Royal Sovereign-class battleship
.jpg) The high-freeboard Royal Sovereign underway in a moderate sea
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Royal Sovereign class |
| Operators |  Royal Navy |
| Preceded by | Trafalgar class |
| Succeeded by | Centurion class |
| Subclasses | Hood |
| Built | 1889–1894 |
| In commission | 1892–1915 |
| Completed | 8 |
| Retired | 2 |
| Scrapped | 6 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Pre-dreadnought battleship |
| Displacement | 14,150 long tons (14,380 t) (normal) |
| Length | 380 ft (115.8 m) (pp) |
| Beam | 75 ft (22.9 m) |
| Draught | 27 ft 6 in (8.4 m) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 2 shafts; 2 Triple-expansion steam engines |
| Speed | 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph) |
| Range | 4,720 nmi (8,740 km; 5,430 mi) @ 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement | 670–692 |
| Armament |
|
| Armour |
|
The Royal Sovereign class was a group of eight
By about 1905–1907, they were considered obsolete and were reduced to
Background
By the late 1880s pressure on the government to modernise and expand the Royal Navy was building. A war scare with Russia in 1885 during the
Preliminary work on what would become the Royal Sovereigns began in 1888 and the
Design and description
The ships
Originally, the class was intended to be equipped with a new wire wound, 40 caliber long 12 inch gun. However the ship was instead fitted with 13.5 inch guns, similar to the ones found on the "Admirals" series of ships, as the board required 4 of the heaviest guns available, on the ship.[5]
Those ships fitted with barbettes had a freeboard of 19 feet 6 inches (5.9 m) (about 90% of modern guidelines), provided by the addition of a complete extra deck, which improved their performance in heavy seas.[6] To reduce their topweight, White gave them a significant amount of tumblehome.[7] Hood's freeboard, however, was only 11 feet 3 inches (3.4 m), which meant that she was very wet and lost speed rapidly as wave height increased. She was the last British battleship with the heavy, old-style, turrets and all future British battleships were of a high-freeboard design and had their main armament in barbettes, although the adoption of armoured, rotating gunhouses over the barbettes gradually led to them being called "turrets" as well.[8]
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Another issue with Hood was that the
The Royal Sovereigns were powered by a pair of three-cylinder, vertical
Armament and armour
A new and more powerful 12-inch (305 mm) gun was preferred by the Board, but it was still under development, so the 32-calibre BL 13.5-inch (343 mm) 67-long-ton (68 t) gun used in the preceding classes was chosen.[12] The four guns were mounted in two twin-gun, pear-shaped barbettes or circular turrets, one forward and one aft of the superstructure. The barbettes were open, without hoods or gun shields, and the guns were fully exposed. The ammunition hoists were in the apex of the barbette and the guns had to return to the fore-and-aft position to be reloaded.[7] The 1,250-pound (570 kg) shells fired by these guns were credited with the ability to penetrate 28 inches (711 mm) of wrought iron at 1,000 yards (910 m), using a charge of 630 pounds (290 kg) of smokeless brown cocoa (SBC).[13] At maximum elevation of +13.5°, the guns had a range of around 11,950 yards (10,930 m) with SBC; later a charge of 187 pounds (85 kg) of cordite was substituted for the SBC which extended the range to about 12,620 yards (11,540 m).[14] The ships carried 80 rounds for each gun.[12]
The
The Royal Sovereigns' armour scheme was similar to that of the Trafalgars, as the waterline
The barbettes and gun turrets were protected by compound armour, ranging in thickness from 16 to 17 inches (406 to 432 mm) and the casemates for the main deck 6-inch guns had a thickness equal to their diameter. The ammunition hoists to the main deck secondary guns were 2 inches (51 mm) thick while those for the upper deck guns were twice that. The submerged armour deck was 3 inches thick amidships and reduced to 2.5 inches (64 mm) towards the ends of the ship; the forward end curved downwards to reinforce the plough-shaped ram. The walls of the forward conning tower were 12–14 inches (305–356 mm) thick and the communications tube that ran down to the armour deck was 8 inches (203 mm) in thickness. The aft conning tower was protected by 3-inch plates, as was its communication tube. Between 1902 and 1904, the thin gun shields protecting the upper deck 6-inch guns were replaced by armoured casemates in all the ships except Hood, whose lack of stability prevented the addition of such weights high in the ship.[19]
Modifications
Bilge keels were fitted in 1894–1895 to all ships that lacked them. The three-pounder guns in the upper
After the start of the First World War, Revenge was modified for coast bombardment duties. To extend the range of her guns,[23] they were relined down to 12 inches (305 mm). The following year, she had anti-torpedo bulges fitted.[24]
Ships
| Ship | Builder | Laid down[25]
|
