HMS Prince George Build Log

Early on in my build I was advised to choose which vessel I was going to build, and since there was already a model of HMS Hannibal I chose to represent her sister-ship, HMS Prince George.

HMS Prince George was the third vessel of the Majestic class of pre-dreadnought battleships. She was laid down on 10 September 1894 and completed on 26 November 1896, and with her eight sisters she dominated the world’s oceans, they were considered to be the ‘Star Wars’ weapons of the era. The ships were 421ft long and had a beam of 75ft, displacing 16,000 tons. Armed with four 12 inch guns, twelve 6 inch guns, twelve 4 inch guns, sixteen 12pdr and twelve 3pdr guns, and in addition to this over-welming firepower she also had five 18 inch torpedo tubes. With her impressive armament the Majestic were the first to be fitted with 9 inch Harvey armour which allowed the same protection as previous battleships  but less cost in weight. This meant that they had deeper belt armour thus protecting more of the ship. The ‘Majestic's’ were as revolutionary as the Dreadnought was in 1906, and were considered to be the first true battleships, making the ‘armour-clads’ obsolete like HMS Dreadnought made all preceding classes of battleships.

HMS Prince George was named after the future King George V, and when completed joined the Channel Fleet. She attended both the Fleet Review at Spithead for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria and the Coronation Fleet Review for King Eduard VII. On 17 October 1903 Prince George was badly damaged when she was rammed by her sister HMS Hannibal off the coast of Spain punching a hole below the waterline in the stern. Prince George was in danger of sinking but managed to make it to harbour steering with her engines with her stern-walk awash! She was patched up and arrived at Portsmouth to be repaired. On 14 February 1905 she joined the Atlantic Fleet, where shortly after she collided with the German armoured cruiser SMS Friedrich Carl at Gibraltar without serious damage. On 17 July 1905 she was transferred to the new Channel Fleet ending this service on 4 March 1907 when she was paid off at Portsmouth. Prince George was re-commissioned on 5 March 1907 to serve as flagship of the C-in-C Portsmouth Division of the newly formed Home Fleet. On 5 December 1907 she collided with the armoured cruiser HMS Shannon at Portsmouth, sustaining significant damage to her deck plating and boat davits. She was relieved as flagship  in February 1909 to under-go a refit and then placed into reserve, in June 1912 Prince George became part of the 7th Battle Squadron, 3rd Fleet.

Upon outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, HMS Prince George returned to full commission. She covered the passage of the British Expeditionary Force from England to France. She ended her service with the Channel Fleet in February 1915 and was transferred to the Dardanelles as a ‘mine-bumper’. She took part in the attacks on the Ottoman Turkish forts, however whilst firing on the coastal batteries she was hit below the waterline by a 6 inch shell, she was sent to Malta for repairs. She was back in action again in the July supporting French troops but in December she covered the Allied evacuation from the Dardanelles, she was hit by a torpedo off Cape Helles on 9 January 1916 but it failed to explode. Prince George was paid off in March 1916 to provide accommodation for anti-submarine crews.

In May 1918 she began a refit for conversion to a destroyer depot ship, and renamed Victorious II in the September. She was then attached to the repair ship Victorious at Scapa Flow where served as depot ship to the destroyers of the Grand Fleet. She reverted to the name ‘Prince George’ in February 1919 and in the March she transferred to Sheerness to serve as a depot ship. She was placed on the disposals list on 21 February 1920 and sold for scrapping on 22 September 1921. On the voyage to Germany she ran aground and was wrecked off Camperduin in the Netherlands, she was stripped of valuable materials and left as a breakwater where she remains to this day.

The model is currently under construction using the upgraded Deans Marine kit of HMS Hannibal. The GRP hull measures 52 inches long and 10 inches wide. The kit comes with a substantive amount of etched brass, white metal, and resin fittings. The superstructure is moulded from GRP and the ship’s turrets are vacform mouldings. The finished decks will be made from 1/64” sycamore plywood representing the polished teak decks common to Royal Navy ships. The model will represent HMS Prince George in 1896 when she was completed and will be painted in the traditional Victorian era paint work of black hull, white superstructure and buff funnels. The kit will be modified to change it from Hannibal to Prince George, these will be:

1. The forward bridge structure re-located to sit around the forward mast.
2. Larger starfish mast platforms to be constructed.
3. The torpedo net shelf to be re-located from the main deck to the upper deck.
4. Stepped masts in place of pole masts.

The prop shafts have been permanently fitted with fibreglass filler, and the deck beams have been glued to the GRP hull. The 1/8” plywood decks have been temporary fitted to facilitate with the locating of the deck beams. The motors will be next to be fitted and the internal layout of the radio equipment and batteries.


                     This build log is continued on the 'modelboatmayhem' website. Follow the link below:

Model Boat Mayhem