Revenge-class battleship
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Revenge class |
| Operators: | |
| Preceded by: | Queen Elizabeth class |
| Succeeded by: |
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| In commission: | 1916–49 |
| Planned: | 8 |
| Completed: | 5 |
| Cancelled: | 3 (2 re-ordered to different design) |
| Lost: | 1 |
| Retired: | 4 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Battleship |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 624 ft (190 m) |
| Beam: | 88.5 ft (27.0 m) |
| Draught: | 28.6 ft (8.7 m) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) |
| Range: | 5,000 nmi (9,000 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h) |
| Complement: | 997–1,150 |
| Armament: |
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| Armour: | |
The Revenge-class battleships (listed as Royal Sovereign class in several editions of Jane's Fighting Ships, as with the 1919 and 1931 editions, and sometimes also known as the "R" class) were five battleships of the Royal Navy, ordered as World War I loomed, and launched in 1914–16. There were originally to have been eight of the class, but two were later redesigned, becoming the Renown-class battlecruisers, while the other, which was to have been named HMS Resistance, was cancelled.
The ships of the class were slower and smaller than the preceding Queen Elizabeth-class battleships. Despite sometimes being referred to as the "Royal Sovereign class", official documents from World War I clearly state that the class was known as the Revenge class; the confusion apparently even extended to the Grand Fleet's commander, Admiral of the Fleet Jellicoe, as they are mentioned in both fashions in his voluminous The Grand Fleet 1914–1916: Its Creation, Development and Work---as the Revenge class in some places as well as the Royal Sovereign class in others. The ships have also been referred to on occasion as the "R" class.
They were designed to be able to use coal and oil as fuel sources. This was partially due to fears over the total reliance of the Queen Elizabeth class on oil as their fuel source, which was a first for a British class of dreadnought battleships. At that time, oil could be obtained only from overseas sources, while high-quality coal was readily available in the British Isles, and there seemed to be a possibility that oil supplies might not be able to be maintained during wartime, thus placing crippling restrictions on the usefulness of the five Queen Elizabeths. The unusual design of the Revenge class was a response to these concerns. They were also designed to be cheaper than the Queen Elizabeths. This was achieved by reducing their size and using lower power engines—their slim single funnel design makes them easy to distinguish from the Queen Elizabeths, which had twin funnels (or thick trunked funnels after being rebuilt during the interwar years).
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