HMS Royal Sovereign ( 05 ) HMS " Royal Sovereign " ( pennant number 05 ) was a ( also known as " Royal Sovereign " and R - class ) battleship of the Royal Navy displacing and armed with eight guns in four twin turrets . She was laid down in January 1914 and launched in April 1915 ; she was completed in May 1916 , but was not ready for service in time to participate in the Battle of Jutland at the end of the month . She served with the Grand Fleet for the remainder of the war , but did not see action . In the early 1930s , she was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet and based in Malta . Unlike the s , " Royal Sovereign " and her sisters were not modernised during the interwar period . Only minor alterations to her anti - aircraft battery were effected before the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 . Assigned to the Home Fleet , she was tasked with convoy protection until May 1940 , when she returned to the Mediterranean Fleet . She was present during the Battle of Calabria in July 1940 , but her slow speed prevented her from engaging the Italian battleships . By March 1942 , she was assigned to the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean , but after the Indian Ocean raid by Admiral Nagumo ' s " Kido Butai " , she was withdrawn to eastern Africa to escort convoys . In January 1944 , she returned to Britain , and in May the Royal Navy transferred the ship to the Soviet Navy , where she was renamed " Arkhangelsk " . She then escorted Arctic convoys into Kola until the end of the war . The Soviets returned the ship in 1949 , after which she was broken up for scrap . Description . " Royal Sovereign " was long overall and had a beam of and a draught of . She had a designed displacement of and with a full combat load , she displaced . She was powered by four Parsons steam turbines with steam from eighteen oil - fired boilers . These were rated at and a top speed of . She had a range of at a cruising speed of . The ship was equipped with eight BL 15 - inch Mk I guns in four twin turrets , in superfiring pairs fore and aft of the superstructure , designated ' A ' , ' B ' , ' X ' , and ' Y ' from front to rear . Fourteen BL 6 - inch Mk XII guns were mounted in casemate s along the broadside of the vessel amidships . As built , her anti - aircraft armament consisted of two QF 3 - inch 20 cwt Mk I guns . In August – September 1924 , the 3 - inch guns had been replaced by a pair of QF 4 - inch Mk V guns , and another pair was added during the ship ' s 1927 – 28 refit . These were replaced by eight QF 4 - inch Mk XVI guns in twin turrets during " Royal Sovereign " s 1937 – 38 refit . A pair of eight - barrel 2 - pounder " pom - poms " were added in 1932 abreast the funnel , and two four - barrel " pom - poms " were added in early 1942 atop ' B ' and ' X ' turrets . Ten 20 mm Oerlikon guns were also added in 1941 . Another six were added in 1943 . " Royal Sovereign " was initially equipped with four torpedo tube s submerged on her beam , though the after pair were removed in 1932 . The forward pair were also removed in 1937 – 1938 , during the ship ' s last prewar refit . Fire control . " Royal Sovereign " was completed with two fire - control director s fitted with rangefinder s . One was mounted above the conning tower , protected by an armoured hood , and the other was in the spotting top above the tripod foremast . Each turret was also fitted with a 15 - foot rangefinder . The main armament could be controlled by ' X ' turret as well . The secondary armament was primarily controlled by directors mounted on each side of the compass platform on the foremast once they were fitted in March 1917 . A rangefinder replaced the smaller one originally fitted in ' X ' turret in 1919 . Similarly , another large rangefinder was fitted in ' B ' turret during the ship ' s 1921 – 22 refit . A simple high - angle rangefinder was added above the bridge during that same refit . About 1930 – 31 , a High - Angle Control System ( HACS ) Mk I director replaced the high - angle rangefinder on the spotting top . During the 1932 refit two positions for 2 - pounder " pom - pom " anti - aircraft directors were added on new platforms abreast and below the fire - control director in the spotting top . In the 1937 – 38 refit a HACS Mark III director replaced the Mk I in the spotting top and another was added to the torpedo - control tower aft . By 1942 , a Type 279 air warning radar , a Type 273 surface - search radar , a Type 284 gunnery radar and two Type 285 anti - aircraft gunnery radars were installed . By September 1943 , the Type 284 radar had been replaced by an improved Type 284B and two Type 282 radars had been fitted for the " pom - poms " . Protection . " Royal Sovereign " s armour scheme was based on that of the with a uniform waterline belt thick , unlike the older ship ' s armour that tapered to below the waterline . The armoured belt consisted of face - hardened Krupp cemented armour ( KC ) with its maximum thickness between ' A ' and ' Y ' barbette s and thinned to four to six inches ( 102 to 152 mm ) towards the ship ' s ends , but did not reach either the bow or the stern . Above this was a strake of armour 6 inches thick that extended between ' A ' and ' X ' barbettes . Transverse