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Courageous-class aircraft carrier

The Courageous class, sometimes called the Glorious class, was the first multi-ship class of aircraft carriers to serve with the Royal Navy. The three ships—HMS Furious (47), HMS Courageous (50) and HMS Glorious—were originally laid down as Courageous-class battlecruisers as part of the Baltic Project during the First World War. While very fast, their minimal armour and few guns limited their long-term utility in the post-war Royal Navy, and they were laid up after the war. They were considered capital ships by the terms of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty and were included in the total amount of tonnage allowed to the Royal Navy. Rather than scrap them, the Navy decided to convert them to aircraft carriers as permitted under the Treaty.

Furious, already partially converted during the war, began her reconstruction in 1921, before the Treaty came into effect. In an attempt to minimise air turbulence, she was given no superstructure or island. This was not entirely satisfactory, and a small island was added in 1939. Another problem was that she lacked a standard funnel; instead, her boiler uptakes ran along the sides of the ship and exhausted out of gratings on the rear of the flight deck, or at the sides of the ship if landing operations were in progress. The long ducts reduced her aircraft capacity, and the exhaust gases were as much of a problem for landing aircraft as the turbulence would have been. Her half-sisters, Courageous and Glorious, began their conversions to aircraft carriers as Furious neared completion. They drew upon the experience gained by the Royal Navy since Furious had been designed and incorporated an island with a funnel, increasing their aircraft capacity by one-third and making it safer to land.

As the first large carrier completed by the Royal Navy, Furious was extensively used to evaluate aircraft handling and landing procedures, including the first-ever carrier night landing in 1926. Courageous became the first warship lost by the Royal Navy in the Second World War when she was torpedoed in September 1939 by a German submarine. Glorious participated in the Norwegian campaign in 1940, but she was sunk by two German battleships in June as she sailed home with a minimal escort. Furious participated in many major operations during the war, including the Norwegian campaign in 1940, the Malta Convoys and Operation Torch in 1942, and airstrikes on the GERMAN BATTLESHIP Tirpitz and other targets in Norway in 1944. The ship was worn out by 1944 and was placed in reserve status in September 1944 before being paid off in 1945 and sold for scrap in 1948.

Careers as battlecruisers
The first two ships of the class, Courageous and Glorious, spent the First World War on North Sea patrols, climaxing in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in November 1917. Their half-sister Furious was designed with a pair of 18 in guns—as opposed to four 15 in—but was modified while being built to hold a flying-off deck and hangar in lieu of her forward turret and barbette. She made some patrols in the North Sea before her rear turret was removed and another flight deck added. Her aircraft attacked Zeppelin sheds during the Tondern raid in July 1918.

All three ships were reduced to reserve after the war. The Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 limited the signatory nations to a set amount of capital ship tonnage; all ships in excess of this figure had to be scrapped. Up to 66000 LT of existing ships could be converted into aircraft carriers, and the Royal Navy decided to use the Courageous-class ships due to their high speed. Each ship was reconstructed with a flight deck during the 1920s.

Conversions
HMS Furious (47) had been fitted during the First World War with a flying-off and landing deck, but the latter proved largely unusable because of the strong air currents around the superstructure and exhaust gases from the funnel. She was laid up after the war, but was converted to an aircraft carrier between June 1921 and September 1925. Her design was based on the very limited experience gained with the first two British carriers: HMS Argus (I49), less than three years old, and HMS Eagle (1918), which had carried out only 143 deck landings during preliminary sea trials in 1920.

Furious's superstructure, masts, funnel and landing deck were removed and she was given a 576 by flight deck that extended over three-quarters of her length. This flight deck was not level; it sloped upwards about three-quarters of the way from the stern to help slow down landing aircraft, which had no brakes at the time it was designed. That era's fore-and-aft arresting gear, initially 320 ft long on Furious, was not intended to stop landing aircraft—the landing speeds of the time were low enough that this was unnecessary given a good headwind—but rather to prevent aircraft from veering off to one side and potentially falling off the flight deck. Various designs for the flight deck were tested in a wind tunnel by the National Physical Laboratory which showed that the distinctive elliptical shape and rounded edges minimised turbulence. To minimise any turbulence over the flight deck, Furious was flush-decked and lacked an island, like Argus; instead she was provided with a retractable charthouse at the forward end of the flight deck.

A two-storey hangar was built under the flight deck, each level being 15 ft high. The lower hangar was 550 ft long by 35 - 50 ft wide and the upper was 520 by. Each hangar could be sectioned off by electrically operated steel shutters on rollers. Her boilers were ducted down the side of the ship to exhaust either out of gratings at the rear of the flight deck, or, when landing operations were in progress, out of the side of the lower hangar at the rear of the ship. This solution proved to be very unsatisfactory as it consumed valuable space, made parts of the lower hangar unbearable and interfered with landing operations to a greater or lesser degree. Her original flying-off deck remained in place for use by small aircraft like fighters so that the ship could simultaneously land aircraft on the main flight deck while fighters were taking off on the lower deck and could speedily launch her aircraft from both decks. Doors at the forward end of the upper hangar opened onto the lower flying deck. Two 47 by lifts (elevators) were installed to transfer aircraft between the flight deck and hangars. Two 600 impgal ready-use petrol tanks were provided for aircraft and the ship's boats on the upper deck. An additional 20000 impgal of petrol were in bulk storage. The longitudinal arresting gear proved unpopular in service and it was ordered removed in 1927 after tests aboard Furious in 1926 had shown that deck-edge palisades were effective in reducing cross-deck gusts that could blow aircraft over the side. Furious's long exhaust ducting hampered landing operations, and restricted the size of the hangars and thus the number of aircraft that she could carry.

Glorious and Courageous were converted to aircraft carriers after Furious began her reconstruction, Courageous at Devonport starting on 29 June 1924, and Glorious at Rosyth on 14 February 1924. The latter was moved to Devonport to complete the conversion after Furious was finished. Their design was based on Furious with a few improvements based on experience gained since she was designed. All superstructure, guns, and fittings down to the main deck were removed. A two-storey hangar, each level 16 ft high and 550 ft long, was built on top of the remaining hull; the upper hangar level opened onto a short flying-off deck, below and forward of the main flight deck. Two slightly larger 46 by lifts were installed fore and aft in the flight deck. An island was added on the starboard side with the bridge, flying control station, and funnel, as an island did not create as much turbulence as had been earlier feared. By 1939 both ships could carry 34500 impgal of petrol.

Description
The Courageous-class ships had an overall length of 786 ft, a beam of 90 ft, and a draught of 28 ft at deep load. These were increases of 9 ft in beam and over 2 ft in draught compared to their earlier incarnations as battlecruisers. They displaced 24210 LT at normal load and 26990 LT at deep load, increases of over 3000 LT. Their metacentric height declined from 6 ft at deep load to 4.4 ft and the ships had a complete double bottom. In 1939, Courageous had a complement of 807 officers and ratings, plus 403 men in her air group.

Their half-sister Furious was the same length, but had a beam of 89 ft, and an average draught of 27 ft at deep load, two feet deeper than before the conversion. She displaced 22500 LT at normal load and 26500 LT at deep load, over 3,000 long tons more than her previous displacement of 19513 LT at load and 22890 LT at deep load. Furious's metacentric height was 3.6 ft at deep load, a reduction of 1.48 ft after her conversion. In 1932, Furious had a complement of 738 officers and ratings, plus 468 men in her air group.

Propulsion
The Courageous-class ships were the first large warships in the Royal Navy to have geared steam turbines. Arranged in two engine rooms, each of the turbines drove one of the four propeller shafts. Furious's propellers were 11 ft in diameter. The turbines were powered by 18 Yarrow small-tube boilers equally divided among three boiler rooms. The turbines were designed to produce a total of 90000 shp at a working pressure of 235 psi. No significant changes to the machinery were made during the conversion process to any of the three ships, but their increased displacement reduced their speed to approximately 30 kn.

Furious's fuel capacity was increased by 700 LT during her reconstruction, which increased her range to 7480 nmi at a speed of 10 kn. The maximum fuel capacity of Courageous and Glorious was increased during the conversion to 3800 LT of fuel oil, giving them an endurance of 6630 nmi at 10 kn.

Armament
Furious retained ten of her original eleven breech-loading BL 5.5-inch Mk I guns, five on each side, for self-defence from enemy warships. They fired 82 lb projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 2790 ft/s. Their maximum range was 16000 yd at their maximum elevation of 25°, and the rate of fire was 12 rounds per minute.

Half a dozen QF 4-inch Mark V guns replaced her original anti-aircraft guns. Four were mounted on the sides of the flying-off deck and two on the quarterdeck. They had a maximum depression of −5° and a maximum elevation of 80°. The guns fired a 31 lb high explosive (HE) shell at a muzzle velocity of 2387 ft/s at a rate of 10 to 15 rounds per minute. The guns had a maximum ceiling of 31000 ft, but an effective range of much less. The four guns on the flying-off deck were removed during trials of the lower flight deck in 1926–1927, but only two were replaced when the trials were concluded.

Four single QF 2-pounder pom-poms were installed by 1927. During Furious's September 1930 – February 1932 refit, her anti-aircraft outfit was changed by the substitution of two 8-barrel 2-pounder pom-pom mounts for the forward 4-inch guns on the flying-off deck removed earlier. The Mark V mount could depress to −10° and elevate to a maximum of 80°. The Mark VIII 2-pounder gun fired a 40 mm 0.91 lb shell at a muzzle velocity of 1920 ft/s to a distance of 3800 yd. The gun's rate of fire was approximately 96–98 rounds per minute.

The 5.5 in and 4 in guns were replaced during Furious's refit in early 1939 by a dozen QF 4-inch Mk XVI guns in twin dual-purpose Mark XIX mounts. One mount each was on the former flying-off deck and the quarterdeck while the other four were mounted two per side. The Mark XIX mount could depress to −10° and elevate to a maximum of 80°. The Mark XVI gun fired fifteen to twenty 35 lb HE shells per minute at a muzzle velocity of 2660 ft/s. Against surface targets it had a range of 19850 yd and a maximum ceiling of 31000 ft, but an effective anti-aircraft range of much less. Two more Mark V 2-pounder mounts were added fore and aft of the newly added island at the same time.

