Hood's 263-metre length exceeded the capacity Portsmouth could provide for major work. The battlecruiser received a brief refit there, but the yard lacked the capacity for a full out-of-water reconstruction. The surviving photographs and records discussed here place Hood's full dry docking at Malta's floating dock. A famous naval base could therefore lack the dock needed for one ship's major maintenance.
Notable Point · 45:00-47:23
Portsmouth's limits for HMS Hood
Portsmouth retained much of its historic form, but its docks could not provide the full dry-dock reconstruction capability required by HMS Hood.