HMS Royal Sovereign (1891)

HMS Royal Sovereign at anchor, about 1897
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Royal Sovereign
Ordered:	Naval Defence Act 1889
Builder:	Portsmouth Dockyard
Laid down:	30 September 1889
Launched:	26 February 1891
Sponsored by:	Queen Victoria
Completed:	May 1892
Commissioned:	31 May 1892
Decommissioned:	9 September 1909
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 7 October 1913
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type:	Royal Sovereign-class predreadnought 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:	11,000 ihp (8,200 kW) 8 cylindrical boilers
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
Armament:	2 × twin BL 13.5-inch (343 mm) guns 10 × single QF 6-inch (152 mm) guns 10 × single QF 6-pdr 2.2 in (57 mm) Hotchkiss guns 12 × single QF 3-pdr 1.9 in (47 mm) Hotchkiss guns 7 × 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour:	Main belt: 14–18 in (356–457 mm) bulkheads: 14–16 in (356–406 mm) Barbettes: 11–17 in (279–432 mm) Casemates: 6 in (152 mm) Conning tower: 14 in (356 mm) Deck: 2.5–3 in (64–76 mm)

HMS Royal Sovereign was the lead ship of the seven ships in her class of pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the 1890s. The ship was commissioned in 1892 and served as the flagship of the Channel Fleet for the next five years. She was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1897 and returned home in 1902, and was briefly assigned as a coast guard ship before she began a lengthy refit in 1903–04. Royal Sovereign was reduced to reserve in 1905 and was taken out of service in 1909. The ship was sold for scrap four years later and subsequently broken up in Italy.

The design of the Royal Sovereign-class ships was derived from that of the Admiral-class ironclad battleships, greatly enlarged to improve seakeeping and to provide space for a secondary armament as in the preceding Trafalgar-class ironclad battleships. The ships displaced 14,150 long tons (14,380 t) at normal load and 15,580 long tons (15,830 t) at deep load. They had a length between perpendiculars of 380 feet (115.8 m) and an overall length of 410 feet 6 inches (125.1 m), a beam of 75 feet (22.9 m), and a draught of 27 feet 6 inches (8.4 m). Their crew consisted of 670 officers and ratings.