During the Second World War, Furious, the only surviving ship of the three, received an eventual total of 22 manually operated automatic 20 mm Oerlikon light anti-aircraft (AA) guns, which replaced the single quadruple Vickers 0.50-calibre machine gun mount. The Oerlikon fired a 0.272 lb HE shell at a muzzle velocity of 2750 ft/s. The maximum ceiling was 10,000 ft and the maximum range was 4800 yd although the effective range was under 1000 yd. The cyclic rate of fire was 450 rounds per minute, but the practical rate was between 250 and 320 rounds per minute owing to the need to reload magazines.

A mix of single-purpose anti-surface and anti-aircraft guns in various sizes was considered for Courageous and Glorious by the Admiralty, but was ultimately rejected for a dual-purpose armament of sixteen QF 4.7-inch Mark VIII guns in single high-angle mounts. One mount was on each side of the lower flight deck and a pair were on the quarterdeck. The remaining twelve mounts were distributed along the sides of each ship. These mounts could depress to −5° and elevate to a maximum of 90°. The Mark VIII guns fired a 50 lb HE shell at a muzzle velocity of 2457 ft/s at a rate of 8–12 rounds per minute. The guns had a maximum ceiling of 32000 ft, but an effective range of much less. They had a maximum range of 16160 yd against surface targets.

During refits in the mid-1930s, both ships received multiple 2-pounder pom-pom mounts. Courageous received three quadruple Mark VII mounts, one on each side of the flying-off deck, forward of the 4.7-inch guns, and one behind the island on the flight deck (two of these were transferred from the battleship HMS Royal Sovereign (05)). Glorious received three octuple Mark VI mounts in the same locations. Both ships received four water-cooled 0.50-calibre Mark III machine guns in a single quadruple mounting. This mount could depress to −10° and elevate to a maximum of 70°. The machine guns fired a 1.326 oz bullet at a muzzle velocity of 2520 ft/s. This gave the gun a maximum range of about 5000 yd, although its effective range was only 800 yd. Neither ship had any further guns added before they were sunk early in the war, in 1939 and 1940, respectively.

Fire control and radar
To assist its weapon systems in hitting their target, Furious was completed with one fire-control system for each side, with separate directors for low-angle and high-angle guns. The 5.5-inch guns were centrally controlled by a Dreyer Fire-Control Table on the lower deck while the 4-inch guns had their mechanical computers next to their directors. The existing fire-control directors were removed when Furious received her new dual-purpose 4-inch mountings in 1939. New high-angle directors, including two for the pom-poms, were mounted on top of the new island and on the former lower flight deck. Over the course of the war Type 285 gunnery radars were mounted on top of the high-angle directors. She also received a Type 290 air-search radar.

Courageous was initially fitted only with low-angle directors for her guns, but these were replaced by dual-purpose directors when she was refitted in 1930. (Glorious, completed later, had hers from the beginning.) Neither ship was fitted with radar before its early loss.

Protection
Little armour other than that of the barbettes was removed during their conversion to aircraft carriers. The transverse bulkheads were carried through the locations of the former barbettes. The flight deck was 0.625 in in thickness.

Unlike other British battlecruisers, the bulk of the armour of the Courageous-class ships was made from high-tensile steel (HTS), a type of steel used structurally in other ships. Their waterline belt consisted of 2 in of HTS covered by a 1 in thick mild steel skin. It protected roughly the middle two-thirds of the ship with a one-inch extension forward to the two-inch forward transverse bulkhead well short of the bow. The belt had a height of 23 ft, of which 18 in was below the designed waterline. From the former forward barbette, a 3-inch bulkhead extended out to the ship's side between the upper and lower decks and a comparable bulkhead was in place at the former location of the rear barbette as well. Four decks were armoured with thicknesses varying from 0.75 –, thickest over the magazines and the steering gear. After the Battle of Jutland, 110 LT of extra protection was added to the deck around the magazines.

The torpedo bulkheads were increased during building from 0.75–1.5 in in thickness. All three ships were fitted with a shallow anti-torpedo bulge integral to the hull, which was intended to detonate the torpedo before it hit the hull proper and deflect the underwater explosion to the surface, away from the ship. Later testing proved that it was not deep enough to accomplish its task and that it lacked the layers of empty and full compartments that were necessary to absorb the force of the explosion.

Air groups
Normally, Furious could carry only about 36 aircraft. In the 1920s this commonly meant one flight (squadrons after 1932) of fighters (Fairey Flycatcher), two of spotters (Blackburn Blackburn or Avro Bison), one spotter reconnaissance (Fairey IIID) and two flights of torpedo bombers (Blackburn Dart). In 1935 there was one squadron of fighters with Hawker Nimrods and Hawker Ospreys, one squadron of Blackburn Baffin torpedo bombers and one squadron of Fairey IIIF spotters. During the Second World War, the carrier typically carried a single fighter squadron and two of strike aircraft of various types, although the mix was often adjusted for specific missions.

Courageous and Glorious were generally similar except that they carried a total of 48 aircraft. They commonly flew the same types of aircraft as Furious, although they are also known to have flown the Fairey Seal, the Blackburn Shark, and the Blackburn Ripon.

Pre-war service
Furious was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet after commissioning in 1925, although she spent much of the next several years conducting trials for practically every aircraft in the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) inventory. These included landing and flying-off tests of Fairey IIID and Fairey Flycatcher floatplanes, with and without wheels, to compare various designs of wooden and metal floats. The lower flight deck was greased to allow them to take off with a minimum of difficulty. A Flycatcher fitted with wooden skids was also tested and behaved perfectly satisfactorily. The arresting gear was barely used during these trials and it was removed shortly afterwards. Deck-edge palisades (windbreaks) were installed in 1927 to keep aircraft from blowing over the side in rough weather. The first carrier night-landing was made by a Blackburn Dart on 6 May 1926 aboard Furious.

The ship was reduced to reserve status on 1 July 1930 in preparation for a lengthy overhaul at Devonport from September 1930 to February 1932, focused on refitting her machinery and re-tubing her boilers. In addition her quarterdeck was raised by one deck, the AA armament was revised and water spraying facilities were fitted in the hangars. Upon completion she ran a full-power trial on 16 February 1932 where her maximum speed was 28.8 kn from a total of 89754 shp.

Furious was recommissioned in May 1932 as part of the Home Fleet with a reduced crew before being brought up to full complement in November. Transverse arresting gear was fitted sometime during the mid-1930s. She was detached to the Mediterranean Fleet from May to October 1934. Furious was present at the Coronation Fleet Review at Spithead on 20 May 1937 for King George VI. She became a deck-landing training carrier in 1937, although she was refitted between December 1937 and May 1938 in Devonport, where the forward end of her lower flight deck was raised to make her less wet forward. During the Munich Crisis in September 1938, she embarked Nos. 801, 821 and 822 Squadrons and joined the fleet at Scapa Flow, before resuming her training duties after the peaceful conclusion of the affair.

She was given a more extensive refit from January to May 1939 that removed her 5.5-inch guns and palisades, mounted AA guns on her flying-off deck, plated in the doors at the forward end of the upper hangar, and gave her a small island on the starboard side. Furious resumed her training duties after the completion of the refit and continued them until October 1939.

Courageous was recommissioned on 21 February 1928 and assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet from May 1928 to June 1930. She was relieved by Glorious and refitted from June to August 1930. The ship was assigned to the Atlantic and Home Fleets from 12 August 1930 to December 1938 aside from a temporary attachment to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1936. In the early 1930s, transverse arresting gear was installed and she received two hydraulic catapults on the upper flight deck before March 1934. Courageous was refitted again between October 1935 and June 1936 and received her pom-pom mounts. She was also present at the 1937 Coronation Fleet Review. She became a training carrier in December 1938 when HMS Ark Royal (91) joined the Home Fleet and continued on that duty until the start of the Second World War.

Glorious was recommissioned on 24 February 1930 for service with the Mediterranean Fleet, but was attached to the Home Fleet from March to June 1930. She relieved Courageous in the Mediterranean Fleet in June 1930 and remained there until October 1939. In a fog on 1 April 1931 Glorious rammed SS Florida amidships while steaming at 16 knots. The impact crumpled 60 ft of the flying-off deck and forced Glorious to put into Gibraltar for temporary repairs. She had to sail to Malta for permanent repairs which lasted until September 1931. Sometime in the early 1930s, transverse arresting gear was installed. She was refitted at Devonport from July 1934 to July 1935 where she received two catapults, her flight deck was extended to the rear, her quarterdeck was raised one deck and she received her multiple pom-pom mounts. Glorious also participated in the 1937 Coronation Fleet Review before returning to the Mediterranean.

Courageous
In the early days of the war, hunter-killer groups were formed around the fleet aircraft carriers to find and destroy U-boats. On 17 September 1939, U-boat GS U-29 (1936) struck the ship with two torpedoes, and Courageous became the first British warship sunk to enemy action in the Second World War. As Ark Royal had been surprised by a near-miss seven days earlier, the fleet carriers were withdrawn from this duty.

Glorious
Force J, including Glorious, was organised to hunt for the GERMAN POCKET BATTLESHIP Admiral Graf Spee in the Indian Ocean. They were not successful, and Glorious remained in the Indian Ocean until December when she was transferred to the Mediterranean.

Glorious was recalled to the Home Fleet in April 1940 to provide air cover for British forces landing in Norway. Gloster Gladiators of No. 263 Squadron RAF were flown aboard to be transferred to Norwegian airbases. Glorious and Ark Royal arrived off central Norway on 24 April where 263 Squadron was flown off and their organic aircraft attacked targets in the Trondheim area before Glorious had to return to Scapa Flow on 27 April to refuel and embark new aircraft. She returned on 1 May, after failing to load new aircraft because of poor weather. The task force was under heavy air attack by the Luftwaffe all day and was withdrawn that evening.

