HMS Hood was a British Royal Navy pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Sovereign class, though significantly modified from her sisters. Hood was laid down in 1889 at Chatham Dockyard and launched on 30 June 1891. She was designed by the Director of Naval Construction, Sir William White, and was intended to serve as a low-freeboard battleship, which distinguished her fundamentally from the high-freeboard Royal Sovereign sisters. The low freeboard was caused by the use of turrets to mount her main armament. Her sisters all used open topped barbettes. This design choice increased her displacement, so that she sat much lower in the water, making her a smaller target but also far less seaworthy in rough conditions. Hood‘s active service career was relatively uneventful. She served with the Channel Squadron and later the Mediterranean Fleet, but her low-freeboard configuration meant she was of limited strategic utility compared to her more seaworthy sisters. On 4 November 1914, early in the First World War, when she was deliberately sunk as a blockship in the southern entrance of Portland Harbour to protect the anchorage from submarine attack.

HMS Hood was a British Royal Navy pre-dreadnought battleship laid down in 1889 at Chatham Dockyard and launched on 30 June 1891.
www.destinationsjourney.com/historical-m... #RoyalNavy #battleship #HMSHood1891 #maritimehistory #naval #NavalHistory #Navy #Predreadnought #Ship #warship