, protect commerce, and pursue a defeated enemy. Over the next eight years, several battlecruisers were constructed by both the Royal Navy and the German Kaiserliche Marine. Design Ordered as part of the 1910–11 Naval Program along with four King George V-class battleships, HMS Queen Mary was to be the sole ship of its class. A follow-on to the earlier Lion-class, the new ship featured an altered interior arrangement, a redistribution of its secondary armament, and a longer hull than its predecessors. Armed with eight 13.5 in. guns in four twin turrets, the battlecruiser also carried sixteen 4 in. guns mounted in casemates. The ships armament received direction from an experimental fire-control system designed by Arthur Pollen. Queen Marys armor scheme varied little from the Lions and was thickest amidships. At the waterline, between B and X turrets, the ship was protected by 9 Krupp cemented armor.   This thinned moving towards the bow and stern. An upper belt of reached a thickness of 6 over the same length. Armor for the turrets consisted of 9 on the front and sides and varied from 2.5 to 3.25 on the roofs. The battlecruisers conning tower was protected by 10 on the sides and 3 on the roof. Additionally, Queen Marys armored citadel was closed off by 4 transverse bulkheads. Power for the new design came from two paired sets of Parsons direct-drive turbines which turned four propellers. While the outboard propellers were turned by high-pressure turbines, the inner propellers were turned by low-pressure turbines. In a change from other British ships since Dreadnought, which had positioned the officers quarters near their action stations amidships, Queen Mary saw them returned to their traditional location in the stern. As a result, it was it the first British battlecruiser to possess a sternwalk. Construction Laid down on March 6, 1911 at Palmer Shipbuilding and Iron Company in Jarrow, the new battlecruiser was named for King George Vs wife, Mary of Teck. Work progressed over the next year and Queen Mary slid down the ways on March 20, 1912, with Lady Alexandrina Vane-Tempest serving as the Queens representative. Initial work on the battlecruiser ended in May 1913 and sea trials were conducted through June. Though Queen Mary utilized more powerful turbines than earlier battlecruisers, it only barely exceeded its design speed of 28 knots. Returning to the yard for final alterations, Queen Mary came under the command of Captain Reginald Hall. With the completion of the ship, it entered commission on September 4, 1913. World War I Assigned to Vice Admiral David Beattys 1st Battlecruiser Squadron, Queen Mary commenced operations in the North Sea. The following spring saw the battlecruiser make a port call at Brest before a voyage to Russia in June. In August, with Britains entry into World War I, Queen Mary and its consorts prepared for combat. On August 28, 1914, the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron sortied in support of a raid on the German coast by British light cruisers and destroyers. In the early fighting during the Battle of Heligoland Bight, British forces had difficulty disengaging and the light cruiser HMS Arethusa was crippled. Under fire from the light cruisers SMS Strassburg and SMS Cà ¶ln, it called for aid from Beatty. Steaming to the rescue, his battlecruisers, including Queen Mary, sank Cà ¶ln and the light cruiser SMS Ariadne before covering the British withdrawal. Refit That December, Queen Mary took part in Beattys attempt to ambush German naval forces as they conducted a raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby. In a confused series of events, Beatty failed to bring the Germans to battle and they successfully escaped back the Jade Estuary. Withdrawn in December 1915, Queen Mary received a new fire control system before entering the yard for a refit the following month. As a result, it was not with Beatty for the Battle of Dogger Bank on January 24. Returning to duty in February, Queen Mary continued to operate with the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron through 1915 and into 1916. In May, British naval intelligence learned that the German High Seas Fleet had left port. Loss at Jutland Steaming in advance of Admiral Sir John Jellicoes Grand Fleet, Beattys battlecruisers, supported by the battleships of the 5th Battle Squadron, collided with Vice Admiral Franz Hippers battlecruisers in the opening phases of the Battle of Jutland. Engaging at 3:48 PM on May 31, the German fire proved accurate from the outset. At 3:50 PM, Queen Mary opened fire on SMS Seydlitz with its forward turrets. As Beatty closed the range, Queen Mary scored two hits on its opponent and disabled one of Seydlitzs aft turrets. Around 4:15, HMS Lion came under intense fire from Hippers ships. The smoke from this obscured HMS Princess Royal forcing SMS Derfflinger to shift its fire to Queen Mary. As this new enemy engaged, the British ship continued to trade hits with Seydlitz. At 4:26 PM, a shell from Derfflinger struck Queen Mary detonating one or both of its forward magazines. The resulting explosion broke the battlecruiser in half near its foremast. A second shell from Derfflinger may have hit further aft. As the after part of the ship began to roll, it was rocked by a ​large explosion before sinking. Of Queen Marys crew, 1,266 were lost while only twenty were rescued. Though Jutland resulted in a strategic victory for the British, it saw two battlecruisers, HMS Indefatigable and Queen Mary, lost with nearly all hands. An investigation into the losses led to changes in ammunition handling aboard British ships as the report showed that cordite handling practices may have contributed to the loss of the two battlecruisers.