Glorious returned on 18 May with six Supermarine Walrus amphibious flying boats of 701 Squadron and 18 Hawker Hurricanes of No. 46 Squadron RAF. The Walruses were flown off to Harstad, but the airfield at Skånland was not yet ready for the Hurricanes and they were still aboard when Glorious returned to Scapa on 21 May. Glorious came back to the Narvik area on 26 May and the Hurricanes were flown off.

British forces were ordered withdrawn a few days later. The evacuation (Operation Alphabet) began in the north on the night of 3/4 June, and Glorious arrived off the coast on 2 June to provide support. She carried only nine Sea Gladiators of 802 Squadron and six Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers of 823 Squadron for self-defence, as it was hoped to evacuate the RAF fighters if possible. Ten Gladiators of 263 Squadron were flown aboard during the afternoon of 7 June and the Hurricanes of 46 Squadron were also flown aboard without any significant problems in the early evening despite having a much higher landing speed than the biplanes. This was the first time that high performance monoplanes without tailhooks had been landed on an aircraft carrier.

Captain Guy D'Oyly-Hughes requested and was granted permission to proceed independently to Scapa Flow in the early hours of 8 June. On the way back across the North Sea, Glorious and her two escorting destroyers, HMS Acasta (H09) and HMS Ardent (H41), were found by the two German battleships GERMAN BATTLESHIP Scharnhorst and GERMAN BATTLESHIP Gneisenau. No combat air patrol was being flown, no aircraft were spotted on the deck for quick take off and there was no lookout in the crow's nest. The German heavy ships sank all three British vessels with most of their crews, although Acasta managed to torpedo Scharnhorst before she was sunk. Only 43 men from Glorious survived.

Furious
Until 2 October 1939, Furious remained on training duties, combined with anti-submarine sweeps off the east coast of Scotland. She was then assigned to the Home Fleet to replace the sunken Courageous and sortied on 8 October with the fleet to hunt unsuccessfully for the Gneisenau and escorting ships which had been spotted off southern Norway. Furious departed her berth adjacent to the battleship HMS Royal Oak (08) in Scapa Flow for more futile searches for German ships on 13 October, the day before Royal Oak was sunk by GS U-47 (1938) in Scapa Flow. Furious served as the flagship for the convoy bringing most of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division to Britain in mid-December 1939.

Furious joined the Home Fleet off the coast of Norway on 10 April 1940 and her Swordfish made several attacks on German ships in Narvik on the following days. She refuelled at Tromsø on the 14th and remained behind after the bulk of the Home Fleet departed on 15 April, her aircraft flying reconnaissance missions until ordered home on 25 April. Her port inner turbine had been damaged by the shock wave from a near miss on 18 April, and the damage was more serious than initially thought. After quick repairs, Furious returned on 18 May carrying the Gladiators of a reformed 263 Squadron; they were flown off on 21 May once their base at Bardufoss was ready. She sailed to Scapa Flow once all the Gladiators had been flown off.

On 14 June, carrying only half of 816 Squadron for her own protection, Furious sailed unescorted for Halifax, Nova Scotia carrying £18,000,000 in gold bullion. On 1 July she escorted a convoy of Canadian troops bound for Iceland from Halifax and ferried over almost 50 aircraft, spare parts and munitions. On his own initiative, Captain Troubridge ordered all available space should be used for sugar bound for Britain. She reembarked her aircraft upon her arrival and made a number of air strikes on shipping in Norwegian waters and on the seaplane base at Tromsø through October 1940. Furious loaded 55 aircraft in Liverpool on 7 November and sailed for Takoradi, Gold Coast, on 15 November where the aircraft were flown off on 27 November to reinforce fighter units defending Egypt. By 15 December, Furious was back in Liverpool, where she embarked 40 Hurricanes for Takoradi. She sailed on 21 December and joined up with Convoy WS 5A which encountered the GERMAN CRUISER Admiral Hipper on 25 December. The German ship was driven off by the escorts, and Furious reached Takoradi on 10 January 1941. She arrived in Britain on 5 February where she was given a brief refit. She made another ferry trip to Takoradi between 4 and 22 March.

Now with a new destination for her ferry trips, Furious transported two dozen Hurricanes to Gibraltar on 25 April where they were transferred to Ark Royal to be flown off for Malta. She returned for another load of Hurricanes and arrived back in Gibraltar on 18 May. Some of these fighters were moved to Ark Royal via planks between the flight decks of the carriers berthed stern to stern. This time she accompanied Ark Royal and the two carriers flew off their fighters from a position south of Sardinia. She would repeat this ferry mission three more times from June to September 1941. In July and August, Furious and HMS Victorious (R38) attacked German installations in the Arctic areas of Norway and Finland with limited success and heavy losses. Following her last ferry mission she was sent to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to refit.

Furious arrived back in the UK in April 1942 and spent the next three months working up. In August she was detailed to accompany the convoy bound for Malta in Operation Pedestal, but she was to sail with them only far enough to allow her 38 Supermarine Spitfires to reach Malta. This she did, just as Eagle was torpedoed, but Furious turned around after flying off her fighters and reached Gibraltar successfully. She loaded another batch of 32 Spitfires on 16 August and they were flown off the following day south-east of the Balearic Islands. After this mission Furious was sent back to Home Fleet for training. One last mission was necessary to reinforce the defences of Malta before Operation Torch, and she arrived on 27 October. She loaded 32 Spitfires and launched them on the 29th before returning to Gibraltar to participate in Torch.

Providing cover for the Central Task Force, Furious's aircraft neutralised the airfields at La Senia and Tafraoui, both near Oran, Algeria. She remained with Force H until February 1943 before transferring to Home Fleet where she remained for the rest of the war. In July the Home Fleet demonstrated off the coast of Norway in strength to distract attention from the Allied invasion of Sicily; Furious's role was to allow a German reconnaissance aircraft to spot the British ships and make a report then shoot it down. She was refitted in August and spent the rest of the year training.

On 3 April 1944, Fairey Barracudas from Furious and Victorious attacked the German battleship Tirpitz in Altafjord, Norway, as part of Operation Tungsten. Tirpitz was hit 14 times and needed three months to complete her repairs, although four aircraft were lost in the attack. The Home Fleet tried another attack on Tirpitz later in the month, but bad weather prevented any attack from being made. Instead the aircraft attempted to attack installations at Bodø, but found a German convoy instead and sank three ships. Three operations against targets in northern Norway, including two against Tirpitz, had to be abandoned or diverted to other targets in May, but three German ships were sunk and two more were set afire. Furious and other carriers made another attempt to sink the Tirpitz on 17 July, but were unsuccessful against the fully alerted German defences. Four more attacks on Tirpitz were made in August, but only the attack on the 24th was even partially successful as two minor hits were made.

As the war progressed, the ship's age and limitations became increasingly apparent, and Furious was placed in reserve on 15 September 1944. She was paid off in April 1945 and used to evaluate the effects of aircraft explosives on the ship's structure. She was sold in 1948 for scrap, which was completed in 1954 at Troon.

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title: Courageous-class aircraft carrier


text:
HMS Glorious

HMS Glorious was the second of the three Courageous-class battlecruisers built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. Designed to support the Baltic Project championed by the First Sea Lord, Lord Fisher, they were relatively lightly armed and armoured. Glorious was completed in late 1916 and spent the war patrolling the North Sea. She participated in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in November 1917 and was present when the German High Seas Fleet surrendered a year later.

Glorious was paid off after the war, but was rebuilt as an aircraft carrier during the late 1920s. She could carry 30 per cent more aircraft than her half-sister HMS Furious (47) which had a similar tonnage. After re-commissioning in 1930, she spent most of her career operating in the Mediterranean Sea. After the start of the Second World War in 1939, Glorious spent the rest of the year unsuccessfully hunting for the commerce-raiding GERMAN CRUISER Admiral Graf Spee in the Indian Ocean before returning to the Mediterranean. She was recalled home in April 1940 to support operations in Norway. While evacuating British aircraft from Norway in June, the ship was sunk by the German battleships GERMAN BATTLESHIP Scharnhorst and GERMAN BATTLESHIP Gneisenau in the North Sea with the loss of over 1,200 lives.

Design and description
During the First World War, Admiral Fisher was prevented from ordering an improved version of the preceding Renown-class battlecruisers by a wartime restriction that banned construction of ships larger than light cruisers. To obtain ships suitable for traditional battlecruiser roles, such as scouting for fleets and hunting enemy raiders, he settled on a design with the minimal armour of a light cruiser and the armament of a battlecruiser. He justified their existence by claiming he needed fast, shallow-draught ships for his Baltic Project, a plan to invade Germany via its Baltic coast.

Glorious had an overall length of 786 ft, a beam of 81 ft, and a draught of 25 ft at deep load. She displaced 19180 LT at load and 22560 LT at deep load. Glorious and her sisters were the first large warships in the Royal Navy to have geared steam turbines. The Parsons turbines were powered by eighteen Yarrow boilers. During the ship's abbreviated sea trials, she reached 31.42 kn. The ship was designed to normally carry 750 LT of fuel oil, but could carry a maximum of 3160 LT. At full capacity, she could steam for an estimated 6000 nmi at 20 knots.

Glorious carried four BL 15-inch (381 mm) Mark I guns in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore ('A') and aft ('Y'). Her secondary armament was 18 BL 4-inch (102 mm) Mark IX guns mounted in six triple mounts. These mounts had the three breeches too close together and the 23 loaders tended to interfere with one another. This negated the mount's intended high rate of fire against torpedo boats and other smaller craft. A pair of QF 3-inch (76 mm) 20 cwt anti-aircraft guns were fitted abreast of the mainmast on Glorious. She mounted two submerged tubes for 21-inch torpedoes and 10 torpedoes were carried.

