This week’s postcard is a splendid image of the pre-dreadnought HMS Majestic, a battleship laid down in 1895 that stayed in service until the First World War:

HMS Majestic was 429 feet in length and had a beam of 75 feet, she displaced 16,060 tons and was powered by two three cylinder triple expansion engines with eight coal fired single ended scotch boilers that vented out of two funnels placed side by side behind the bridge:

The bridge sits in front, with two long bridge wings, each with a searchlight at either end:

The ship was armed with four breech loading 12″ Mk VII guns in a pair of turrets, one aft and one forward of the bridge. Secondary armaments were eight 6″ guns and sixteen 12 pounders. Behind the bridge were two large masts, with a pair of fighting tops in each in which Maxim machine guns could be mounted:

HMS Majestic served with various fleets until the outbreak of World War 1 when she was assigned to the Channel Fleet and in 1915 she was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet where she was to take part in the Gallipoli Landings where she bombarded Turkish shore positions. On 27th May 1915 the ship was struck by a torpedo from U21 and a huge explosion ensured the ship sank in 9 minutes, 49 men losing their lives in the sinking.