The Royal Sovereign Class battleships were the Iron Duke with a 15" main armament. As ordered the Royal Sovereign Class were to be a class of 7 ships but two were redesigned as battlecruisers (see Renown). Less graceful and speedy than the Queen class they were massive and powerful ships for their time. These were the last 'slow' battleships built by Britain. In the 'Fisherless RN' the last two ships are cancelled and reordered as Barfleur class ships. The first five were too far advanced to repurpose the orders. What that does is to make eight twin 15" turrets available for arming monitors with.
What to do with the 'R' class. In the past (see drawings at bottom of page) I have looked at rebuilding the ships and sticking some extra propulsion into the hull to get them to 25 knots to go with the Queen Elizabeth Class and the rebuilt Iron Duke class vessels. In reality there is just not enough room, on and in the hull, to do what is necessary to get modern capital ships out of the 'R's. As part of the Fisherless RN, I did a set of drawings based on the premise that a lot of the armour and armament are cannibalised from the 5 'R' class ships (see Admiral Class). Each new ship required one set of main armament and three belts of 13" armour, which meant that only two sets of armour would be needed for a new set of 5 battleships. What are you left with? A ship with no side armour, no main armament but a 4" set of deck armour and serviceable engines. Five of them. 620x89 feet. How about converting the remains to escort carriers? The removal of parts for the new ships would be 1937-1939, conversion of the remains 1939-1940. Five new escort carriers with 30 aircraft each arriving on station in the Atlantic during 1940? Miracles do happen from time to time.
Andrew Arthur's very good drawing of HMS Revenge in its 1918 outfit with ramps on B and X turrets for aircraft launching.
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The ships were a very basic conversion compared to some others. However, when it was considered that the most prevalent kind of damage these ships might take would be from torpedoes and bombs, the bulging, that had previously been fitted, was replaced once the side armour had been removed. The 4" armoured deck was better than most for keeping out bombs. With 16 Swordfish and a dozen Griffons aboard, the ships were invaluable in the North Atlantic.
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