HMS Furious

Five ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Furious:

  • HMS Furious (1797) was a 12-gun Courser-class gun-brig launched in 1797 and sold in 1802.
  • HMS Furious (1804) was a 12-gun Archer-class gun-brig launched in 1804 and sold in 1815.
  • HMS Furious (1850) was a wooden-hulled paddle frigate launched in 1850. She was hulked in 1867 and sold in 1884.
  • HMS Furious (1896) was an Arrogant-class second class protected cruiser launched in 1896. She was hulked in 1915 and renamed Forte, and was sold in 1923.
  • HMS Furious (47) was a modified Courageous-class battlecruiser launched in 1916. She was converted to a flush-deck aircraft carrier between 1921 and 1925 and was sold in 1948.
  • See also

  • HMS Furieuse
  • HMS Furious (47)

    HMS Furious was a modified Courageous-class battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy (RN) during the First World War. Designed to support the Baltic Project championed by the First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, Lord John Fisher, the ship was very lightly armoured and designed to be armed with only two heavy guns (18-inch), one forward and one aft, plus a number of lesser guns. Furious was modified and became an aircraft carrier while under construction. Her forward turret was removed and a flight deck was added in its place, so that aircraft had to manoeuvre around the superstructure to land. Later in the war, the ship had her rear turret removed and a second flight deck installed aft of the superstructure, but this was less than satisfactory due to air turbulence. Furious was briefly laid up after the war before she was reconstructed with a full-length flight deck in the early 1920s.

    After her conversion, Furious was used extensively for trials of naval aircraft and later as a training carrier once the new armoured carriers like Ark Royal entered service in the late 1930s. During the early months of the Second World War the carrier spent her time hunting for German raiders in the North Atlantic and escorting convoys. This changed dramatically during the Norwegian Campaign in early 1940 when her aircraft provided air support to British troops ashore in addition to attacking German shipping. The first of what would be a large number of aircraft ferry missions was made by the carrier during the campaign. After the withdrawal of British troops in May, Furious made several anti-shipping strikes in Norway with little result before beginning a steady routine of ferrying aircraft for the Royal Air Force.

    HMS Furious (1850)

    HMS Furious was a 16 gun steam powered paddle wheel frigate of the Royal Navy built at Portsmouth Dockyard and launched on 26 August 1850. She was the lead ship of the two ship class of Furious-class frigate. She was built at a cost of £64,794, of which her machinery cost £24,577.

    She became a coal hulk at Portsmouth in March 1867 and was sold for breaking up in 1884 to Castle, of Charlton.

    References

  • Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475. 
  • Lyon, David and Winfield, Rif, The Sail and Steam Navy List, All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815-1889, pub Chatham, 2004, ISBN 1-86176-032-9
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