Launched[25] | Completed[25] | Cost (including armament)[26] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Sovereign | Portsmouth Dockyard
|
30 September 1889 | 26 February 1891 | May 1892 | £913,986 |
| Empress of India | Pembroke Dockyard | 9 July 1889 | 7 May 1891 | 11 September 1893 | £912,162 |
| Repulse | 1 January 1890 | 27 February 1892 | 25 April 1894 | £915,302 | |
| Hood | Chatham Dockyard | 12 August 1889 | 30 July 1891 | May 1893 | £926,396 |
| Ramillies | J & G Thomson, Clydebank
|
11 August 1890 | 1 March 1892 | 17 October 1893 | £980,895 |
| Resolution | Palmers, Jarrow | 14 June 1890 | 28 May 1892 | 5 December 1893 | £953,817 |
| Revenge | 12 February 1891 | 3 November 1892 | 22 March 1894 | £954,825 | |
| Royal Oak | Cammell Laird, Birkenhead | 29 May 1890 | 5 November 1892 | 12 June 1894 | £977,996 |
Operational history
Royal Sovereign, Repulse, Resolution and Empress of India were initially assigned to the Channel Fleet, with Royal Sovereign serving as the fleet flagship and the latter ship as the flagship of the
Beginning in 1900 those ships deployed in the Mediterranean, except for Hood, began returning home and often served as a
Resolution was the first ship of the class to be placed in reserve in June 1904. Royal Sovereign, Ramillies, Repulse, Revenge, Royal Oak and Empress of India followed in 1905. The latter ship accidentally collided with the submarine HMS A10 the following year. With the exception of Revenge, they all were taken out of service in 1909–1912 and Empress of India was sunk as a target ship in 1913. Royal Sovereign and Ramillies were sold for scrap in October 1913, having been preceded by Repulse in July 1911 and followed by Royal Oak in January 1914 and Resolution in April.[29]
Hood served most of her active career with the Mediterranean Fleet, where her low freeboard was less of a disadvantage. The ship was briefly placed in reserve in 1900 and became a guard ship the following year. She returned to the Mediterranean at the end of 1901, but only remained there for a year before returning to
Revenge was recommissioned in 1906 as a gunnery training ship until she was paid off in 1913. She was recommissioned the following year, after the start of the First World War, to bombard the coast of Flanders as part of the Dover Patrol, during which she was hit four times, but was not seriously damaged. She had anti-torpedo bulges fitted in early 1915, the first ship to be fitted with them operationally.[31] Later that year the ship was renamed Redoubtable to release her name for use by the new battleship Revenge and was refitted as an accommodation ship by the end of the year. The last surviving member of her class, the ship was sold for scrap in November 1919.[32]
Notes
- ^ Friedman 2018, pp. 220–223, 226–227
- ^ Brown, pp. 115–17
- ^ Brown, pp. 119–22; Burt, pp. 68–70; Roberts, p. 116
- ^ a b c Chesneau & Koleśnik, p. 32
- ^ RA Burt British Battleships 1889–1904
- ^ Brown, p. 124
- ^ a b Parkes, p. 358
- ^ Brown, p. 124; Burt, p. 101
- ^ Brown, pp. 124–25; Burt, pp. 72–73, 75
- ^ Parkes, p. 355
- ^ Burt, pp. 73, 83–84
- ^ a b Burt, pp. 73, 75
- ^ Parkes, pp. 316–17
- ^ Campbell 1981, p. 96
- ^ Brown, p. 123; Burt, pp. 73, 77–78
- ^ Friedman 2011, pp. 87–88
- ^ Brown, p. 123; Parkes, p. 355
- ^ Burt, pp. 79–80, 103
- ^ Burt, pp. 79–80, 85; Parkes, p. 364
- ^ Burt, pp. 85, 87
- ^ Campbell 1982, p. 45
- ^ Parkes, p. 362
- ^ Campbell 1981, pp. 96, 202
- ^ Burt, p. 87
- ^ a b c Silverstone, pp. 229, 239, 260–62, 265
- ^ Parkes, pp. 355, 364
- ^ a b Burt, pp. 90–94, 99–100, 108
- ^ Clowes, pp. 444, 446, 448
- ^ Burt, pp. 90–94, 99–100
- ^ Burt, p. 108
- ^ Burt, pp. 87, 90
- ^ Burt, pp. 94, 99
References
- Brown, David K. (1997). Warrior to Dreadnought: Warship Development 1860–1905. London: Chatham. ISBN 978-1-86176-022-7.
- Burt, R. A. (2013) [1988]. British Battleships 1889–1904. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-065-8.
- Campbell, N. J. M. (1981). "British Naval Guns 1880–1945 Nos. 2 and 3". In Roberts, John (ed.). Warship V. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 96–97, 200–202. ISBN 978-0-85177-244-8.
- Campbell, N. J. M. (1982). "British Naval Guns 1880–1945 No. 5". In Roberts, John (ed.). Warship VI. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 43–45. ISBN 978-0-87021-981-8.
- Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-8317-0302-8.
- Clowes, Sir William Laird. The Royal Navy: A History From the Earliest Times to the Death of Queen Victoria, Volume Seven. London: Chatham Publishing, 1997. ISBN 1-86176-016-7.
- ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
- ISBN 978-1-68247-329-0.
- Friedman, Norman (2011). Naval Weapons of World War One. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-84832-100-7.
- ISBN 1-55750-075-4.
- Roberts, John (1992). "The Pre-Dreadnought Age 1890–1905". In Gardiner, Robert (ed.). Steam, Steel and Shellfire: The Steam Warship 1815–1905. Conway's History of the Ship. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 112–133. ISBN 978-1-55750-774-7.
- Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-88254-979-0.
External links