First World War
Glorious' keel was laid down on 1 May 1915 by Harland and Wolff at their Belfast shipyard. She was launched on 20 April 1916 and completed on 14 October at a cost of £1,967,223. During her sea trials the following month, her sister Courageous sustained structural damage while running at full speed in a rough head sea and had the damaged areas stiffened shortly afterwards to prevent a recurrence. Glorious did not suffer similar damage and did not receive her stiffening until 1918. Upon commissioning, Courageous served with the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet. After most of the 1st Cruiser Squadron was sunk at the Battle of Jutland, the squadron was re-formed with Courageous and Glorious. Glorious received six twin-tube torpedo mounts in mid-1917: one mount on each side of the mainmast on the upper deck and two mounts on each side of 'Y' turret on the quarterdeck.

On 16 October 1917 the Admiralty received word of German ship movements, possibly indicating some sort of raid. Admiral Beatty, commander of the Grand Fleet, ordered most of his light cruisers and destroyers to sea in an effort to locate the enemy ships. Courageous and Glorious were not initially ordered to sea, but were sent to reinforce the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron patrolling the central part of the North Sea later that day. Two German Brummer-class cruiser light cruisers slipped through the gaps in the British patrols and destroyed a convoy bound for Norway during the morning of 17 October, but the British warships received no word of the engagement until that afternoon. The 1st Cruiser Squadron was ordered to intercept, but was unsuccessful as the German cruisers were faster than expected.

Second Battle of Heligoland Bight
Throughout 1917 the Admiralty was becoming more concerned about German efforts to sweep paths through the British-laid minefields intended to restrict the actions of the High Seas Fleet and German submarines. A preliminary raid on German minesweeping forces on 31 October by light forces destroyed 10 small ships and the Admiralty decided on a larger operation to destroy the minesweepers and their light cruiser escorts. Based on intelligence reports, the Admiralty allocated the 1st Cruiser Squadron on 17 November 1917, with cover provided by the reinforced 1st Battlecruiser Squadron and distant cover by the battleships of the 1st Battle Squadron.

The German ships, four light cruisers of II Scouting Force, eight destroyers, three divisions of minesweepers, eight sperrbrecher (cork-filled trawlers) and two trawlers to mark the swept route, were spotted at 7:30 am, silhouetted by the rising sun. Courageous and the light cruiser HMS Cardiff (D58) opened fire with their forward guns seven minutes later. The Germans responded by laying a smoke screen and this made spotting targets very difficult. The British continued in pursuit, but lost track of most of the smaller ships in the smoke and concentrated fire on the light cruisers as opportunity permitted. One 15-inch shell hit a gun shield of SMS Pillau, but it did not affect her speed. At 8:33 the left-hand gun in Glorious's forward turret was wrecked when a shell detonated inside the gun barrel. At 9:30 the 1st Cruiser Squadron broke off their pursuit to avoid a minefield marked on their maps. The ships turned south, playing no further role in the battle. Glorious required five days of repairs to fix damage caused by premature detonation and her own muzzle blast. She fired 57 15-inch and 213 four-inch shells during the engagement.

Glorious received flying-off platforms on top of her turrets in 1918. A Sopwith Camel was carried on the rear turret and a Sopwith 1½ Strutter on the forward turret. On 5 November 1918, Glorious was anchored off Burntisland in the Firth of Forth together with the seaplane tender HMS Campania (1914) and the battleship HMS Royal Oak (08) when a sudden Force 10 squall caused Campania to drag her anchor and collide first with Royal Oak and then with Glorious. Both Royal Oak and Glorious suffered only minor damage, but Campania was holed by her collision with Royal Oak. Campania′s engine rooms flooded, and she settled by the stern and sank five hours later without loss of life.

Glorious was present at the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet on 21 November 1918. She was placed in reserve at Rosyth, Scotland, on 1 February 1919 and served as a turret drill ship, being also flagship of the rear-admiral commanding the Devonport Reserve between 1921 and 1922.

Conversion
The Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 limited the amount of capital ship tonnage and the Royal Navy was forced to scrap many of its older battleships and battlecruisers. However up to 66000 LT of existing ships could be converted into aircraft carriers, for which the Courageous-class ships' large hulls and high speeds made them ideal candidates. Glorious began her conversion at Rosyth in 1924, and was towed to Devonport where she was completed on 24 February 1930. During the ship's post-conversion sea trials, she reached 29.47 kn. Her 15-inch turrets were placed into storage and later reused during the Second World War for HMS Vanguard (23), the world's last battleship to be built.

Her new design improved on her half-sister HMS Furious (47) which lacked an island and a conventional funnel. All superstructure, guns, torpedo tubes, and fittings down to the main deck were removed. A two-storey hangar, each level 16 ft high and 550 ft long, was built on top of the remaining hull; the upper hangar level opened on to a short flight deck, below and forward of the main flight deck. The lower flying-off deck improved launch and recovery cycle flexibility until heavier fighters requiring longer takeoff rolls made the lower deck obsolete in the 1930s. Two 46 × lifts were installed fore and aft in the flight deck. An island with the bridge, flying-control station, and funnel was added on the starboard side as islands had been found not to contribute significantly to turbulence. By 1939 the ship could carry 34500 impgal of petrol for her aircraft.

Glorious received a dual-purpose armament of sixteen QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mark VIII guns in single mounts. One mount was on each side of the lower flight deck and a pair was on the quarterdeck. The remaining twelve mounts were distributed along the sides of the ship. During her 1935 refit, the ship received three octuple QF two-pounder (40 mm) "pom-pom" mounts, one on each side of the flying-off deck, forward of the 4.7-inch guns, and one behind the island on the flight deck. She also received a single quadruple mount for water-cooled 0.5 in Vickers machineguns for anti-aircraft use.

Glorious recommissioned on 24 February 1930 for service with the Mediterranean Fleet, but was attached to the Home Fleet from March to June 1930. She relieved Courageous in the Mediterranean Fleet in June 1930 and remained there until October 1939. In a fog on 1 April 1931 Glorious rammed the French ocean liner SS Florida (1925) amidships while steaming at 16 knots. The impact crumpled 60 ft of the flying-off deck and killed 1 seaman aboard Glorious and 24 passengers and crew aboard Florida. Glorious was forced to put into Gibraltar to temporary repairs. She had to sail to Malta for permanent repairs which lasted until September 1931. Sometime in the early 1930s, transverse arresting gear was installed. She was refitted at Devonport from July 1934 to July 1935 where she received two hydraulic accelerators (catapults) on her upper flight deck, which was also extended to the rear, her quarterdeck was raised one deck and she received her multiple pom-pom mounts. Glorious participated in the Coronation Fleet Review at Spithead on 20 May 1937 for King George VI before returning to the Mediterranean.

Air group
Glorious could carry up to 48 aircraft; when first recommissioned, she carried Fairey Flycatcher fighters, Blackburn Dart and Blackburn Ripon torpedo bombers, and Fairey IIIF reconnaissance planes of the Fleet Air Arm. From 1933 until Glorious returned to the United Kingdom in April 1940, aside from a period when refitting in the mid-1930s, she carried 802 Squadron which flew a mixture of nine Hawker Nimrod and three Hawker Osprey fighters, until re-equipping with a dozen Gloster Sea Gladiators in May 1939. 812 and 823 Squadrons were embarked for reconnaissance and anti-ship attack missions. They flew the Blackburn Ripon, the Blackburn Baffin and the Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers and as well as Fairey IIIF and Fairey Seal reconnaissance aircraft. When Glorious recommissioned after her refit in 1935, 825 Squadron was embarked, initially with Fairey IIIFs, but the squadron converted to Fairey Swordfish in May 1936.

Second World War
Glorious served briefly with the Mediterranean Fleet for a time after the Second World War broke out. In October 1939, she moved through the Suez Canal to the Indian Ocean where she became part of Force J which was organised to hunt for the GERMAN CRUISER Admiral Graf Spee in the Indian Ocean. It was not successful and Glorious remained in the Indian Ocean until December when she returned to the Mediterranean.

Norwegian Campaign
She was recalled to the Home Fleet in April 1940 to provide air cover for British forces landing in Norway. Eighteen Gloster Gladiators of No. 263 Squadron RAF were flown aboard to be transferred to Norwegian airbases. Eleven Blackburn Skuas of 803 Squadron, plus eighteen Sea Gladiators from 802 and 804 Squadrons were also embarked. Glorious and HMS Ark Royal (91) arrived off central Norway on 24 April where 263 Squadron was flown off and their own aircraft attacked targets in and south of Trondheim before Glorious had to return to Scapa Flow late on 27 April to refuel and embark new aircraft. Glorious's Sea Gladiators provided air cover for the two carriers. They damaged one Heinkel He 111 bomber on a reconnaissance mission. Before departing she transferred four serviceable Skuas to Ark Royal. She returned on 1 May, but had been unable to load many new aircraft because of poor weather. Only a dozen Swordfish of 823 Squadron, three Skuas and one Blackburn Roc managed to be flown aboard. The task force was under heavy air attack by the Luftwaffe all day and was withdrawn that evening. One Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber was shot down after it dropped its bomb by the Sea Gladiators on patrol.

Glorious returned on 18 May with six Supermarine Walrus flying boats of 701 Squadron and 18 Hawker Hurricanes of No. 46 Squadron RAF. The latter aircraft had been loaded aboard by crane. The Walruses were quickly flown off to Harstad, but the airfield at Skånland was not yet ready for the Hurricanes and they were still aboard when Glorious returned to Scapa on 21 May. Glorious came back to the Narvik area on 26 May and the Hurricanes were quickly flown off.

Even this success proved ephemeral and British forces were ordered to withdraw a few days later. The evacuation (Operation Alphabet) began in the north on the night of 3/4 June and Glorious arrived off the coast on 2 June to provide support, although she only carried nine Sea Gladiators of 802 and six Swordfish from 823 Squadrons for self-defence as it was hoped to evacuate the RAF fighters if at all possible. Ten Gladiators of 263 Squadron were flown aboard from their base at Bardufoss during the afternoon of 7 June and the Hurricanes of 46 Squadron were landed without significant problems in the early evening despite having a much higher landing speed than the biplanes. These had been flown off from land bases to keep them from being destroyed in the evacuation after the pilots discovered that a 7 kg sandbag carried in the rear of the Hurricane allowed full brakes to be applied immediately on landing. This was the first time that high-performance monoplanes without tailhooks had landed on an aircraft carrier.

