Britain ordered Hood in April 1916 and commissioned her in May 1920, an unusually short interval for such a large capital ship. She entered service with eight 15-inch guns and a top speed of 32 knots. Lancastria represented the passenger and cargo liners that sustained commercial reach, carrying as many as 1,300 passengers alongside three cargo holds. She was notable in her own right and broadly representative of the liners on which British maritime commerce depended. Their later wartime losses give the two ships very different service histories. Together they show how warships and merchant vessels expressed national industrial and maritime status.
Chapter · 1:00:24-1:15:07
HMS Hood and RMS Lancastria enter service
Hood and Lancastria show two very different forms of British maritime power entering service in the same month of 1920.