The Royal navy built the highly successful
Royal Sovereign class battleships starting
in 1888. The design displaced 14,150 tons,
was 380 feet long, and carried 4 x 13.5"
+ 10 x 6" guns. They were seven in number,
and featured high freeboard, powerful armament,
and thick armor. The HMS Hood was a semi-sister,
built with her main guns in revolving turrets
instead of the barbettes found on the other
ships. Laid down in 1889, she was completed
in 1893. To accommodate the extra weight
of the turrets, the hull was cut down one
deck. Despite this, the design was very top
heavy. Freeboard was very low, the ship was
cramped, and she performed poorly in the
open ocean. The good looking but poor steaming
vessel was transferred to the better weather
of the Med, where she had a quiet, peacetime
career. In 1911 she was reduced to reserve,
disarmed, and used as a torpedo target. With
the start of WWI, it was decided to scuttle
her between the Southern entrance pillars
of Portland Harbor, to prevent an enemy submarine
from firing torpedoes into the anchored Channel
Fleet.
On 4 November 1914, she was more in position
and her seacocks opened. Knowing her reputation
for being top heavy, the officer in charge
of her scuttling decided to sink her very
slowly. She stubbornly refused to sink, and
several hours later the tide turned and began
to drag her out of position. Explosives were
hurriedly placed along the hull, and the
resulting blast opened her port side to the
sea. She filled too rapidly, flipped over
to port, and landed on the seabed completely
upside-down.
The hull is only 12 feet outside the seawall,
and marked with a buoy. Local divers maintain
a rope from the buoy to the hull, so finding
the wreck is very easy. The top part of the
wreck is between 10 and 15 feet below the
surface, with the bottom depth being 60 and
65 feet, depending on the tide. Currents
are quite strong when the tide is running,
but at slack tide even a novice can enjoy
the wreck. The hull is tempting, but deep
penetration is foolhardy. But a shallow penetration
or explorations of the breaks in the hull
reveal interesting machinery and marine life.
The wreck is rather busy, but it is as easy
or challenging as the diver wants it to be.
 HMS Hood in 1898 |
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 An overview of the wreck today. Green line is the safety rope maintained by local dive clubs. This image was created using a sketch they provided. |
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