Battleships and Battlecruisers
HMS (His Majesty’s Ship) Hood, was a massive battlecruiser. It was the largest man-
This was when the Royal Navy was the largest navy in the world. Britain ruled the oceans and seas of the world and battleships were the kings of the navy fleets. It was a new warship design. HMS Hood was designed to have the firepower of a battleship but be very much faster. It was like a giant speedboat, even faster than the usual speedsters of the navy; the destroyers. As can be seen from the graphics the Hood was built for speed with very sleek lines.
Engine power
The engines that drove this monolith were the most powerful ever produced. They had a total output of a stunning 144,000 brake horse power (bhp). This compares with RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Titanic at 50,000 bhp and the average Ford Mondeo at 100 bhp. These colossal engines powered the Hood’s 55,000 tons of armoured steel through the seas and oceans of the world at 36 mph(57 km/h). The fastest passenger ship of the time was the Titanic which could manage a superb 26 mph.
Armour
The main armament turrets had a frontal armour thickness of 15 in (381 mm), side
armour of 11 to 12 in (280 to 305 mm) and a roof of 5 in (127 mm). For protection
against torpedoes she was given an "anti-
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was the hub of the ship during combat. This was a massive cylindrical tower with
300mm (12'') thich armoured steel walls to protect the gunnery officers. Thin slits
were cut through the walls for visibility The main gun turrets also had this same
thickness of armour.
In the media today the interest in this ship is still huge. There are many books, TV documentaries, web sites devoted to the story of the ship and the mystery and tragedy of its sinking.
Panama Canal and dimension comparisons
The Hood had great length (265m). This compares with the length of Blocks A and B of Ardrossan Academy at 48m.
The breadth of a ship is called the beam. Ocean going ships had and still have, one crucial design specification in regard to their beam. Their beam has to be narrower than the breadth of the Panama Canal.
Otherwise,of course, they cannot travel through the canal. This would mean a ship would have to sail via Cape Horn. This is a challenge for the bravest of sailors and the most powerful of ships.
‘The Mighty Hood’ had a beam of 32m; the maximum the canal would allow. The breadth of Blocks A and B stands at 16m. It is reassuring to know that if necessary blocks A and B of Ardrossan Academy could safely sail through the Panama Canal side by side.
The height of HMS Hood was 55m. Again this compares with the height of blocks A and B at 14m.
Visit HMS Hood visits Ardrossan Academy to get something of an appreciation of size.
CAD Graphics
Armaments
The main function of a battleship/battle cruiser was to be a gun platform. The Hood was a massive gun platform. No other country’s war ships had guns to match the Hood’s eight main 15 inch guns. These great guns could fire a shell of around the size and weight of a modern Ford Focus about 20 miles.
The curvature of the earth had to be taken into account. These guns were incredibly accurate. For example the guns could have exactly aimed and fired a shell from the school and landed it in someone’s back garden in Paisley. It has to be remembered that they were being fired from a pitching, rolling and bobbing deck. Situated on top of the gun turrets were the rangefinders. Before radar, the rangefinders helped the shells to find their target.
The shells rifled through the air at 1500 mph. This is twice the speed of sound.
Because of the huge amount of kinetic energy created when the shell slammed into an enemy ships armour, the shell caused the armoured steel to melt allowing the shell to pass through a liquid hole. A one hundred of a second fuse enabled the shell to explode inside the enemy ship causing immense damage.
Size of Shells
In spite of the great speed of the shells, the observation officers on the compass platform /observation tower could see the shells in flight and where they were landing. This was due to the huge size of the shells. This information was radioed down to the gunnery officers who would adjust the aim of the gun barrels.
Unfortunately the men of the compass platform /observation tower could also see incoming shells. As they watched them coming in they could only pray that these shells would miss their target.
The guns of the hood were so powerful that two of her secondary guns which had been
taken off the great ship after a refit in 1938, were used to defend Ascension Island
in the South Atlantic in World War II. These 5.5 inch guns, with a range of 12
miles, protected the island from marauding German U-
Sea trials and sealife
HMS Hood engines were tested on the Clyde estuary over the measured mile. The ship sailed at full speed up and down in front of Ardossan, Largs and Arran throughout 1920. These trials were to examine its seaworthiness, speed, durability and to try out any modifications.
When World War II started in 1939 the Hood was involved in many tasks. Initially
patrolling the Mediterranean, where she led in the destruction of the French Fleet
at Mers-
The battlecruiser HMS Hood is the greatest British warship since Nelson’s Victory. Throughout her long career she symbolized not only the might and tradition of the Royal Navy but also the British nation itself, together with all the hopes and ideals that attached to it. No warship in history has ever borne such an exalted mantle and this is what sets Hood apart from all others. For this reason her destruction at the hands of the Bismarck was a national disaster which continues to reverberate down to the present time.
SELECT TO VIEW HMS HOOD ASSOCIATION LINK
HMS Hood’s name has been used in Star trek for two starships. Star Fleet's main
line of warships/exploration vessels were the Constitution class heavy cruisers.
The "star" of the series, the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-
The second starship Hood was one of the large Excelsior (NCC-