Essay Hooks from Bloggers Make Your Professor Plunge into Your Paper

Essay Hooks from Bloggers Make Your Professor Plunge into Your Paper Essay Hooks from Bloggers: Make Your Professor Plunge into Your Paper Blogging has to be persuasive and informative, written with a rich and distinct voice. You can’t just pick a pen†¦ err, get your hands on a keyboard†¦.and start giving your thoughts words. Blogging is fun and quite different to other forms of writing, including academic writing. However, it does not mean that essay writing has nothing in common with blogging. At the end of the day, it is all about putting your thoughts out there. Plus, there is a lot one can learn from blogging when it comes to essay writing. Students who are struggling to find a way to express their ideas in essays can look to the numerous tricks bloggers use. A blog writer has to appeal and reach out to thousands of users. This isn’t as easy as it sounds one has to come up with great ways to do just that. So without much ado, let’s have a look: Essay Hooks: the Rubicon of Attention An essay hook is the beginning part of your essay. It is usually comprised of one to two sentences. Consider it the Rubicon of the reader’s attention. Help them cross it by making your hook interesting. Students can use tried and tested blogging techniques to lend an interesting dimension to their academic work. And let’s face it; blogging is more fun than academic writing. One does have to get into the pain of citation (APA, Chicago anyone?) and can write their ideas without really having to dig deep. However, the presence of facts and stats always help, and can be a good beginning point. For example, if you’re writing a piece on smoking, you can always start with something like ‘According to stats these many deaths per year can be attributed to smoking’. This simple stat is grabbing and will hold your reader’s attention. Attention Saturated World â€Å"A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention† Martin Greenberger Today’s bloggers live in an attention-saturated world. The readers have a lot of options to go to, and it is getting more and more difficult to grab their attention. However, a number of bloggers are successfully doing it and one can learn a lot from them. One of the most important points is to make your writing appealing and readable. Effective writing needs to include a hook that will draw in the reader. It must keep them glued without going the predictable route. If they already know what’s coming next, they’ll lose interest. It’s definitely not your favorite thriller’s script, but it has to be attention grabbing. Making others read your words is not an easy task, and convincing them with the help of written material is an even tougher battle. This becomes much more difficult when your target audience is a busy professor who is forced to read hundreds of essays and papers every day. If your goal is to write an interesting essay and get good grades then double your efforts and get creative. Instead of using turn of the century vocabulary, use short and simple words that are easy to comprehend. Also, try to summarize your sentences and make sure the point is easily delivered. Hooks That Will Reel in the Bait What kind of forms can hooks take? There are lots of styles and forms you can use. There are a few suggestions given below that will work in almost all types of essays. Feel free to get as creative as you want. Interesting Story or Anecdote A bit unorthodox but don’t be afraid of using these. Just keep it short and make sure it fits into the overall argument you make. You can even tell your readers about ‘one time this happened with me†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ and of course, the anecdote does not have to be true! It works with bloggers just fine. Question? A thought-provoking question will almost instantly get your readers hooked. They will continue to read just to get to the answer. Formulate questions that do not have simple â€Å"Yes† or â€Å"No† answers. Questions that invoke views across a spectrum are easier to address in the essay. For example, if you’re writing about divorce issues, start with something like ‘Are divorces really due to couple’s own mistakes?’. This will make people think and they’d like to read what you have to say on this matter. Literary Quote An appropriately used literary quote will serve as a great hook. Choose a relevant one and it will also serve an introduction to the ideas you will be exploring. Quote from a Famous Person The words of a popular person hold authority and influence. Writing a quote from a speech is a great hook, but make sure the quote is relevant to your topic and you also mention the person. Visual Senses Describe a visually appealing or emotional scene in vivid words and details. Important Statistic These must be properly researched and established numbers in order to have the powerful effect. Make sure you use authoritative sources and proper attribution. A proven fact will make the reader want to know more, as given in the smoking example above. Interesting/Shocking Fact Use something that isn’t well-known but relevant. It should be related to what you are going to describe. Writing hooks will become easier with practice. Try to get your professor’s detailed feedback. It will help whether the feedback is negative or positive. Most teachers will have set office hours or hold short question/answer sessions. If the feedback is positive it will serve to motivate you and if negative it will help guide your efforts in the right direction. At you can get a custom written essay online, starting at $13/page only. We hire the best academic writers to provide college students with professional essay writing assistance.