bulkheads four to six inches thick ran at an angle from the ends of the thickest part of the waterline belt to ' A ' and ' Y ' barbettes . The gun turret s were protected by of KC armour , except for the turret roofs which were thick . The barbettes ranged in thickness from above the upper deck , but were only four to six inches thick below it . The forecastle deck was 1 inch ( 25 mm ) thick , while the upper deck was in thickness . The main deck was 2 inches ( 51 mm ) thick over the magazines and machinery spaces and one inch elsewhere , except for the 2 - inch - thick slope that met the bottom of the main belt . The middle deck was one inch thick over ' Y ' magazine , but increased to two to four inches over the steering machinery . The lower deck armour was forward of ' A ' barbette and ranged in thickness from . The main conning tower had 13 inches of armour on the sides with a roof . The torpedo control tower in the rear superstructure had six inches of armour protecting it . After the Battle of Jutland , of high - tensile steel was added to the main deck over the magazine s and additional anti - flash equipment was added in the magazines . To protect against underwater explosions , the ship was fitted with longitudinal bulkheads 1 to 1 . 5 inches thick that ran from the forward to the rear magazines . During her 1921 refit , " Royal Sovereign " was fitted with an anti - torpedo bulge that ran the length of the ship between the fore and aft barbettes . It was divided into a water - tight empty lower compartment and an upper compartment filled with water - tight " crushing tubes " intended to absorb and distribute the force of an explosion . The space between the tubes was filled with wood and cement . Aircraft . The ship was fitted with flying - off platforms mounted on the roofs of ' B ' and ' X ' turrets in 1918 , from which fighters and reconnaissance aircraft could launch . During her 1932 refit , the platforms were removed from the turrets and a trainable catapult was installed on her quarterdeck , along with a crane to recover a seaplane . The catapult and crane were removed about 1936 . Service history . First World War . " Royal Sovereign " was laid down on 15 January 1914 at the Portsmouth Dockyard . The ship was launched on 29 April 1915 and commissioned in May 1916 . She was still working up during the Battle of Jutland and the end of the month , and so she was not present during the engagement . On 30 May 1916 , three weeks after her commissioning , " Royal Sovereign " was present in Scapa Flow when the fleet commander , Admiral John Jellicoe ordered the fleet to sea . Jellicoe purposely left " Royal Sovereign " in port due to the inexperience of her crew ; as a result , she missed the Battle of Jutland the following day . In the months after the engagement , " Royal Sovereign " was quickly made ready for service with the fleet to further increase the numerical superiority of the Grand Fleet over the German High Seas Fleet . The Grand Fleet sortied on 18 August 1916 to ambush the High Seas Fleet while it advanced into the southern North Sea , but a series of miscommunications and mistakes prevented Jellicoe from reaching the German fleet before it returned to port . Two light cruiser s were sunk by German U - boat s during the operation , prompting Jellicoe to decide to not risk the major units of the fleet south of 55° 30 ' North due to the prevalence of German submarines and mines . The Admiralty concurred and stipulated that the Grand Fleet would not sortie unless the German fleet was attempting an invasion of Britain or there was a strong possibility it could be forced into an engagement under suitable conditions . In April 1918 , the High Seas Fleet again sortied , to attack British convoys to Norway . They enforced strict wireless silence during the operation , which prevented Room 40 cryptanalysts from warning the new commander of the Grand Fleet , Admiral David Beatty . The British only learned of the operation after an accident aboard the battlecruiser forced her to break radio silence to inform the German commander of her condition . Beatty then ordered the Grand Fleet to sea to intercept the Germans , but he was not able to reach the High Seas Fleet before it turned back for Germany . This was the last time " Royal Sovereign " and the rest of the Grand Fleet would go to sea for the remainder of the war . On 21 November 1918 , following the Armistice , the entire Grand Fleet left port to escort the surrendered German fleet into internment at Scapa Flow . Inter - war period . The Royal Marines detachment assigned to " Royal Sovereign " left the ship on 21 June 1919 to conduct exercises . The ship meanwhile went into drydock at Invergordon in September . Post - war demobilisation in 1919 saw some 500 men leave the ship while she was in dock . Upon returning to service in late 1919 , the ship was assigned to the 1st Battle Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet . Conflicts between Greece and the crumbling Ottoman Empire prompted the Royal Navy to deploy a force to the eastern Mediterranean . In April 1920 , " Royal Sovereign " and her sister ship steamed to the region via Malta . While in the Ottoman capital Constantinople , " Royal Sovereign " and the other British