Royal Sovereign - class battleship The " Royal Sovereign " class was a class of pre - dreadnought battleship s of the British Royal Navy . The class comprised seven ships built to the same design : HMS " Royal Sovereign " , HMS " Empress of India " , HMS " Ramilles " , HMS " Repulse " , HMS " Resolution " , HMS " Revenge " , and HMS " Royal Oak " , and a half - sister built to a modified design : HMS " Hood " . They and were launched from 1889 to 1894 . The class displaced nearly 2 , 000 long tons more than the preceding " Trafalgar " s . Only one of the ships , the " Revenge " , saw active service in World War I , participating in shore bombardments of the Belgian coastline . " Hood " also lived on to the First World War , but was quickly sunk as a blockship . " Revenge " was scrapped in 1919 , while her sisters were scrapped between 1913 and 1914 . In their day , the " Royal Sovereigns " embodied revolutionary improvements in firepower , armour , and speed , and began the steady evolution of the pre - Dreadnaught battleship to its apex in the King Edward VII - class battleship Background . The ships of the " Royal Sovereign " class were built under the Naval Defence Act 1889 , which provided £21 million for a vast expansion programme . The Act was inspired by rumours of a possible Franco - Russian alliance and by perceived shortcomings in naval forces revealed during manoeuvres the year before . In total , ten battleships , forty - two cruisers , and eighteen other vessels were built — an enormous increase . The Act marks the adoption of the two - power standard , whereby the Royal Navy sought to be as large as the next two major naval powers combined . At the centre of the expansion programme were the " Royal Sovereign " s , the largest and fastest capital ships of their time . The class would be the template of British battleship design for 15 years , until " Dreadnought " , being improved upon by the " Majestic " class ships launched just a few years later . The " Royal Sovereign " s are considered the first of the type of battleship which would become known after the commissioning of " Dreadnought " in 1906 as pre - dreadnought s . Technical characteristics . Design . The " Royal Sovereign " s were designed by the noted warship designer Sir William White . They were much bigger than the " Admiral " , " Victoria " , and " Trafalgar " classes that had preceded them , and when " Royal Sovereign " herself was completed she was the largest warship in the world . At they were also faster than any other battleship afloat . Armament . Although the new guns were preferred there were doubts that they could be built in time and so the 13 . 5 inch ( 343 - mm ) 67 - ton guns used in the preceding Admiral class were chosen . The first seven " Royal Sovereign " s used open barbette s instead of turrets , allowing them to have a freeboard of 19 feet 6 inches ( about 90 % of modern guidelines ) , much higher than in immediately previous classes , improving their performance in heavy seas . The last ship of the class , " Hood " , was equipped with old - style , heavy , circular turrets of the type that first appeared in the 1860s , and consequently had a lower freeboard of only 11 feet 3 inches . She was otherwise virtually identical to her sister ships ( in terms of machinery , protection , and armament ) and therefore provided a useful comparison to them in terms of which was the better design . " Hood " proved too wet for efficient operations in the rough waters of the Atlantic and North Sea , while the high freeboard of her barbette - equipped near - sisters gave them the advantage in those waters . " Hood " was the last British battleship with the old - style turrets , and based on the experience with her and her sisters , all future British battleships were of a high - freeboard design and had their main armament in barbettes , although the adoption of armored , rotating gunhouses over the barbettes gradually led to them being called " turrets " as well , as remains the case today . The secondary armament was an important part of the design and consisted of ten 6 inch ( 152 - mm ) quick - firing guns were provided to counter torpedo boat attacks and were widely spaced on two decks so that a single hit would not disable more than one of them . As well as the weight of the guns , accommodation had to be provided for the 31 men needed to operate each one ( eight manning the gun itself , eight more in each of two magazines and seven in the shell room ) . The guns on the upper deck had only light shields when the class was built but in 1902 and 1903 they were enclosed within casemates . Armour . The ships were heavily armoured with an 8 feet 6 inch high belt 18 inches thick , reducing to 14 inches thick at the ends past the two barbettes , and with a 4 inch thick steel armour belt above . This belt was intended to detonate any lighter shells and was the result of live firing experiments on the old battleship " Resistance " . The armour was backed by deep coal bunkers , the coal providing additional protection and were subdivided to continue to provide buoyancy after being hit . The deck was 3 inches thick , thinning to 2 . 