The battleship H.M.S. Hood in a heavy swell

Immediate predecessor to the ill-fated battlecruiser sunk by the Bismarck in 1941, the first iron capital ship in the fleet to be named Hood was one of the eight "Royal Sovereign" class battleships ordered in 1889. Built at Chatham and laid down in August that year, she was launched in July 1891 and finally completed in May 1893. Displacing 14,150 tons and measuring 380 feet in length with a 75 foot beam, she carried a main armament of 4-13.5in. guns and could make almost 17 knots at full speed. Widely considered "the handsomest and most formidable looking" of the "Royal Sovereigns", she was commissioned on 1st June 1893 and sent immediately to join the Mediterranean Fleet in which she served until 1900. Another short Mediterranean posting (1901-02) followed a refit at Chatham and thereafter she fulfilled various roles in Home Waters until removed from the fighting list in March 1911. Placed in reserve at Portsmouth, she was towed to Portland Roads on the outbreak of the Great War and sunk there as a blockship to protect the harbour on 4th November 1914.