warships took on White émigré fleeing the Communist Red Army . Among those refugees aboard " Royal Sovereign " was a princess of the Galitzine family . The 1922 Washington Naval Treaty cut the battleship strength of the Royal Navy from forty ships to fifteen . The remaining active battleships were divided between the Atlantic and Mediterranean Fleet s and conducted joint operations annually . " Royal Sovereign " remained with the Atantic Fleet through 1926 . On 4 October 1927 , the ship was placed in reserve to effect a major refit . Four new rangefinders and eight searchlights were installed . On 15 May 1929 , the refit was finished , and the ship was assigned to the 1st Battle Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet . The squadron consisted of " Royal Sovereign " , her sisters " Resolution " and , and , and based in Malta . By the 1930s , the five ships of the " Queen Elizabeth " class were rotated through extensive modernisation . " Royal Sovereign " and her sisters , however , were smaller and slower than the " Queen Elizabeth " class , and so they were not extensively modernised in the inter - war period . The only changes made were augmentations to their anti - aircraft batteries . Fleet exercises in 1934 were carried out in the Bay of Biscay , followed by a fleet regatta in Navarino Bay off Greece . In 1935 , the ship returned to Britain for the Jubilee Fleet Review for King George V . In August 1935 , " Royal Sovereign " was transferred to the 2nd Battle Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet , where she served as the flagship of Rear Admiral Charles Ramsey . The ship served as a training vessel until 2 June 1937 , when she was again placed in reserve for a major overhaul . This lasted until 18 February 1938 , after which she returned to the 2nd Battle Squadron . In 1939 , King George VI made a state visit to Canada ; " Royal Sovereign " and the rest of the fleet escorted his ship halfway across the Atlantic and met it on the return leg of the voyage . In early 1939 , the Admiralty considered plans to send " Royal Sovereign " and her four sisters to Asia to counter Japanese expansionism . They reasoned that the then established " Singapore strategy " , which called for a fleet to be formed in Britain to be dispatched to confront a Japanese attack was inherently risky due to the long delay . They argued that a dedicated battle fleet would allow for faster reaction . The plan was abandoned , however , because the new s would not begin to enter service until 1941 . In the last weeks of August 1939 , the Royal Navy began to concentrate in wartime bases as tensions with Germany rose . " Royal Sovereign " steamed to Invergordon , where she joined her sisters " Resolution " and , , and the battlecruiser . By 31 August , the force joined , the flagship of Admiral Charles Forbes , the commander of the Home Fleet . Second World War . On 31 August , the day before the German invasion of Poland , " Royal Sovereign " was assigned to a screening force in the Greenland - Iceland - United Kingdom gap to patrol for German merchant ships that might be attempting to reach Germany . At the outset of war in September 1939 , " Royal Sovereign " was assigned to the 2nd Battle Squadron of the Home Fleet . She was assigned to the North Atlantic Escort Force , which was based in Halifax , Nova Scotia , and was tasked with protecting convoys to Britain . Upon returning to Plymouth , she underwent a short refit . In May 1940 , she moved to the Mediterranean Fleet . There she was based in Alexandria with the battleships , " Malaya " , and , under the command of Admiral Andrew Cunningham . On 25 – 27 June , she and her sister ship escorted two convoys from Alexandria to Malta . On 28 June , aerial reconnaissance located Italian destroyer s off Zakynthos ; Admiral John Tovey took the 7th Cruiser Squadron . " Royal Sovereign " was left behind due to her slow speed . Cunningham spit his fleet into three groups ; " Royal Sovereign " and " Malaya " were the core of Group C . She was present at the Battle of Calabria on 18 July , but her slow speed prevented her from engaging the Italian battleships . " Warspite " bore the brunt of the action , as " Royal Sovereign " and " Malaya " lagged behind . In mid - August 1940 , while steaming in the Red Sea , " Royal Sovereign " was unsuccessfully attacked by the . Later that month , she returned to Atlantic convoy duties . These lasted until August 1941 , when periodic maintenance was effected in Norfolk , Virginia . The Admiralty decided in May 1941 to deploy a powerful fleet to be based in Singapore to counter any Japanese attempt to invade Western colonies in Southeast Asia . " Royal Sovereign " and her sisters " Revenge " , " Ramillies " , and " Resolution " were assigned to the force . The unit was to have been assembled in Singapore by March 1942 , though " Royal Sovereign " reached the theatre earlier . At the beginning of March 1942 , " Royal Sovereign " , the heavy cruiser , and several smaller vessels escorted the convoy SU . 