HMS Nelson was one of the two Nelson-class battleships built for the Royal Navy between the two World Wars. She was named in honour of Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson the victor at the Battle of Trafalgar. HMS Nelson (as was her sister, Rodney) was essentially a cut-down version of the G3 battlecruiser cancelled under the constraints of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty. The design was to carry a main armament of 16-inch (410 mm) guns to match the firepower of the American Colorado and Japanese Nagato classes in a ship displacing no more than 35,000 tons (this is actually a compromise for IJN preserving battleship Mutsu). The two Nelson-class battleships, along with three Colorado-class battleships and two Nagato-class battleships, were called the Big Seven as the only seven battleships armed with 16-inch guns according to the negotiations of Washington Naval Conference. The main battery was mounted in three turrets, all placed forward, and speed was reduced and maximum armour was limited to vital areas, to meet the tonnage limit. The Nelsons were unique in British battleship construction, being the only battleships carrying a main armament of 16-inch (406 mm) guns, and the only ones to place all the main turrets forward. Commissioned in 1930, Nelson served extensively in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Indian oceans during World War II. HMS Nelson served as the Flagship of the Home Fleet since launch, until she resume her duty to HMS King George V. She was decommissioned soon after the end of the war and scrapped in 1949.
Nelson was laid down in December 1922 and built at Newcastle by Armstrong-Whitworth. Launched in September 1925, she was commissioned in August 1927 and joined by her sister ship HMS Rodney (built by Cammell Laird) in November. She cost £ 7,504,000 to build and made partial use of the material prepared for the cancelled Admiral-class battlecruisers HMS Anson and Howe, planned sister ships of HMS Hood.
Nelson was modified little during the 1930s and was with the Home Fleet when the Great War broke out in September 1939. On 25 and 26 September she performed escort mission during the salvage and rescue operations of the submarine HMS Spearfish. Nelson was first deployed in the North Sea in October against a German formation of cruisers and destroyers, all of which easily evaded her. On 30 October she was unsuccessfully attacked by U-56 under the command of captain Wilhelm Zahn near the Orkney Islands with three topedoes hit but none exploded. Later she was again shown up for pace in the futile pursuit of German battlecruisers. In December 1939 she struck a magnetic mine (laid by U-31) at the entrance to Loch Ewe on the Scottish coast and was laid up in Portsmouth for repairs until August 1940.
Nelson was decommissioned in February 1948 and used as a target ship for aerial bombing exercises for several months. She was sold to Thomas W. Ward Ltd for scrapping, arriving at Inverkeithing on 15 March 1949.[1]
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