Royal Sovereign class battleship
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| General Characteristics (original configuration) | 
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| Displacement: | 14,150 tons standard; 15,580 tons full load |
| Length: | 410 ft 6 in (125.12 m) |
| Beam: | Beam: 75 ft 0 in (22.86 m) |
| Draught: | 27 ft 6 in (8.38 m) |
| Propulsion: | two Humphreys vertical triple expansion, eight cylindrical boilers, two shafts |
| Speed: | 17.5 knots |
| Range: | |
| Complement: | 712 |
| Armament: | four 13.5 inch (343 mm), ten 6 inch (200 mm), sixteen 6-pounder, twelve 3-pounder guns, seven 18 inch (460 mm) torpedo tubes (five above water, two underwater) |
| Armour: | Partial 18 inch compound armour belt 8 feet 6 inches deep, with complete 4 inch steel belt above. |
The Royal Sovereign class was an eight-ship class of pre-Dreadnought battleships of the British Royal Navy.
The ships of the Royal Sovereign class were built under the Naval Defence Act of 1889, which provided £21 million for a vast expansion program. The Act was inspired by rumours of a possible Franco-Russian alliance and by perceived shortcomings in naval forces revealed during manoeuvres the year before. In total, ten battleships, forty-two cruisers, and eighteen other vessels were built—an enormous increase. The Act marks the adoption of the two-power standard, whereby the Royal Navy sought to be as large as the next two major naval powers combined.
At the center of the expansion program were the Royal Sovereigns, the largest and fastest capital ships of their time. Like HMS Dreadnought a generation later, this class made all other battleships obsolete. The class would be the template of British battleship design until Dreadnought, being improved upon by the Majestic class ships launched just a few years later.
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Design
The Royal Sovereigns were designed by the noted warship designer Sir William White. They were much bigger than the Admiral, Victoria, and Trafalagar classes that had preceded them, and when Royal Sovereign herself was completed she was the largest warship in the World. At 17.5 knots they were also faster than any other battleship afloat.
They used the same 13.5 inch (343 mm) guns of the Admirals, though the Royal Sovereigns used barbettes instead of turrets, allowing them to have a much higher freeboard than in immediately previous classes, of 19 feet 6 inches (about 90% of modern guidelines), thus making them better seaboats.
The last ship of the class, Hood, was equipped with turrets, and consequently had a lower freeboard of only 11 feet 3 inches.
They were heavily armoured with an 8 feet 6 inch high belt 18 inches thick, reducing to 14 inches thick at the ends past the two barbettes, and with a 4 inch thick steel armour belt above. This belt was intended to detonate any lighter shells and was the result of live firing experiments on the old battleship Resistance. The armour was backed by 10 feet deep coal bunkers, the coal providing additional protection and were subdivided to continue to provide buoyancy after being hit. The deck was 3 inches thick, thinning to 2.5 inches at the ends and curving down. The intention was that if this were penetrated then the ends could be flooded with little loss of buoyancy.
Although the new 12 inch guns were preferred there were doubts that they could be built in time and so the 13.5 inch 67 ton guns used in preceding classes were fitted. The secondary armament was an important part of the design and consisted of ten 6 inch quick firing guns were provided to counter torpedo boat attacks and were widely spaced on two decks so that a single hit would not disable more than one of them. As well as the weight of the guns, accommodation had to be provided for the 31 men needed to operate each one (8 manning the gun itself, 8 more in each of two magazines and seven in the shell room). The 6 inch guns on the upper deck had only light shiElds when the class was built but in 1902-1903 they were enclosed within casemates.
In 1906, the Royal Sovereigns, like every other battleship in the world, were made obsolete with the launch of the revolutionary Dreadnought, the first all-big-gun battleship. They were consigned to less critical duties for the remainder of their service life, only two ships surviving to see the outbreak of war in 1914.
See Revenge class battleships for the class sometimes also called the Royal Sovereign class which were built just before World War I.
Ships
- Royal Sovereign served in a number of fleets of the Royal Navy. Scrapped in 1913.
- Hood served in the Mediterranean, then with the Home Fleet. Sunk as a blockship at Portland harbour in November 1914.
- Empress of India (intended name: Renown) was sunk as a target in 1913.
- Ramillies served in Mediterranean and home waters. Scrapped in 1913.
- Repulse served in the Channel Squadron. Scrapped in 1911.
- Resolution served in the Channel Squadron. Scrapped in 1914.
- Revenge was flagship during the blockade of Crete in 1898. Bombarded the Belgian coast 1914–1915. Renamed Redoubtable in 1915. Scrapped in 1919.
- Royal Oak was part of the Special Flying Squadron, later seeing service in home waters. Scrapped in 1914.
See also
References
- D. K. Brown, Warrior to Dreadnought, Warship Development 1860-1906, ISBN 1840675292Template:Royal Sovereign class battleship