5 inches at the ends and curving down . The intention was that if this were penetrated then the ends could be flooded with little loss of buoyancy . Structure . Their upper decks were planked - over beams without steel deck plating . Seakeeping . The ships rolled excessively when first put into service , the captain of " Resolution " turning back to England on one occasion in rough weather in the Bay of Biscay in December 1893 , but fitting bilge keels and carrying as heavy a coal store as possible ( up to 1 , 400 tonnes ) remedied this fault to a great degree . However , sensationalist reporting of " Resolution " rolling heavily during the 1893 storm gave the ships a nickname , the " " Rolling Ressies " " , which stuck with the ships throughout their lives . Operational history . The ships spent their lives in the routine of the Victorian Royal Navy , participating in annual manoeuvres and occasional fleet review s from their commissioning until the early 1900s . All saw service in home waters and many also served in the Mediterranean , where some saw service in the 1897 – 1898 blockade of Crete . The class generally went into the commissioned reserve around 1905 . In 1906 , the " Royal Sovereign " s , like every other battleship in the world , were made obsolete with the launch of the revolutionary HMS " Dreadnought " , the first all - big - gun battleship . They were consigned to less critical duties for the remainder of their service life , and began to appear on the disposal list in 1909 . Only two ships survived to see the outbreak of war in 1914 , one of them ( " Hood " ) quickly being sunk as a blockship . Only one , " Revenge " ( renamed " Redoubtable " in 1915 ) , saw action in World War I , bombarding the coast of Belgium in 1914 and 1915 before decommissioning . Ships in Class . HMS " Royal Sovereign " . HMS " Royal Sovereign " served in the Channel Fleet ( 1892 – 1897 ) , Mediterranean Fleet ( 1897 – 1902 ) , Home Fleet ( 1902 – 1905 ) , the new Channel Fleet ( 1905 – 1907 ) , and the commissioned reserve ( 1907 – 1909 ) before going into material reserve in 1909 . She was scrapped in 1913 . HMS " Hood " . HMS " Hood " served in the Mediterranean Fleet ( 1893 – 1900 ) and ( 1901 – 1902 ) , Home Fleet ( 1903 – 1904 ) , and commissioned Reserve ( 1905 – 1907 ) , then on subsidiary duties in home waters until decommissioned in 1911 . She was sunk as a blockship at Portland harbour in November 1914 . HMS " Empress of India " . HMS " Empress of India " ( originally to have been named " Renown " ) served in the Channel Fleet ( 1893 – 1897 ) , Mediterranean Fleet ( 1897 – 1901 ) , Home Fleet ( 1902 – 1905 ) , Reserve Fleet ( 1905 – 1907 ) , and the new Home Fleet ( 1907 – 1912 ) , and was sunk as a target in 1913 . HMS " Ramillies " . HMS " Ramilles " served in the Mediterranean Fleet ( 1893 – 1903 ) , Reserve Fleet ( 1903 – 1907 ) , and Home Fleet ( 1907 – 1911 ) , and was scrapped in 1913 . HMS " Repulse " . HMS " Repulse " served in the Channel Fleet ( 1894 – 1902 ) , Mediterranean Fleet ( 1902 – 1903 ) , and Reserve Fleet ( 1905 – 1907 ) , then in subsidiary roles until decommissioned and scrapped in 1911 . HMS " Resolution " . HMS " Resolution " served in the Channel Fleet ( 1893 – 1901 ) , then in various subsidiary and commissioned reserve duties until decommissioned in 1911 and scrapped in 1914 . HMS " Revenge " . HMS " Revenge " served in the Special Flying Squadron in 1896 as its flagship , then in the Mediterranean Fleet ( 1896 – 1900 , which included service as flagship during the blockade of Crete in 1898 ) , then as flagship of the Home Fleet ( 1902 – 1905 ) , in the Channel Fleet in 1905 , and on various duties in the commissioned reserve ( 1905 – 1913 ) . Bombarded the Belgian coast in 1914 and 1915 and was renamed " Redoubtable " in 1915 , then decommissioned and was scrapped in 1919 . HMS " Royal Oak " . HMS " Royal Oak " served in the Special Flying Squadron in 1896 , Mediterranean Fleet ( 1897 – 1902 ) , Home Fleet ( 1903 – 1905 ) , Reserve Fleet ( 1905 – 1907 ) , and the new Home Fleet ( 1907 – 1911 ) , before decommissioning in 1912 and being scrapped in 1914 .