Royal Sovereign-class battleship

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:	1889–94
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:	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:	670–692
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:	Waterline 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: 12–14 in (305–356 mm) Deck: 2.5–3 in (64–76 mm) Gun turrets: 11–17 in (279–432 mm)

The Royal Sovereign class was a group of eight pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the 1890s. The ships spent their careers in the Mediterranean, Home and Channel Fleets, sometimes as flagships, although several were mobilised for service in 1896 with the Flying Squadron when tensions with the German Empire were high.

By about 1905–07, they were considered obsolete and were reduced to reserve. The ships began to be sold off for scrap beginning in 1911, although Empress of India was sunk as a target ship during gunnery trials in 1913. Hood was fitted with the first anti-torpedo bulges to evaluate underwater protection schemes in 1911 before being scuttled as a blockship a few months after the start of the First World War in August 1914. Only Revenge survived to see active service in the war, during which she bombarded the Belgian coastline. Renamed Redoubtable in 1915, she was hulked later that year as an accommodation ship until she was sold for scrap after the war.

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 Panjdeh Incident, various official reports on training exercises and the characteristics of ships, coupled with exposés by influential journalists like W. T. Stead, revealed serious weaknesses in the Navy. The Government responded with the Naval Defence Act 1889, which provided £21.5 million for a vast expansion programme of which the eight ships of the Royal Sovereign class were the centrepiece. The Act also formalised the two-power standard, whereby the Royal Navy sought to be as large as the next two major naval powers combined.