Sinking
The commanding officer of Glorious, Captain Guy D'Oyly-Hughes, was a former submariner who had been executive officer of Courageous for 10 months. He was granted permission to proceed independently to Scapa Flow in the early hours of 8 June to hold a court-martial of his Commander (Air), J. B. Heath, who had refused an order to carry out an attack on shore targets on the grounds that the targets were at best ill-defined and his aircraft were unsuited to the task. Heath had been left behind in Scapa to await trial.

Unknown to the British, the German Navy had launched Operation Juno: the German battleships GERMAN BATTLESHIP Scharnhorst and GERMAN BATTLESHIP Gneisenau, the heavy cruiser GERMAN CRUISER Admiral Hipper and four destroyers were ordered to attack the British base at Harstad and support the German advance towards Narvik. Whilst preparing to attack on 7 June, the German commander realized the British were evacuating Norway and instead of attacking Harstad, he choose to intercept the evacuation convoys on 8 June. During the morning of 8 June some ships were intercepted but no convoy was found. The German force then split up. Admiral Hipper and the four destroyers were sent to Trondheim to refuel and then provide artillery support for the German force (Gruppe Feuerstein) advancing to Narvik.

Scharnhorst and Gneisenau continued to search for convoys in the Norwegian Sea. At 15:45 a lookout at the highest platform on Scharnhorst sighted a dust cloud, and then the mast of Glorious at a distance of 46 km. The German battleships gave chase immediately and at 16:10 the two escorting destroyers, HMS Acasta (H09) and HMS Ardent (H41) were detected as well.

The British spotted the German ships shortly after 16:00 and Ardent was dispatched to investigate. Glorious did not alter course or increase speed. Five Swordfish were ordered to the flight deck and Action Stations were ordered 16:20. No combat air patrol was being flown, no aircraft were ready on the deck for quick take-off and there was no lookout in Glorious's crow's nest. Scharnhorst opened fire on Ardent at 16:27 at a range of 16000 yd, causing the destroyer to withdraw, firing torpedoes and making a smoke screen. Ardent scored one hit with her 4.7-inch guns on Scharnhorst but was hit several times by the German ships' secondary armament and sank at 17:25.

Scharnhorst switched her fire to Glorious at 16:32 and scored her first hit six minutes later on her third salvo, at a range of 24000 m, when one 28.3 cm hit the forward flight deck and burst in the upper hangar, starting a large fire. This hit destroyed two Swordfish being prepared for flight and the hole in the flight deck prevented any other aircraft from taking off. Splinters penetrated a boiler casing and caused a temporary drop in steam pressure. At 16:58 a second shell hit the homing beacon above the bridge and killed or wounded the captain and most of the personnel stationed there. Ardent's smokescreen became effective enough to impair the visibility of the Germans from about 16:58 to 17:20 so they ceased fire on Glorious.

Glorious was hit again in the centre engine room at 17:20 and this caused her to lose speed and commence a slow circle to port. She also developed a list to starboard. The German ships closed to within 16,000 yards and continued to fire at her until 17:40. Glorious sank at 18:10, approximately at 68.63333°N, 3.83333°W, with 43 survivors.

As the German ships approached Glorious, Acasta, which had been trying to maintain the smokescreen, broke through her own smoke and fired two volleys of torpedoes at Scharnhorst. One of these hit the battleship at 17:34 abreast her rear turret and badly damaged her. Acasta also managed one hit from her 4.7-inch guns on Scharnhorst, but was riddled by German gunfire and sank at around 18:20.

Survivors estimated that about 900 men abandoned Glorious. With Scharnhorst damaged by the torpedo hit and unaware that Allied ships were not in contact with Glorious the German force withdrew and did not try to pick up survivors. The Royal Navy meanwhile, knew nothing of the sinking until it was announced on German radio. The Norwegian ship Borgund, on passage to the Faroe Islands, arrived late on 10 June and picked up survivors, eventually delivering 37 alive to Tórshavn of whom two later died. Another Norwegian ship, Svalbard II, also making for the Faeroes, picked up five survivors but was sighted by a German aircraft and forced to return to Norway, where the four still alive became prisoners of war for the next five years. Another survivor from Glorious was rescued by a German seaplane. Therefore, the total of survivors was 40, including one each from Acasta and Ardent. The total killed or missing was 1,207 from Glorious, 160 from Acasta and 152 from Ardent, a total of 1,519.

The sinkings and the failure to mount an effective rescue were embarrassing for the Royal Navy. All ships encountering enemies had been ordered to broadcast a sighting report, and the lack of such a report from Glorious was questioned in the House of Commons. It emerged that the heavy cruiser HMS Devonshire (39) had passed within 30 – of the battle, flying the flag of Vice-Admiral John Cunningham, who was carrying out orders to evacuate the Norwegian royal family to the UK and maintain radio silence. Some survivors from Glorious and Devonshire testified that a sighting report had been correctly sent, and received by Devonshire, but that it had been suppressed by Cunningham, who departed at high speed in accordance with his orders. It was also alleged that there was confusion over the use of wireless telegraphy frequencies on board Glorious which could have contributed to the failure of any other ship or shore-station to receive a sighting report. The absence of normal airborne patrols over Glorious and its destroyers, in conditions of maximum visibility, was named as a contributor to the sinkings.

The circumstances of the sinking were the subject of a debate in the House of Commons on 28 January 1999. After the existence of the Bletchley Park intelligence activities was made public in the 1970s, it was revealed that Naval Section personnel at Bletchley Park predicted a breakout into the Baltic by German warships based on traffic analysis but the RN Operational Intelligence Centre did not agree on the interpretation, and did not inform the Home Fleet.

Memorials
The most prominent memorial for the lost crew of HMS Glorious, HMS Ardent and HMS Acasta is situated in Southsea Common, Portsmouth, overlooking the promenade and is accessible to the public at all times. There are 176 memorials from the 1,531 servicemen lost with HMS Glorious, HMS Ardent and HMS Acasta at the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

For many years the only memorial to the seamen lost in the three ships was a stained-glass window in the church of St Peter Martindale in Cumbria, on the east side of Ullswater. A new memorial plaque dedicated to HMS Glorious and her escort destroyers Ardent and Acasta, was unveiled in St. Nicholas's Church, in HMS Drake, Devonport in 2002. On 8 June 2010, 70 years after the loss of Glorious, Acasta and Ardent, a memorial plaque inscribed in English and Norwegian was unveiled near the Trondenes Historical Centre in Harstad, Norway, the two destroyers' last port of call. A memorial plaque is mounted on a stone plinth next to a memorial tree, in the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, Staffordshire. It can be found in the gardens in location 19-81. On 8 June 2019, a memorial plaque was unveiled in the Belvedere Gardens, Plymouth Hoe, dedicated to all crew members who lost their lives onboard HM Ships Glorious, Ardent and Acasta.

A model of HMS Glorious by model maker Norman A. Ough built for the Royal United Services Museum is now on display in the Fleet Air Arm Museum at RNAS Yeovilton.

title: HMS Glorious


text:
HMS Courageous (50)

HMS Courageous was the lead ship of her class of three battlecruisers built for the Royal Navy in the First World War. Designed to support the Baltic Project championed by First Sea Lord John Fisher, the ship was very lightly armoured and armed with only a few heavy guns. Courageous was completed in late 1916 and spent the war patrolling the North Sea. She participated in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in November 1917 and was present when the German High Seas Fleet surrendered a year later.

Courageous was decommissioned after the war, then rebuilt as an aircraft carrier in the mid-1920s. She could carry 48 aircraft, compared with 36 carried by her half-sister HMS Furious (47) on about the same displacement. After recommissioning she spent most of her career operating off Great Britain and Ireland. She briefly became a training ship, but reverted to her normal role a few months before the start of the Second World War in September 1939. A German U-boat sank Courageous by torpedo later that month, with the loss of more than 500 of her crew.

Origin and construction
In the First World War, Admiral Fisher was prevented from ordering an improved version of the preceding Renown-class battlecruisers by a wartime restriction that banned construction of ships larger than light cruisers in 1915. To obtain ships suitable for the doctrinal roles of battlecruisers, such as scouting for fleets and hunting enemy raiders, he settled on ships with the minimal armour of a light cruiser and the armament of a battlecruiser. He justified their existence by claiming he needed fast, shallow-draught ships for his Baltic Project, a plan to invade Germany via its Baltic coast.

Courageous had an overall length of 786 ft, a beam of 81 ft, and a draught of 25 ft at deep load. She displaced 19180 LT at load and 22560 LT at deep load. Courageous and her sisters were the first large warships in the Royal Navy to have geared steam turbines. To save design time, the installation used in the light cruiser HMS Champion (1915), the first cruiser in the navy with geared turbines, was simply replicated for four turbine sets. The Parsons turbines were powered by eighteen Yarrow small-tube boilers. They were designed to produce a total of 90000 shp at a working pressure of 235 psi. The ship reached an estimated 30.8 kn on sea trials.

The ship's normal design load was 750 LT of fuel oil, but she could carry a maximum of 3160 LT. At full capacity, she could steam for an estimated 6000 nmi at a speed of 20 kn.

Courageous carried four BL 15-inch Mk I guns in two hydraulically powered twin gun turrets, designated 'A' and 'Y' from front to rear. Her secondary armament consisted of eighteen BL 4-inch Mk IX guns mounted in six manually powered mounts. The mount placed three breeches too close together, causing the 23 loaders to get in one another's way, and preventing the intended high rate of fire. A pair of QF 3-inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft guns were fitted abreast the mainmast on Courageous. She mounted two submerged tubes for 21-inch torpedoes and carried 10 torpedoes for them.

First World War
Courageous was laid down on 26 March 1915, launched on 5 February 1916 and completed on 4 November. On her sea trials later that month, she sustained structural damage while running at full speed in a rough head sea; the exact cause is uncertain. The forecastle deck was deeply buckled in three places between the breakwater and the forward turret. The side plating was visibly buckled between the forecastle and upper decks. Water had entered the submerged torpedo room and rivets had sheared in the angle irons securing the deck armour in place. The ship was stiffened with 130 LT of steel in response. As of 23 November 1916, she cost £2,038,225 to build.

