The British Royal Navy built a series of pre-dreadnought battleships as part of a naval expansion programme that began with the Naval Defence Act 1889. These ships were characterised by a main battery of four heavy guns—typically guns—in two twin mounts, a secondary armament that usually comprised guns, and a high freeboard. Primarily concerned with maintaining its "two-power standard" of numerical superiority over the combined French and Russian fleets, the Royal Navy built or purchased a total of fifty-two battleships of this type prior to the 1906 completion of the revolutionary all-big-gun , which gave the pre-dreadnoughts their name. William Henry White served as the Director of Naval Construction from 1885 to 1902 and thus oversaw the development of most of the pre-dreadnoughts.

The first class, the , comprised eight ships and introduced the standard armament layout associated with pre-dreadnought type battleships. They were followed by a trio of smaller, second-class battleships intended for overseas duties: the two s and . The nine s followed as refinements of White's original design, and they proved to be widely influential as foreign navies copied their general characteristics. Six slightly smaller s intended for the China Station followed, after which White designed another tranche of eight larger battleships: three - and five very similar ships. The latter were built as a stopgap while White completed work on the faster , which were intended to counter new Russian ships. A trend toward larger secondary batteries in foreign battleships led to the eight-ship , which carried guns. A pair of small battleships originally built for the Chilean Navy—what became the —were purchased after the Chileans placed them for sale in 1903. A final class of two ships, designed by Philip Watts, was built while Dreadnought was being developed: the .

The ships built for the Royal Navy served in a variety of roles across the globe, seeing service in the Mediterranean, Home, and Atlantic Fleets, among others. The second-class ships generally operated abroad on the China Station or elsewhere in the British Empire. As newer ships came into service, older vessels were placed in reserve or converted for subsidiary duties, including serving as barracks ships and depot vessels. One vessel, , was lost in an accidental grounding in 1906 and the oldest battleships of the Royal Sovereign and Centurion classes were broken up beginning in the early 1910s. With the start of the First World War in 1914, many of the vessels were mobilised for combat, and many served in the Dardanelles campaign, where five were lost to torpedoes and mines. Another five were sunk elsewhere during the war. The surviving vessels were all broken up in the post-war reduction in naval strength save one, , which was converted into a radio-controlled target ship. She served in this role until 1927, when she was sold for scrap.

+ Key Armament The number and type of the primary armament Armour The maximum thickness of the armoured belt Displacement Ship displacement at full load Propulsion Number of shafts, type of propulsion system, and top speed generated Service The dates work began and finished on the ship and its ultimate fate Laid down The date the keel assembly commenced Commissioned The date the ship was commissioned __TOC__

Royal Sovereign class

The Royal Sovereign class was authorised under the Naval Defence Act 1889, which established the "two-power standard" and led to a major naval construction programme. They were ordered in response to a war scare with the Russian Empire and a realisation that the fleet would be insufficient in the event of a conflict with France. The class is frequently regarded as the first of what would later become known as the pre-dreadnought battleship, as they marked a clear departure from the period of design experimentation that characterised ironclad battleship construction in the 1870s and 1880s. They introduced what became the standard form for battleships for the next fifteen years, which included a main battery of four heavy guns in a pair of two-gun mounts and a high freeboard suitable for operation on the high seas, though the development of modern gun turrets would come with subsequent designs. They were the first in a series of British battleships designed by William Henry White, the Director of Naval Construction (DNC); he was to be responsible for most of the pre-dreadnoughts built in Britain.

All eight ships had entered service by 1894, with most serving with the Channel Fleet initially, though and were assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet and and served briefly with the Flying Squadron in 1896. and were transferred to the Mediterranean to take part in the International Squadron during a rebellion on the island of Crete in 1897. Starting in 1900, all members of the class in the Mediterranean were recalled to Britain for refits except Hood, and afterward they were placed in reserve by 1904–1905. Long-since obsolete by the early 1910s, the members of the class began to be discarded: was broken up in 1911 and Empress of India was expended as a target ship in 1913. Royal Sovereign and Ramillies were scrapped that year, and Royal Oak and followed in 1914. After the British entry into the First World War in August 1914, Hood was scuttled as a blockship to bar one of the entrances to Portland Harbour. Revenge was the only member of the class to see active service during the war, being used for coastal bombardment off Flanders. Converted to a barracks ship by late 1915, she was ultimately scrapped in 1919.

