HMS Incomparable

HMS Incomparable was the name given by Admiral John "Jackie" Fisher to a proposal for a very large battlecruiser which was suggested in 1915. The design was intended to mount 20-inch guns, which would have been the largest ever mounted on a warship. Despite research into the concept, it never entered the design stage or came close to being built. Fisher had long been an advocate of improving technology to maintain Britain's naval superiority. At the beginning of the 20th century he had masterminded the introduction of the dreadnought type of battleship and its faster cousin, the battlecruiser. At the start of World War I, Fisher returned to the office of First Sea Lord. Here he oversaw the development of vessels which took the battlecruiser concept to its logical extreme. Favouring an amphibious assault on the Pomeranian coast of Germany, three "large light cruisers" were built. These ships (Courageous-class battlecruisers) were designed to have a relatively shallow draft, but while they mounted large guns, they would have carried less armour than contemporary battlecruisers. The last of these, , was intended to carry only two 18-inch guns, one forward and one aft, far larger and more powerful than the 15-inch weapons that were standard on the and s, and the two s; at the same time her deck and belt armour was at best only 3 inches thick, not really capable of standing up to the guns of even a light cruiser. One of these guns was actually fitted to Furious, the one in the aft position, but was removed after a few months following damage to the ship when it was fired. Incomparable was suggested as the logical conclusion of this trend. By the standards of her time, she would have been a mammoth vessel. Her intended displacement of 48,000 tons dwarfed the newly built s (28,000 tons). No British battleship or battlecruiser would be built of that displacement until , which was completed after World War II. This large hull was intended to accommodate engines capable of immense speed and sufficient fuel to give a prodigious range, coupled with armament and ammunition greater than anything before sent to sea.