Upon commissioning, Courageous was assigned to the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet. She became flagship of the 1st Cruiser Squadron near the end of 1916 when that unit was re-formed after most of its ships had been sunk at the Battle of Jutland in May. The ship was temporarily fitted as a minelayer in April 1917 by the addition of mine rails on her quarterdeck that could hold over 200 mines, but never laid any mines. In mid-1917, she received half a dozen torpedo mounts, each with two tubes: one mount on each side of the mainmast on the upper deck and two mounts on each side of the rear turret on the quarterdeck. On 30 July 1917, Rear-Admiral Trevylyan Napier assumed command of the 1st Cruiser Squadron and was appointed Acting Vice-Admiral Commanding the Light Cruiser Force until he was relieved on 26 October 1918.

On 16 October 1917, the Admiralty received word of German ship movements, possibly indicating a raid. Admiral Beatty, the commander of the Grand Fleet, ordered most of his light cruisers and destroyers to sea in an effort to locate the enemy ships. Courageous and Glorious were not initially included amongst them, but were sent to reinforce the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron patrolling the central part of the North Sea later that day. Two German Brummer-class cruiser light cruisers managed to slip through the gaps between the British patrols and destroy a convoy bound for Norway on the morning of 17 October, but no word was received of the engagement until that afternoon. The 1st Cruiser Squadron was ordered to intercept, but was unsuccessful as the German cruisers were faster than expected.

Second Battle of Heligoland Bight
Throughout 1917 the Admiralty was becoming more concerned about German efforts to sweep paths through the British-laid minefields intended to restrict the actions of the High Seas Fleet and German submarines. A preliminary raid on German minesweeping forces on 31 October by light forces destroyed ten small ships. Based on intelligence reports, the Admiralty allocated the 1st Cruiser Squadron on 17 November 1917, with cover provided by the reinforced 1st Battlecruiser Squadron and distant cover by the battleships of the 1st Battle Squadron, to destroy the minesweepers and their light cruiser escorts.

The German ships—four light cruisers of II Scouting Force, eight destroyers, three divisions of minesweepers, eight Sperrbrechers (cork-filled trawlers) and two other trawlers to mark the swept route—were spotted at 7:30 am. Courageous and the light cruiser HMS Cardiff (D58) opened fire with their forward guns seven minutes later. The Germans responded by laying an effective smoke screen. The British continued in pursuit, but lost track of most of the smaller ships in the smoke and concentrated fire on the light cruisers. Courageous fired 92 fifteen-inch shells and 180 four-inch shells in the battle, and the only damage she received was from her own muzzle blast. One fifteen-inch shell hit a gun shield of the light cruiser SMS Pillau but did not affect her speed. At 9:30 the 1st Cruiser Squadron broke off their pursuit so that they would not enter a minefield marked on their maps; the ships turned south, playing no further role in the battle.

After the battle, the mine fittings on Courageous were removed, and she spent the rest of the war intermittently patrolling the North Sea. In 1918, short take-off platforms were fitted for a Sopwith Camel and a Sopwith 1½ Strutter on both 15 in turrets. The ship was present at the surrender of the German High Seas fleet on 21 November 1918. Courageous was placed in reserve at Rosyth on 1 February 1919 and she again became Napier's flagship as he was appointed Vice-Admiral Commanding the Rosyth Reserve until 1 May, The ship was assigned to the Gunnery School at Portsmouth the following year as a turret drill ship. She became flagship of the Rear-Admiral Commanding the Reserve at Portsmouth in March 1920. Captain Sidney Meyrick became her Flag Captain in 1920. He was relieved by Capt John Casement in August 1921.

Conversion
The Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 severely limited capital ship tonnage, and the Royal Navy was forced to scrap many of its older battleships and battlecruisers. The treaty allowed the conversion of existing ships totalling up to 66000 LT into aircraft carriers, and the Courageous class's combination of a large hull and high speed made these ships ideal candidates. The conversion of Courageous began on 29 June 1924 at Devonport. Her fifteen-inch turrets were placed into storage and reused in the Second World War for HMS Vanguard (23), the Royal Navy's last battleship. The conversion into an aircraft carrier cost £2,025,800.

The ship's new design improved on her half-sister HMS Furious, which lacked an island and a conventional funnel. All superstructure, guns, torpedo tubes, and fittings down to the main deck were removed. A two-storey hangar was built on top of the remaining hull; each level was 16 ft high and 550 ft long. The upper hangar level opened onto a short flying-off deck, below and forward of the main flight deck. The flying-off deck improved launch and recovery cycle flexibility until new fighters requiring longer takeoff rolls made the lower deck obsolete in the 1930s. Two 46 x lifts were installed fore and aft in the flight deck. An island with the bridge, flying control station and funnel was added on the starboard side, since islands had been found not to contribute significantly to turbulence. By 1939 the ship could carry 34500 impgal of petrol for her aircraft.

Courageous received a dual-purpose armament of sixteen QF 4.7-inch Mk VIII guns in single HA Mark XII mounts. Each side of the lower flight deck had a mount, and two were on the quarterdeck. The remaining twelve mounts were distributed along the sides of the ship. In refits in the mid-1930s, Courageous received three quadruple Mk VII mounts for 40 mm 2-pounder "pom-pom" anti-aircraft guns, two of which were transferred from the battleship HMS Royal Sovereign (05). Each side of the flying-off deck had a mount, forward of the 4.7-inch guns, and one was behind the island on the flight deck. She also received four water-cooled .50-calibre Mk III anti-aircraft machine guns in a single quadruple mounting. This was placed in a sponson on the port side aft.

The reconstruction was completed on 21 February 1928, and the ship spent the next several months on trials and training before she was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet to be based at Malta, in which she served from May 1928 to June 1930. In August 1929, the 1929 Palestine riots broke out, and Courageous was ordered to respond. When she arrived off Palestine, her air wing was disembarked to carry out operations to help to suppress the disorder. The ship was relieved from the Mediterranean by Glorious and refitted from June to August 1930. She was assigned to the Atlantic and Home Fleets from 12 August 1930 to December 1938, aside from a temporary attachment to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1936. In the early 1930s, traverse arresting gear was installed and she received two hydraulic aircraft catapults on the upper flight deck before March 1934. Courageous was refitted again between October 1935 and June 1936 with her pom-pom mounts. She was present at the Coronation Fleet Review at Spithead on 20 May 1937 for King George VI. The ship became a training carrier in December 1938 when HMS Ark Royal (91) joined the Home Fleet. She was relieved of that duty by her half-sister Furious in May 1939. Courageous participated in the Portland Fleet Review on 9 August 1939.

Air group
Courageous could carry up to 48 aircraft; following completion of her trials and embarking stores and personnel, she sailed for Spithead on 14 May 1928. The following day, a Blackburn Dart of 463 Flight made the ship's first deck landing. The Dart was followed by the Fairey Flycatchers of 404 and 407 Flights, the Fairey IIIFs of 445 and 446 Flights and the Darts of 463 and 464 Flight. The ship sailed for Malta on 2 June to join the Mediterranean Fleet.

From 1933 to the end of 1938 Courageous carried No. 800 Squadron, which flew a mixture of nine Hawker Nimrod and three Hawker Osprey fighters. 810, 820 and 821 Squadrons were embarked for reconnaissance and anti-ship attack missions in the same period. They flew the Blackburn Baffin, the Blackburn Shark, the Blackburn Ripon and the Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers as well as Fairey Seal reconnaissance aircraft. As a deck landing training carrier, in early 1939 Courageous embarked the Blackburn Skua and Gloster Sea Gladiator fighters of 801 Squadron and the Swordfish torpedo bombers of 811 Squadron, although both of these squadrons were disembarked when the ship was relieved of her training duties in May.

Second World War and sinking
Courageous served with the Home Fleet at the start of World War II with 811 and 822 Squadrons aboard, each squadron equipped with a dozen Fairey Swordfish. In the early days of the war, hunter-killer groups were formed around the fleet's aircraft carriers to find and destroy U-boats. On 31 August 1939 she went to her war station at Portland and embarked the two squadrons of Swordfish. Courageous departed Plymouth on the evening of 3 September 1939 for an anti-submarine patrol in the Western Approaches, escorted by four destroyers. On the evening of 17 September 1939, she was on one such patrol off the coast of Ireland. Two of her four escorting destroyers had been sent to help a merchant ship under attack and all her aircraft had returned from patrols. GS U-29 (1936), commanded by Captain-Lieutenant Otto Schuhart, stalked Courageous for more than two hours. The carrier then turned into the wind to launch her aircraft. This put the ship right across the bow of the submarine, which fired three torpedoes. Two of the torpedoes struck the ship on her port side before any aircraft took off, knocking out all electrical power, and she capsized and sank in 20 minutes with the loss of 519 of her crew, including her captain. The US cargo ship Collinsgworth, Ellerman Lines cargo ship Dido, and Dutch ocean liner SS Veendam (1922) rescued survivors. The two escorting destroyers counterattacked U-29 for four hours, but the submarine escaped.

An earlier unsuccessful attack on Ark Royal by GS U-39 (1938) on 14 September, followed by the sinking of Courageous three days later, prompted the Royal Navy to withdraw its carriers from anti-submarine patrols. Courageous was the first British warship to be sunk by German forces. (The submarine HMS Oxley had been sunk a week earlier by friendly fire from the British submarine HMS Triton (N15).) The commander of the German submarine force, Commodore Karl Dönitz, regarded the sinking of Courageous as "a wonderful success" and it led to widespread jubilation in the Kriegsmarine (German navy). Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, commander of the Kriegsmarine, directed that Schuhart be awarded the Iron Cross First Class and that all other members of the crew receive the Iron Cross Second Class.

title: HMS Courageous (50)


text:
Molossus (bat)

Molossus is a genus of bats. The genus contains ten species with a New World distribution from Mexico in the north to northern Argentina at its most southerly limit. Four of these species have distributions that include various islands in the West Indies such as Puerto Rico or Trinidad.

