HMS RAMILLIES Historic Naval Battleship

HMS RAMILLIES, one of the five R Class battleships, was launched in 1914. During the launch, she injured her rudder and was towed with great difficulty, caused by the jammed rudder, to Cammell Laird in Liverpool. After much delay, she was completed in May 1917. RAMILLIES commissioned into the Grand Fleet, serving there until 1919 when she transferred to the Med Fleet, where she remained for four years. Despite being not the best seaboat, RAMILLIES was the first of her class to be fitted with bulges, which helped reduce their roll.

In 1939, she was used to cover the passage of the BEF. In 1940, she saw action against the Italians at Bardia and later off Cape Spartivento. Back in the Home Fleet, she diverted to join the action against BISMARCK. Subsequently, she moved to the Indian Ocean, where she was damaged off Diego Suarez by a midget submarine. She sailed to join the Eastern Fleet in September 1943 and then returned home to cover the D-Day landings in Normandy and southern France. After the war, she served as an accommodation ship for HMS VERNON before being towed away for scrap in 1948, having had a very busy and useful life.