1 of twelve troopship s transporting 10 , 090 soldiers . The convoy departed Colombo on 1 March , bound for Australia . The convoy reached Fremantle without incident on 15 March . By the end of March 1942 , the Eastern Fleet had been formed , under the command of Admiral James Somerville . The fleet was centred on a pair of fleet aircraft carriers , the elderly carrier , and five battleships , four of which were " Royal Sovereign " and her sisters ; the fifth was " Warspite " . The fleet also included seven cruisers and sixteen destroyers . Despite the numerical strength of the Eastern Fleet , many of its units , including the four " Revenge " - class battleships , were no longer front - line warships . Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo ' s powerful " Kido Butai " , composed of six carriers and four fast battleships , was significantly stronger than Somerville ' s Eastern Fleet . As a result , only the modernised " Warspite " could operate with the two fleet carriers ; " Royal Sovereign " , her three sisters , and " Hermes " were kept away from combat to escort convoys in the Indian Ocean . In late March , the code - breakers at the Far East Combined Bureau , a branch of Bletchley Park , informed Somerville that the Japanese were planning a raid into the Indian Ocean to attack Colombo and Trincomalee and destroy his fleet . He therefore divided his fleet into two groups : Force A , which consisted of the two fleet carriers , " Warspite " and four cruisers , and Force B , centred on " Royal Sovereign " and her sisters and the carrier " Hermes " . He intended to ambush Nagumo ' s fleet in a night action , the only method by which he thought he could achieve a victory . After three days of searching for the Japanese fleet without success , Somerville returned to Addu Atoll to refuel . While refuelling his ships , Somerville received a report that the Japanese fleet was approaching Colombo , which they attacked the following day , on 5 April , followed by attacks on Trincomalee on 9 April . Following the raid in April 1942 , Somerville withdrew " Royal Sovereign " and her three sisters to Mombasa , where they could secure the shipping routes in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf . " Royal Sovereign " and her sisters departed from Addu Atoll early on the morning on 9 April , bound for Mombasa . Here they remained stationed until September 1943 , with the exception of another long period in the dockyard in Philadelphia in late 1942 . While " Royal Sovereign " was moored in Philadelphia , the American light cruiser , a badly - damaged veteran of the Battle of Cape Esperance , shared a pier with her . During the refit , the ship ' s deck armour was increased by and four of her guns were removed . " Royal Sovereign " was sent back to the United States for a major overhaul in Philadelphia , from March to September 1943 . She then returned to the Indian Ocean to resume her patrol duties . In January 1944 , she left the Indian Ocean , bound for Britain . Service with the Soviet Navy . After returning to Britain , " Royal Sovereign " was sent to the naval base in Scapa Flow . On 30 May 1944 she was transferred on loan to the Soviet Navy as in lieu of war reparations from Italy . The ship left Britain on 17 August 1944 as part of the escort for Convoy JW 59 , which contained thirty - three merchant vessels . Six days later , while still en route , the convoy was attacked by the U - boat . The submarine ' s captain incorrectly reported hits on " Arkhangelsk " and a destroyer , though his torpedoes had exploded prematurely . Under the impression that they had crippled the battleship , the Germans launched several submarine attacks on the ship while she was moored in Kola . Anti - torpedo nets ensured that the attacks failed , however . The Germans then planned to use six " Biber " midget submarines to attack the ship , but mechanical difficulties eventually forced the cancellation of the plan . Regardless , " Arkhangelsk " had already departed Kola to patrol the White Sea by the time the " Biber " s would have arrived . A Soviet crew commissioned the ship on 29 August 1944 at Polyarny . " Arkhangelsk " was the largest ship in the Soviet fleet during the war . While in Soviet service , she was the flagship of Admiral Gordey Levchenko and was tasked with meeting Allied convoys in the Arctic Ocean and escort them into Kola . " Arkhangelsk " ran aground in the White Sea in late 1947 ; the extent of damage , if any , is unknown . The Soviet Navy returned the ship to the Royal Navy on 4 February 1949 after the former was transferred to the Soviet Black Sea Fleet . The Soviet Navy had initially sought to avoid sending the ship back , claiming that she was not sufficiently seaworthy to make the voyage back to Britain . After an inspection by a Royal Navy officer , however , the Soviet Navy agreed to return the vessel in January 1949 . Upon returning to the Rosyth naval base , Royal Navy personnel thoroughly inspected the ship and found much of her equipment to be unserviceable . It appeared to the inspectors that the main battery turrets had not been rotated while the ship was in Soviet service , and were jammed on the centreline . As a result of her poor condition , she was sold for scrap . The ship arrived at Inverkeithing , Scotland on 18 May to be broken up . The elevation mechanisms from her main battery gun turrets were later reused in the Mark I radio telescope at Jodrell Bank , Cheshire built in 1955 – 1957 .