The genus belongs to a group commonly referred to as free-tailed bats. Its name is from the ancient Molossus breed of shepherd dog.

Systematics
The following species are recognised:

 * Molossus alvarezi
 * Molossus aztecus Saussure, 1860
 * Molossus coibensis Allen, 1904
 * Molossus currentium Thomas, 1901
 * Molossus molossus (Pallas, 1766)
 * Molossus pretiosus Miller, 1902
 * Molossus rufus E. Geoffroy, 1805
 * Molossus sinaloae

title: Molossus (bat)


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Jim Bacon (politician)

James Alexander Bacon, AC (15 May 1950 – 20 June 2004) was an Australian politician who served as Premier of Tasmania from 1998 to 2004.

Early life
Bacon was born on 15 May 1950 in Melbourne; his father Frank, a doctor, died when Jim was twelve, leaving him to be raised by his mother Joan. He was educated at Scotch College and later studied politics at Monash University, but did not graduate. At Monash, Bacon was a Maoist student leader. Bacon moved to Western Australia and, after taking a job as a labourer, became an official of the Builders Labourers Federation, which then sent him to Tasmania as an organiser. He later became leader of the trade union movement as Secretary of the Tasmanian Trades & Labor Council.

Bacon joined the Tasmanian branch of the Labor Party, and was elected to the House of Assembly in 1996, representing the Hobart-based seat of Denison. He became leader of the Tasmanian Labor Party in 1997 and narrowly won the state election in 1998, defeating the Liberal Party government under Tony Rundle. It was the first Labor majority since 1982. His government was re-elected in 2002 in a landslide victory for his party.

Premier
Bacon's time in office was said to have been hugely successful, for the state economy as a whole, for his popularity with the people of the state, and also for tourism with the introduction of two more Bass Strait ferries, and beginning a ferry run between Devonport and Sydney. He controversially appointed Richard Butler to the office Governor of Tasmania in 2003. One of the Bacon Government's most notable achievements was to wipe out a $1.6 billion state net debt in only six years. Other achievements included huge increases in tourist numbers, leading social policies, partnerships between state and local governments, turning Tasmanian Government entities, such as Hydro Tasmania, into profit-generating businesses (one of the election-winning strategies was to propose this as opposed to selling them), bringing two Australian Football League (AFL) clubs to play regular home and away matches in Tasmania (Hawthorn Football Club and St Kilda Football Club) and improving the general feeling of confidence in individuals and businesses within the state of Tasmania.

Illness and death
On Friday 13 February 2004, Bacon received the diagnosis that he was suffering from inoperable lung cancer. On 23 February 2004, he announced that he would take a four-week leave of absence from his role of Premier so that he could explore treatment options. After news that he had little time left, Bacon stood aside as Premier in March 2004, to spend whatever time was left to him with his family and friends. Paul Lennon, who had been Deputy Premier, succeeded Bacon to become Tasmania's 42nd Premier.

Bacon, a 35-year smoker, died as a result of his cancer on 20 June 2004, at Calvary Hospital in Hobart. A state funeral was held on 24 June; many state and federal politicians (from both major parties) attended, including Liberal Prime Minister John Howard, all the state Premiers, Opposition Leader Mark Latham, former Opposition Leader Simon Crean, and former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.

Honours and legacy
In 2001 Bacon was awarded an honorary citizenship by Xi Jinping, then governor of Fujian Province. Bacon had first visited China while at university.

He was posthumously awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa from the University of Tasmania in August 2004.

His appointment as a Companion of the Order of Australia was announced in June 2005 but made effective from 13 May 2004. The Order of Australia is not awarded posthumously, but Bacon had been nominated before his death.

The Jim Bacon Foundation was established in his honour to "provide practical support and financial assistance to cancer patients and their families by making funds available to organisations that offer cancer treatment and palliative care services". The Foundation was absorbed into the Ricky Ponting Foundation in May 2013. The State Government will continue to fund the $30,000 Jim Bacon Memorial Scholarship at the University of Tasmania.

Personal
Jim Bacon had four sisters: Jenny, Wendy, Janet and Mary.

Bacon had a twenty-year partnership with Lynnette Francis, and they had two sons, Mark and Scott. Scott Bacon was elected to the Tasmanian House of Assembly at the 2010 state election.

Later Bacon married Honey Hogan, who had been a croupier and the public face of Australia's first casino: Wrest Point Hotel Casino when it opened in 1973. That marriage gave him a stepson, Shane.

title: Jim Bacon (politician)


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List of Sudbury schools

Sudbury schools practice a form of schooling in which students individually decide what to do with their time, and learn as a by-product of ordinary experience rather than through classes or a standard curriculum. Students have complete responsibility for their own education and the school is run by a direct democracy in which students and staff have an equal vote.

The 'Sudbury' name refers to Sudbury Valley School, founded in 1968 in Framingham, Massachusetts. The Sudbury Valley School has been the inspiration for numerous schools many of which refer to themselves as 'Sudbury schools.'

The Sudbury Valley School formally rejects the idea that there can be an official definition or official list of Sudbury schools and in 2016 ended its earlier practice of linking to other schools which claimed to operate in a manner similar to them. Daniel Greenberg, one of the founders of the Sudbury Valley School has written that there are two things that distinguish a Sudbury Model school: everyone is treated equally and there is no authority other than that granted by the consent of the school community.

Germany

 * Neue Schule Hamburg, Hamburg

United Kingdom

 * East Kent Sudbury School, Dover

United States

 * The Circle School, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
 * The Clearwater School, Bothell, Washington
 * Fairhaven School, Upper Marlboro, Maryland
 * The Highland School, Ellenboro, West Virginia
 * Philadelphia Free School, Philadelphia
 * Sudbury Valley School, Framingham, Massachusetts
 * Three Rivers Village School, Pittsburgh

title: List of Sudbury schools


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Superseded theories in science

This list includes well-known general theories in science and pre-scientific natural philosophy and natural history that have since been superseded by other scientific theories. Many discarded explanations were once supported by a scientific consensus, but replaced after more empirical information became available that identified flaws and prompted new theories which better explain the available data. Pre-modern explanations originated before the scientific method, with varying degrees of empirical support. Similarly, this list also includes (although much rarer) superseded well-known general mathematical results.

Some scientific theories are discarded in their entirety, such as the replacement of the phlogiston theory by energy and thermodynamics. Some theories known to be incomplete or in some ways incorrect are still used. For example, Newtonian classical mechanics is accurate enough for practical calculations at everyday distances and velocities, and it is still taught in schools. The more complicated relativistic mechanics must be used for long distances and velocities nearing the speed of light, and quantum mechanics for very small distances and objects.

Some aspects of discarded theories are reused in modern explanations. For example, miasma theory proposed that all diseases were transmitted by "bad air". The modern germ theory of disease has found that diseases are caused by microorganisms, which can be transmitted by a variety of routes, including touching a contaminated object, blood, and contaminated water. Malaria was discovered to be a mosquito-borne disease, explaining why avoiding the "bad air" near swamps prevented it. Increasing ventilation of fresh air, one of the remedies proposed by miasma theory, does remain useful in some circumstances to expel germs spread by airborne transmission, such as SARS-CoV-2.

Some theories originate in, or are perpetuated by, pseudoscience, which claims to be both scientific and factual, but fails to follow the scientific method. Scientific theories are testable and make falsifiable predictions. Thus, it can be a mark of good science if a discipline has a growing list of superseded theories, and conversely, a lack of superseded theories can indicate problems in following the use of the scientific method. Fringe science includes theories that are not currently supported by a consensus in the mainstream scientific community, either because they never had sufficient empirical support, because they were previously mainstream but later disproven, or because they are preliminary theories also known as protoscience which go on to become mainstream after empirical confirmation. Some theories, such as Lysenkoism, race science or female hysteria have been generated for political rather than empirical reasons and promoted by force.

Biology

 * Spontaneous generation – a principle regarding the spontaneous generation of complex life from inanimate matter, which held that this process was a commonplace and everyday occurrence, as distinguished from univocal generation, or reproduction from parent(s). Falsified by an experiment by Louis Pasteur: where apparently spontaneous generation of microorganisms occurred, it did not happen on repeating the process without access to unfiltered air; on then opening the apparatus to the atmosphere, bacterial growth started.
 * Transmutation of species, Lamarckism, inheritance of acquired characteristics, Lysenkoism – first theories of evolution. Not supported by experiment, and rendered obsolete by Darwinian evolution and Mendelian genetics, combined in the modern synthesis which finds that genes in the form of DNA are the primary way parental characteristics are passed to descendants. Discoveries in epigenetics have shown that in some very limited ways, the life experiences of organisms can affect the development of their children.
 * Vitalism – the theory that living things are alive because of some "vital force" independent of matter, as opposed to because of some appropriate assembly of matter. It was gradually discredited by the rise of organic chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology, fields that failed to discover any "vital force." Friedrich Wöhler's synthesis of urea from ammonium cyanate was only one step in a long road, not a great refutation.
 * Maternal impression – the theory that the mother's thoughts created birth defects. No experimental support (a notion rather than a theory), and rendered obsolete by genetic theory (see also fetal origins of adult disease, genomic imprinting).
 * Preformationism – the theory that all organisms have existed since the beginning of life, and that gametes contain a miniature but complete preformed individual, and in the case of humans, a homunculus. No support when microscopy became available. Rendered obsolete by cytology, discovery of DNA, and atomic theory.
 * Recapitulation theory – the theory that "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny". See Baer's laws of embryology.
 * Telegony – the theory that an offspring can inherit characteristics from a previous mate of its mother's as well as its actual parents, often associated with racism.
 * Out of Asia theory of human origin – The majority view is of a recent African origin of modern humans, although a multiregional origin of modern humans hypothesis has much support (which incorporates past evidence of Asian origins).
 * Scientific racism – the theory that humanity consists of physically discrete superior or inferior races. Rendered obsolete by Human evolutionary genetics and modern anthropology.
 * Mendelian genetics, classical genetics, Boveri–Sutton chromosome theory – first genetic theories. Not invalidated as such, but subsumed into molecular genetics.
 * Germ line theory, explained immunoglobulin diversity by proposing that each antibody was encoded in a separate germline gene.

