HMS Hood

History of the Hood

This is a WORK IN PROGRESS The Hood was bought from Stockford Shipwrighters, a subcompany of QAE Systems, of Questers, and soon the contract was signed to produce six of the class, each named after a famous Admiral, the lead ship being Hood. The Hood's keel was laid down 22nd June, 1985, at Stockford's primary shipyards at Southampton. It was launched 19th April 1991, and commissioned not long after by Princess Clarantina. The day after comission, the ship slipped out of port and took a 3,200 kilometre tour around the island of Questers, stopping off at fourty different ports and taking trips from flag-waving Questarians on small fishing boats. Finally, she arrived back at Southampton, where over three million Questarians were waiting. Finally, after earplugs had been distributed, the Mighty Hood, as she had been affectionally christened, fired her 762mm cannons into the water, hitting the old and disused monitor Lightening. Someone in the crowd began to sing Rule Questaria which spread like wildfire, becoming the largest singing of a patriotic song in history.

Hood's Operational History

Within seven years the Hood had quelled four rebellions, three of them peacefully. For the most part, the presence of the superdreadnought, her giant guns, and her flapping flag was more than enough for any rebellion to surrender.

Sinking of the Hood

On the 24th of January, 2006, HM Ship Hood engaged MassPwnage naval forces off Gibraltar. Atlantic Admiral David Fairham knew that his force, Force Z, was outnumbered at least 2-1 in capital ships by the Pwnage, and only half of the hastily formed Force Zhad arrived. Fairham had, however, been given orders to halt the advance of naval vessels, specifically troopships, through Gibraltar at all costs. It was with this reasoning that the Hood advanced into battle against a numerically and technologically (by FCS and electronics anyway) superior enemy in a naval battle that will go down in history. At the start of the battle, the Hood, alongside the Warspite and four smaller battleships, Chieftain, Centurion, Centaur, and Challenger. The Challenger scored the first hit, a noncritical against the superstructure of an unknown Pwnage battleship. The first loss was the Centaur - she blew up after taking a 635mm shell to her magazine, detonating over 140 635mm rounds. The explosion ripped apart the ship from bow to stern leaving no survivors. Gunnery ranges closed dramatically as more and more ships began to sink from both sides. Soon, the straits were a giant graveyard to naval vessels. As the battle closed to 40km, the Hood and her battleship escorts were still fairly intact. Obviously damage had been sustained, and as the Warspite had taken on much water, the group was now moving at 18 knots directly towards the Pwnage battleship core.

As the Gunnery range dropped to 39 kilometres, the Hood had already taken vicious firepower. She was missing two turrets, although one was still firing a pair of guns. She had lost at least 5 metres of freeboard and her list had increased to 6 degrees. A Pwnage submarine, seeing the situation as advantageous, began its attack run. Its torpedoes, placed in the right area, could have sunk the Hood there and then. However, it was not to be. The badly damaged Challenger was almost dead in the water. Missing three turrets and having expended all her VL missiles, the Challenger began her final run. As the Pwnage submarine came about to fire its payload, the Challenger veered off course, pulling the tightest turn in Questarian battleship history - 600 metres. The strain was not unoticable, however, as the ship groaned and moaned as pipes and bulkheads inside literally snapped. The submarine was caught off guard, the captain not expecting a 141,000 ton battleship to come bearing down on his boat. The submarine swung around as the prow of the Challenger smacked it, smashing the submarine in half. The Challenger had suffered great internal damage, however, and before it could join the fleet again, it received a full salvo of 635mm shells and the superstructure simply exploded and collapsed. Three hundred crew members escaped, although Captain Baker died at the bridge of his ship. He was later awarded the DSC and the OQE.

By now, gunnery ranges were at 11km and closing. The Hood was badly damaged, and onboard, Admiral Fairham prepared to abandon the most famous ship in the Questarian Royal Navy. At 8km, all guns were blazing. The Hood was burning in sixty four different places. Two of her three funnels had been destroyed, three out of six main guns, and almost all the secondary turrets. Nevertheless, the Hood was bearing down on a heavily damaged MassPwnage Blue Earth class ship, the PNS Puking Dog. The Hoods master gunner, Charles Combe (VC, DSC), had been killed in action, as had his second in command. However, the Hoods main guns swivelled to face this dreadnought. Despite heavy damage and destruction of long range guidance, the Hoods 30m optical rangefinders were still in good working condition. Twelve frontal guns bore down onto the Pwnage dreadnought, and for a second it looked like it was doomed as the Hood began to reload. However, as Fairham had expected, Pwnage submarines could not just ignore the Hood. Eighteen seconds before the guns were ready to fire, a keelbreaker torpedo struck the Hood in her fore. The torpedo missed - the captain was probably worried about the large number of escorts on the surface, but the damage was done. Because of the way Hood had been armoured, she had little anti submarine protection on her fore, where a large number of VL missiles were still stored. The torpedo smashed through, detonating several cells, which began a fire. The sheer pressure of so much water in the tight corridors combined with explosions ripping through the decks smashed bulwarks apart and reached the main unused VL missiles, detonating them all. The bow of the ship begin to snap and fall off, and Hood was going down. It was then that Fairham ordered abandon ship, the subject of debate. As the gun crew evacuated their stations, the Hood's guns went underwater with shells in their barrels ready to fire. Although the dreadnought was sunk by the crippled HMS Warspite, a number of people were still critical over Fairhams decision. He knew this, and consequently, promoted his executive officer, Captain Andrew Jacobs, to the rank of Fleet Admiral, and CO of the Hood, and ordered him to assist the ships company in escaping the sinking Hood. By the time Jacobs had evacuated, there was only 2 metres of freeboard remaining. Famously, Fairham also gave Jacobs his sword and hat to present to the MassPwnage Admiral, Nilson Ngyuen Lon upon the PNS Emo Crusher. Dousing special documents in sake and burning them as per tradition, Fairham went down with the Hood. It is said that water leaked into Number One turrets barbette, snapping the turret off and the pressure of the water damaging systems which set off the ammunition. Either way, Hood was sucked, capsizing bow-first. In mid capsize, her stern extended 791 metres out of the sea, before gravity acted and smashed the Hood down onto the seabed. Of the Hoods full combat complement of 26,125, only 5,981 crew members made it alive off the Hood. Admiral Fairham was posthumously awarded knighthood and the Elizabeth Cross, the highest Questarian military medal. Jacobs was given the George Cross, and sixty two different members were given medals spanning from the Order of the Questarian Empire to the George Cross.