Erebus and Terror were laid down at Harland and Wolff in 1915 and entered service in 1916 after construction periods of roughly ten to eleven months. Their rapid construction answered the wartime demand for ships that could bring battleship-calibre guns close to the coast without the cost of a capital ship. They were deliberately inexpensive monitors built for an urgent shore-bombardment requirement. The class later inspired Douglas Reeman's fictional HMS Saracen, imagined as a third Erebus-class monitor.
Chapter · 0:30-3:10
Erebus and Terror: fast-built monitors
The Erebus-class monitors were rapidly built at Harland and Wolff in 1915-16 as inexpensive, heavily armed ships for coastal operations.