HMS Royal Sovereign
HMS Royal Sovereign was a Revenge-class battleship of the Royal Navy displacing 29,970 long tons (30,450 t) and armed with eight 15-inch (381 mm) guns in four twin-gun 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 First World War, but did not see action. In the early 1930s, she was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet and based in Malta.
Unlike the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, 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, the ship was tasked with convoy protection until May 1940, when she returned to the Mediterranean Fleet. Royal Sovereign 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to the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean, but after the Indian Ocean raid by Admiral Nagumo’s Kido Butai, the ship was withdrawn to eastern Africa to escort convoys. In January 1944, she returned to Britain, and in May the Royal Navy transferred Royal Sovereign to the Soviet Navy, which renamed her 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.
| General characteristics (as built) | |
|---|---|
| Class and type | Revenge-class battleship |
| Displacement | 29,970 long tons (30,450 t) (normal) 31,130 long tons (31,630 t) (deep load) |
| Length | 620 ft 7 in (189.2 m) |
| Beam | 88 ft 6 in (27.0 m) |
| Draught | 33 ft 7 in (10.2 m) (deep load) |
| Installed power | 40,000 shp (30,000 kW) 18 Babcock & Wilcox boilers |
| Propulsion | 4 shafts; 4 steam turbines |
| Speed | 23 knots |
| Range | 7,000 nmi (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at 10 knots |
| Crew | 1,240 (1921) |
| Armament | 4 × twin 15-inch (381 mm) guns 14 × single 6-inch (152 mm) guns 2 × single 3-inch (76 mm) AA guns 4 × single 47 mm (1.9 in) 3-pdr guns 4 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes |
| Armour | Waterline belt: 13 in (330 mm) Deck: 1–4 in (25–102 mm) Barbettes: 6–10 in (152–254 mm) Gun turrets: 11–13 in (279–330 mm) Conning tower: 3–11 in (76–279 mm) Bulkheads: 6 in (152 mm) |
