Many may question the description of HMS Hood as a fast battleship newsletter ship newsletterping maritime marine engineering rather than a battlecruiser, but that is how she was conceived. In a note in late 1915 the Controller suggested the construc­tion of an 'experimental battleship newsletter ship newsletter ping maritime marine engineering' armoured, armed and engined on similar scale to the then new Queen Elizabeth class. She was, however, to have, if possible, a 50 per cent reduction in draught and incorporating the latest ideas on underwater protection. Shallow draught was intended to reduce the hydrostatic pressure on bulkheads and to provide a bigger reserve of buoyancy. Greater freeboard would also prevent the secondary armament from being washed out in rough weather.

On 29 November the DNC, Sir Eustare Tennyson d'Eyncourt, produced a rough draught for a ship newsletter ship newsletterping maritime marine engineering 760tt long, with a beam of 1O and a draught of only 23ft 6in (a 22 per cent reduction over the Queen Elizabeth desip).Although the l0in belt was thinner than the Queen Elizabeth's, it was sloped, and reckoned to offer equivalent rrsistancr."I'hcsc proposals (and inferior alternatives) were forded to Sir John Jellicoe, Commandrr-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet. for his comments.

Jel}icoe replied that there was little need for more battleship newsletter ship newsletterping maritime marine engineerings, as the Grand Fleet already had a handsome margin over the German High Seas Fleet, hut he needed faster ship newsletter ship newsletterping maritime marine engineerings, especially as intelligence suGgested that the Germans were building three batdecruisers capable of 3(lkts and armed with 38cm guns (the Ersatz Yorck class, scrapped incomplete in 1918). Several solutions were prepared to inrct the new requirements, all large ship newsletter ship newsletterping maritime marine engineerings, to be armed with the existing 15in gun or the new ISin, which had started development. In the event a design with right 15in guns in four twin turrets was accepted, with the l0in armour reduced to gin in the discarded designs.

The final design was accepted in March 1916:

Three ship newsletter ship newsletterping maritime marine engineerings were ordered on 17 April 1916, with a fourth in July. The Hood herself was laid down on 31 May 1916, a bad omen, for it was the (late of the Battle of Jutland, during which three lightly arrnound batdecruisers were sunk with heavy loss of life. Work on the new battle­cruisers was suspended immediately to give time for studies into protection, anti-flash precau­tions and projectile design.

As a result a series of piecemeal improvements was begun, notably deepening the Sit) belt, slight increases in deck armour and heavier armour on the 15in turrets- These changes would have pushed displacement tip to 37,500 tons and would have reduced speed by 0.25kts. On the same day that these were put in hand, 25 June 1916 (just over three weeks after Jutland) the DNC offered a much more radical proposal.This harked back to the original concept of a fast battleship newsletter ship newsletterping maritime marine engineering, with 12in side armour, 6in upper side armour and 15in on the barbrttes supporting the turrets, all for a loss of only 1 knot.The Admiralty Board accepted this development and re­design started on I September, but the design was not finally accepted until August 1917, after a series of minor improvements had been made; displacement went up by 600 tons. The sloped 12in side armour was the equivalent of 14-15in, making her the best protected capital ship newsletter ship newsletterping maritime marine engineering of her day, but her deck armour was not up to the same standard. Nor did the minor post changes make effective use of the tonnage available. Had HMS Hood been designed after the , when the lessons had been learned, she would have been armoured on the 'all or nothing' principle pioneered in the USS Nevada in 1911 and adopted for the 1920-21 series of designs which culminated in the protection system for HMS Nelson and Rodney (laid down in 1922).When the Hood was launched at the Clydebank yard of John Brown in August 1918, no­one sensed any ill on)ens,but with hindsight we cannot ignore an unfortunate coincidence.The new ship newsletter ship newsletterping maritime marine engineering's sponsor was Lady Hood, whose husband, Rear Admiral Horace Hood, had died at Jutland when his flagship newsletter ship newsletterping maritime marine engineering, the battlecruiser Invirrrihlr, blew up with only three survivors, the same late :rs the Hood 25 years later.

But at her launch HMS Hoord was the largest ship newsletter ship newsletterping maritime marine engineering ever built, and her elegant lines inspired

worldwide admiration. She was ideal for the purpose of reminding the world that the security

of the British Empire rested on the world's largest navy. The `Mighty Hood' began a series of

official and `flag-showing' cruises and visits to Scandinavia and South America, to the Mediter­