New Year on the 'Mighty Hood'

31st December 1940: The beginning of a New Year on one of the largest warships ever built, destined to have a fateful role in the next major naval battle

For twenty years, HMS Hood was the largest warship ever built, but she was considered outdated even before she was commissioned in 1920 and was the only ship of the Battlecruiser class built.

HMS Hood during speed trials, by 1941, she was capable of 30 knots.

HMS HOOD in the middle distance, silhouetted under a 15-inch gun of HMS RENOWN, circa 1940. She travelled the world ‘flying the flag’ for the might of the Royal Navy.

HMS Hood, known within the Royal Navy as ‘The Mighty Hood’, was an 860-foot-long, 46,000-ton battlecruiser launched in 1918. In late 1940, she was the flagship of the Home Fleet, standing in reserve for a possible invasion and assisting with convoy protection.

The Home Fleet was based in the Orkney Islands anchorage of Scapa Flow in the far north of Great Britain, ready to intercept German ships seeking to make their way into the Atlantic.

On board was a United States Naval officer, Joseph Wellings, who recorded the day in his diary¹:

Last day of 1940 - up at usual time 0745 - breakfast, a good mile and a quarter walk on quarterdeck, more snow last night - Hills are really very pretty - wish I were home. On bridge watching ship shift berths - Not a very good job - cut mooring buoy. Watched the crew get their ration of rum - quite a ritual.