Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 2:53:31-2:55:24

What happened to the Royal Navy's 18-inch guns after Furious

The 18-inch weapons were not spare exports: they moved through wartime monitor service and postwar proof work before being scrapped over several decades.

Coastal ArtilleryHMS FuriousMonitorsNaval GunneryRoyal NavyWeapons Testing
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Question

If a dominion asked for the 18-inch guns associated with HMS Furious, would Britain sell them?

Short answer

Probably not while they were still needed for monitors, trials, and proof work; two were gone by 1933 and the last survived until 1947.

Notes

The guns were not originally created for HMS Furious, so treating them as the ship's spare armament misstates their history. During the First World War they were needed for monitor bombardment work. Afterward the Royal Navy retained them for gun trials and proofing rather than treating them as surplus export pieces. Two had disappeared by 1933, while the last mounting survived until 1947 after also supporting trials connected with a 14-inch gun.