HMS Iron Duke (1912)

HMS Iron Duke was a dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy, the lead ship of her class, named in honour of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. She was built by Portsmouth Dockyard, and her keel laid in January 1912. Launched ten months later, she was commissioned into the Home Fleet in March 1914 as the fleet flagship. She was armed with a main battery of ten 13.5-inch (340 mm) guns and was capable of a top speed of 21.25 knots (39.36 km/h; 24.45 mph).

Iron Duke served as the flagship of the Grand Fleet during the First World War, including at the Battle of Jutland. There, she inflicted significant damage on the German battleship SMS König early in the main fleet action. In January 1917, she was relieved as fleet flagship. After the war, Iron Duke operated in the Mediterranean as the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet. She participated in both the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War in the Black Sea and the Greco-Turkish War. She also assisted in the evacuation of refugees from Smyrna. In 1926, she was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, where she served as a training ship.

HMS Iron Duke

Three ships of the British Royal Navy have been named HMS Iron Duke after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, nicknamed the "Iron Duke". The name is also a pun, as the first ship so named was an ironclad.

See also:

HMS Iron Duke (1870)

The first HMS Iron Duke was an iron Audacious-class central battery ironclad.

She was originally to have been called HMS Duke but she was nicknamed Iron Duke during construction as she was armoured unlike many other vessels under construction. The phrase was already in circulation as it was a nickname given to Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. The name was adopted when she was launched at Pembroke shipyard.

She became the flagship of the China Station on 31 August 1871, one of the first large ships to use the Suez canal to reach there. In an age of inefficient engines, her full sailing rig made her particularly suitable for operations in the Pacific Ocean. She returned to the UK in 1875 and joined the First Reserve Squadron.

On 1 September 1875 during the squadron's summer cruise she was en route with several other ships between Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire) and Queenstown (now Cobh). She accidentally rammed her sister ship, another member of the squadron, HMS Vanguard off Kish Bank, Dublin Bay in thick fog. Although Iron Duke sustained minor damage, a large hole was torn in Vanguard. Vanguard's engine room was flooded which prevented her from using her pumps and she sunk in a little over an hour. All the crew were rescued.

HMS Iron Duke (F234)

HMS Iron Duke is a Type 23 frigate of the Royal Navy, and the third ship to bear the name. Iron Duke was launched on 2 March 1991 by Lady King in the presence of the Duke and Duchess of Wellington. Her affiliated town is Kingston upon Hull, and she is named after Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington (the "Iron Duke"). She was the fifth Duke-class Type 23 frigate to be launched for the Royal Navy, at a cost of £140 million.

The motto of Iron Duke is Virtutis Fortuna Comes (latin: "Fortune is the companion of valour") – inherited from the 33rd (The Duke of Wellington's) Regiment of Foot.

Iron Duke carries a number of weapons and sensors which make her a multi-purpose combat vessel. Like all T23s, her original design role was anti-submarine warfare, but she can be employed in a variety of roles. She carries a Lynx Helicopter which can be used in an anti-submarine and anti-surface role as well as for humanitarian and search and rescue purposes.

Iron Duke has intercepted several large consignments of illegal drugs being sent from the Caribbean to Europe, in many cases with the aid of embarked United States Coast Guard personnel. She was also involved in action off Libya in 2011 on her way back from a patrol in the Persian Gulf.