Why did hms hood sink

The ship was equipped with eight 15in guns and was capable of 32 knots. HMS Hood was revered as the most powerful warship in the world for more than 20 years, earning the nickname "The Mighty Hood". The British and German ships were separated by about 10 miles of sea but the Bismarck soon found its target.

The Bismarck was probably the most powerful warship in commission at the time and the Hood was a battle cruiser, rather than a battleship. This meant it had less armour than a battleship, particularly horizontal armour against plunging fire - shells coming down from on high at a long range.

HMS Hood was struck by several German shells near its ammunition magazines which subsequently exploded, causing the ship to sink. It sparked a huge Royal Navy pursuit of the Bismarck, which was destroyed three days later. More than 2, German sailors lost their lives. Rear Admiral Wilcocks said the John Brown yard in Clydebank was accustomed to building big ships but when Hood was launched it was the biggest ever in the UK.

He said Hood spent most of her time patrolling around the UK or in the Mediterranean. She was nearly a year steaming around the world. Rear Admiral Wilcocks said the sinking was a tragedy, leading to one of the largest losses of life for the Royal Navy. Of 1, men on board, only three survived. In the aftermath of the sinking, the Admiralty held two inquiries into the sinking, but were unable to establish what had happened or why it sank so quickly.

After the wreck was found in , photos were taken that helped establish the cause. The photos revealed that a detonation in the rear magazine, holding the inch shells and cordite propellant for those guns, sank the Hood. Morse dispatches a telegraph message from the U. Capitol to Alfred Vail at a railroad station in Baltimore, Maryland. The father of modern astronomy, he was the first modern European scientist to propose that Earth and other planets revolve around the sun.

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