Royal Sovereign Class Battleship
The Royal Sovereign class was a class of pre-dreadnought battleships 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 Trafalgars. 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.
The Royal Sovereigns were the most powerful battleships in the world until HMS Dreadnought rendered all other battleships obsolete in 1906. In their day, the Royal Sovereigns embodied revolutionary improvements in firepower, armour, and speed.
Read more about Royal Sovereign Class Battleship: Background, Operational History
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—Mary Putnam Jacobi (1842–1906)