Chemistry

 * Energeticism – a theory that attempted to reinterpret all chemistry in terms of energy, rejecting the concept of atoms.
 * Caloric theory – the theory that a self-repelling fluid called "caloric" was the substance of heat. Rendered obsolete by the mechanical theory of heat. Origin of the calorie's name, a unit of energy still used for nutrition in some countries.
 * Classical elements – All matter was once thought composed of various combinations of classical elements (most famously air, earth, fire, and water). Antoine Lavoisier finally refuted this in his 1789 publication, Elements of Chemistry, which contained the first modern list of chemical elements.
 * Electrochemical dualism – the theory that all molecules are salts composed of basic and acidic oxides
 * Phlogiston theory – The theory that combustible goods contain a substance called "phlogiston" that entered air during combustion. Replaced by Lavoisier's work on oxidation.
 * Point 2 of Dalton's Atomic Theory was rendered obsolete by discovery of isotopes, and point 3 by discovery of subatomic particles and nuclear reactions.
 * Radical theory – the theory that organic compounds exist as combinations of radicals that can be exchanged in chemical reactions just as chemical elements can be interchanged in inorganic compounds.
 * Vitalism – See section on Biology.
 * Nascent state refers to the form of a chemical element (or sometimes compound) in the instance of their liberation or formation. Often encountered are atomic oxygen (Onasc) and nascent hydrogen (Hnasc), and chlorine (Clnasc) or bromine (Brnasc).
 * Polywater, a hypothesized polymer form of water, the properties of which actually arose from contaminants such as sweat

Physics

 * Emission theory of vision – the belief that vision is caused by rays emanating from the eyes was superseded by the intro-mission approach and more complex theories of vision.
 * Aristotelian physics – superseded by Newtonian physics.
 * Ptolemy's law of refraction, replaced by Snell's law.
 * Luminiferous aether – failed to be detected by the sufficiently sensitive Michelson–Morley experiment, made obsolete by Einstein's work.
 * Caloric theory – Lavoisier's successor to phlogiston, discredited by Rumford's and Joule's work.
 * Contact tension – a theory on the source of electricity.
 * Vis viva – Gottfried Leibniz's elementary and limited early formulation of the principle of conservation of energy.
 * "Purely electrostatic" theories of the generation of voltage differences.
 * Emitter theory – another now-obsolete theory of light propagation.
 * – the original theory by Alessandro Volta misunderstood the active agent of a voltaic cell to be a new type of force acting on the charges generated merely from contact of the electrodes. Michael Faraday later correctly explained the active agent was chemical reactions.
 * Balance of nature – superseded by catastrophe theory and chaos theory.
 * Progression of atomic theory
 * Democritus, the originator of atomic theory, held that everything is composed of atoms that are indestructible. His claim that atoms are indestructible is not the reason it is superseded—as it was later scientists who identified the concept of atoms with particles, which later science showed are destructible. Democritus' theory is superseded because of his position that several kinds of atoms explain pure materials like water or iron, and characteristics that science now identifies with molecules rather than with indestructible primary particles. Democritus also held that between atoms, an empty space of a different nature than atoms allowed atoms to move. This view on space and matter persisted until Einstein described spacetime as being relative and connected to matter.
 * John Dalton's model of the atom, which held that atoms are indivisible and indestructible (superseded by nuclear physics) and that all atoms of a given element are identical in mass (superseded by discovery of atomic isotopes).
 * Plum pudding model of the atom—assuming the protons and electrons were mixed together in a single mass
 * Rutherford model of the atom with an impenetrable nucleus orbited by electrons
 * Bohr model with quantized orbits
 * Electron cloud model following the development of quantum mechanics in 1925 and the eventual atomic orbital models derived from the quantum mechanical solution to the hydrogen atom

Astronomy and cosmology

 * Ptolemaic system – superseded by Nicolaus Copernicus' heliocentric model.
 * Geocentric universe – superseded by Copernicus
 * Copernican system - superseded by Tychonic system
 * Heliocentric universe – made obsolete by discovery of the structure of the Milky Way and the redshift of most galaxies. Heliocentrism only applies to the selected Solar System, and only approximately, since the Sun's center is not at the Solar System's center of mass. Superseded by barycentric coordinates.
 * Aristotelian Dynamics of the celestial spheres superseded by the Elliptic orbit and Kepler's laws of planetary motion
 * Tychonic system – superseded by Newton's laws of motion
 * Luminiferous aether theory
 * Static Universe theory
 * Steady state theory, a model developed by Hermann Bondi, Thomas Gold, and Fred Hoyle whereby the expanding universe was in a steady state, and had no beginning. It was a competitor of the Big Bang model until evidence supporting the Big Bang and falsifying the steady state was found.

Geography and climate

 * Buenaventura River
 * Flat Earth theory, generally known to be false among educated people in various ancient and medieval societies
 * Terra Australis, which technically is Antarctica, but the original idea was based on an unproven belief that land in the Northern hemisphere must have a Southern counterpart for balance.
 * Hollow Earth theory
 * The Open Polar Sea, an ice-free sea once supposed to surround the North Pole
 * Rain follows the plow – the theory that human settlement increases rainfall in arid regions (only true to the extent that crop fields evapotranspirate more than barren wilderness)
 * Island of California – the theory that California was not part of mainland North America but rather a large island
 * Inland sea of Australia
 * Pre-modern Environmental determinism (as explanations for moral behavior, as opposed to modern theories such as factor endowments, state formation, and theories of the social effects of global warming)
 * Climatic determinism
 * Topographic determinism
 * Moral geography
 * Cultural acclimatization
 * Global cooling
 * Drainage divides as always being made up by hills and mountains.
 * Ancient and medieval concepts surrounding the antipodes, including the related theories of antichthones and the alleged existence of a torrid zone

Geology

 * Abiogenic petroleum origin – While some petroleum or natural gas is almost certainly abiogenic, the vast majority has origins as living organisms
 * Catastrophism was largely replaced by uniformitarianism and neocatastrophism
 * Cryptoexplosion craters, now discarded in favour of impact craters and ordinary volcanism.
 * Flood geology replaced by modern geology and stratigraphy
 * Neptunism replaced by plutonism and volcanism
 * Granitization, a discredited alternative to a magmatic origin of granites
 * Monoglaciation, the idea that the Earth had a single ice age, replaced by polyglaciation, the idea that the Earth has gone through several periods of widespread ice cover.
 * Oscillation theory of land-level rise and subsidence during deglaciation
 * The following were superseded by plate tectonics:
 * Elevation crater theory
 * Expanding Earth theory (superseded by subduction)
 * Contracting Earth
 * Geosyncline theory
 * Haarman's Oscillation theory
 * Various lost landmasses including Lemuria

Psychology

 * Pure behaviorist explanations for language acquisition in infancy, falsified by the study of cognitive adaptations for language.
 * Psychomotor patterning, a pseudoscientific approach to the treatment of intellectual disabilities, brain injury, learning disabilities, and other cognitive diseases.

Medicine

 * Theory of the four bodily humours (see also Four temperaments)
 * Heroic medicine – a therapeutic method derived from the belief in bodily humour imbalances as the cause of ailments.
 * Miasma theory of disease – the theory that diseases are caused by "bad air". No experimental support, and rendered obsolete by the germ theory of disease.
 * Phrenology – a theory of highly localised brain function popular in 19th century medicine.
 * Homeopathy – a theory according to which a disease can be cured by infinitesimal doses of the substance that caused it
 * Eclectic medicine – transformed into alternative medicine, and is no longer considered a scientific theory
 * Physiognomy, related to phrenology, held that inner character was strongly correlated with physical appearance
 * Tooth worm, an erroneous theory of the cause of dental caries, periodontitis, and toothaches

Obsolete branches of enquiry

 * Alchemy, which led to the development of chemistry
 * Astrology, which led to the development of astronomy
 * Phrenology, a pseudoscience
 * Numerology, a pseudoscience

Theories now considered incomplete
These theories that are no longer considered the most complete representation of reality but remain useful in particular domains or under certain conditions. For some theories, a more complete model is known, but for practical use, the coarser approximation provides good results with much less calculation.
 * Newtonian mechanics was extended by the theory of relativity and by quantum mechanics. Relativistic corrections to Newtonian mechanics are immeasurably small at velocities not approaching the speed of light, and quantum corrections are usually negligible at atomic or larger scales; Newtonian mechanics is totally satisfactory in engineering and physics under most circumstances. The anomalous perihelion precession of Mercury was the first observational evidence that relativity was a more accurate model than Newtonian gravity.
 * Classical electrodynamics is a very close approximation to quantum electrodynamics except at very small scales and low field strengths.
 * The Bohr model of the atom was extended by the quantum mechanical model of the atom.
 * The formula known as Newton's sine-square law of air resistance for the force of a fluid on a body was not actually formulated by Newton but by others using a method of calculation used by Newton; it has been found incorrect and not useful except for high-speed hypersonic flow.
 * The once-popular cycle of erosion is now considered one of many possibilities for landscape evolution.
 * The theory of continental drift was incorporated into and improved upon by plate tectonics.
 * Rational choice theory as a model of human behavior.

Lists

 * List of common misconceptions, including those about scientific subjects
 * List of discredited substances
 * List of experiments
 * List of topics characterized as pseudoscience
 * List of incorrect mathematical proofs

title: Superseded theories in science


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Irish Statute Book

The Irish Statute Book, also known as the electronic Irish Statute Book (eISB), is a database produced by the Office of the Attorney General of Ireland. It contains copies of Acts of the Oireachtas and statutory instruments. It also contains a Legislation Directory which includes chronological tables of pre-1922 legislation. It is published on a website (irishstatutebook.ie) and was formerly published on CD-ROM.

In 2001, the Irish Law Times said that, whilst the Attorney General's staff deserved to be congratulated for the Irish Statute Book, the CD-ROM version contained a "significant number of errors".

title: Irish Statute Book