+ Summary of the Royal Sovereign class Ship Armament Armour Displacement Propulsion Service Laid down Commissioned Fate 4 × guns 2 × shafts2 × triple-expansion steam engines 30 September 1889 31 May 1892 Broken up, 1913 17 August 1889 1 June 1893 Sunk as blockship, 4 November 1914 9 July 1889 11 September 1893 Sunk as target, 1913 11 August 1890 17 October 1893 Broken up, 1913 14 June 1890 5 December 1893 Broken up, 1914 12 February 1891 March 1894 Broken up, 1919 1 January 1890 25 April 1894 Broken up, 1911 29 May 1890 14 January 1896 Broken up, 1914

Centurion class

The Centurion class, also designed by White, completed the initial ten new battleships called for by the Naval Defence Act 1889. They were intended to serve as flagships of the Pacific and China Stations, and as such, their design differed significantly from the Royal Sovereigns, though they were in many respects a scaled-down version of White's previous design. Because they would operate abroad, they required a significantly greater cruising range, and because dry dock facilities were limited in East Asia and the Pacific, their hulls were coppered to reduce biofouling and allow them to go longer between hull cleanings. Their most likely opponent at the time would have been Russian armoured cruisers, so they carried a lighter main battery of guns and thinner armour compared to the Royal Sovereigns.

served as the flagship of the China Station from her commissioning while was initially sent to the Mediterranean Fleet, where she also joined the International Squadron in 1897. She moved to Chinese waters in 1898, and both ships were involved in the suppression of the Boxer Uprising in China in 1900, during which they sent landing parties to participate in the Battle of the Taku Forts and the Battle of Tientsin. Both ships returned to Britain in 1901 for reconstruction and Centurion briefly served in the China Station until 1905, when the renewal of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance rendered the presence of a significant British squadron redundant. The two vessels were placed in reserve that year and saw little activity before being placed for sale in 1909 and scrapped the following year.

+ Summary of the Centurion class Ship Armament Armour Displacement Propulsion Service Laid down Commissioned Fate 4 × guns 2 × shafts 2 × triple-expansion steam engines30 March 189014 February 1894 Broken up, 1910 12 October 1890 22 June 1894

HMS Renown

The 1892 construction programme had initially called for three new first-class battleships that were to be armed with a new gun, but development of the gun was delayed. At the request of the Controller of the Navy, Rear Admiral John A. "Jacky" Fisher, and the Director of Naval Intelligence, Captain Cyprian Bridge, an improved Centurion design was prepared, despite the fact that no requirements for a third vessel of the second class existed. Another White design, Renown incorporated several advances, including the first use of Harvey armour in the Royal Navy, the first sloped armour deck, and the first adoption of modern, enclosed gun shields (which would come to be known as gun turrets). Fisher pressed for six of the vessels to be built instead of what was to become the Majestic class, but the Admiralty rejected the request on the grounds that the main guns were insufficient for use against enemy battleships, and there was no need for large fleets of the vessels overseas.

Renown served as the flagship of the North America and West Indies Station, initially under Fisher's command. In 1899, she was refitted before being reassigned to the Mediterranean Fleet as its flagship, which was by then commanded by Fisher. In 1902, she was refitted again to carry the Duke and Duchess of Connaught on a royal tour of India, for which she was nicknamed the "battleship yacht". After a brief period in reserve in 1905, she received additional modifications for use as a royal yacht, and later that year she carried the Prince and Princess of Wales—the future King George V and Queen Mary—on a tour of India. She was used in a variety of subsidiary roles before being withdrawn from service in 1911 and broken up in 1914.

+ Summary of HMS Renown Ship Armament Armour Displacement Propulsion Service Laid down Commissioned Fate 4 × 10 in guns 2 × shafts 2 × triple-expansion steam engines 1 February 1893 January 1897 Broken up, 1914

Majestic class

Intended for the 1892 programme, what was initially to have been a class of three ships was delayed to the following year as the new 12-inch gun they were designed to carry had not completed testing. The design, also prepared by White, incorporated the same advances first seen with Renown in a larger first-class battleship (though White had in fact designed Majestic first). Due to public criticism, John Spencer, the First Lord of the Admiralty, ordered a total of nine new battleships as part of the so-called Spencer Programme to allay concerns that the Royal Navy had fallen in strength relative to France and Russia. The Majestics became a benchmark of battleship design, and they were widely copied, both generally with characteristics like the calibre of the main battery, and literally in that the Japanese and the battleship were little more than minor improvements on the Majestics.