Admiral-class battlecruiser

HMS Hood as she was in 1921
Class overview
Name:	Admiral class
Operators:	Royal Navy
Preceded by:	Courageous class
Succeeded by:	G3 battlecruiser (cancelled)
Built:	1916–20
In service:	1920–41
In commission:	1920–41
Planned:	4
Completed:	1
Cancelled:	3
Lost:	1
General characteristics (as of 20 August 1917)
Type:	Battlecruiser
Displacement:	45,470 long tons (46,200 t) at deep load
Length:	860 ft (262.1 m)
Beam:	104 ft (31.7 m)
Draught:	31 ft 6 in (9.6 m) (at deep load)
Installed power:	144,000 shp (107,000 kW)
Propulsion:	four shafts, Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines, 24 Yarrow boilers
Speed:	31 knots (57 km/h; 36 mph)
Range:	7,500 nautical miles (13,900 km; 8,600 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement:	820
Armament:	4 × 2 – BL 15-inch Mk I guns 16 × 1 – BL 5.5-inch Mk I guns 4 × 1 – QF 4-inch Mk I anti-aircraft guns 10 × 1 – 21-inch torpedo tubes
Armour:	Belt: 5–12 in (127–305 mm) Decks: 1–5 in (25–127 mm) Barbettes: 12 in (305 mm) Turrets: 11–15 in (279–381 mm) Conning tower: 9–11 in (229–279 mm) Torpedo bulkheads: .75–1.5 in (19–38 mm)

The Admiral-class battlecruisers were to have been a class of four British Royal Navy battlecruisers designed near the end of World War I. Their design began as an improved version of the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, but it was recast as a battlecruiser after Admiral John Jellicoe, commander of the Grand Fleet, pointed out that there was no real need for more battleships, but that a number of German battlecruisers had been laid down that were superior to the bulk of the Grand Fleet's battlecruisers and the design was revised to counter these. The class was to have consisted of HMS Hood, Anson, Howe, and Rodney — all names of famous admirals — but the latter three ships were suspended as the material and labour required to complete them was needed for higher-priority merchantmen and escort vessels. Their designs were updated to incorporate the lessons from the Battle of Jutland, but the Admiralty eventually decided that it was better to begin again with a clean-slate design so they were cancelled in 1919. No more battlecruisers would be built due to the arms limitations agreements of the interbellum.

Hood, however, was sufficiently advanced in construction that she was completed in 1920 and immediately became flagship of the Battlecruiser Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet. She served as the flagship of the Special Service Squadron during its round-the-world cruise in 1923-24. Hood was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1936 and spent much of the next few years on Non-Intervention Patrols during the Spanish Civil War, returning to the United Kingdom before the beginning of World War II and the Battlecruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet.