HMS Hood was a modified Royal Sovereign-class pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Royal Navy in the early 1890s. She differed from the other ships of the class in that she had cylindrical gun turrets instead of barbettes and a lower freeboard. She served most of her active career in the Mediterranean Sea, where her low freeboard was less of a disadvantage. The ship was placed in reserve in 1907 and later became the receiving ship at Queenstown, Ireland. Hood was used in the development of anti-torpedo bulges in 1913 and was scuttled in late 1914 to act as a blockship across the southern entrance of Portland Harbour after the start of World War I.

Hood, the last of the eight Royal Sovereign-class battleships to be built, differed significantly from the other ships of her class in that she had a forward freeboard of only 11 feet 3 inches (3.43 m) compared to 19 feet 6 inches (5.94 m) of the other ships. The Royal Sovereigns had reverted to a higher freeboard after several classes of low-freeboard vessel had been constructed, the last being the Trafalgar class. Low freeboard had been popular for around ten years since it required less armour and made a smaller target for gunfire to hit, although it had the disadvantage that it reduced seaworthiness. This low freeboard meant that Hood was very wet in rough weather and her maximum speed reduced rapidly as the wave height increased, making her only suitable for service in the relatively calm Mediterranean. This was seen as a vindication of the barbette/high-freeboard design in the rest of her class, and all subsequent British battleship classes had high freeboard.

The lower freeboard was required by her use of armoured gun turrets—a heavy type of rotating gun mounting of the mid-and-late 19th century very different from what would later be known as "turrets". Hood's half-sisters mounted their guns exposed on top of barbettes, a much lighter arrangement that allowed their freeboard to be substantially increased. The heavy, old-fashioned type of turrets added to the amount of weight high up in the ship compared to barbettes and decreased the ship's stability.

Because the stability of a ship is largely due to freeboard at high rolling angles, she was given a larger metacentric height (the vertical distance between the metacenter and the centre of gravity below it) of around 4.1 feet (1.2 m) instead of the 3.6 feet (1.1 m) of the rest of the Royal Sovereigns to make her roll less in rough seas. This had the effect of making her roll period shorter by around 7% compared to her sisters, which in turn made her gunnery less accurate. Bilge keels were fitted in 1894 which improved her manoeuvrability.

Hood had an overall length of 410 feet 6 inches (125.1 m), a beam of 75 feet (22.9 m), and a draught of 28 feet 6 inches (8.7 m) at deep load. She displaced 14,780 long tons (15,020 t) at normal load and 15,588 long tons (15,838 t) at deep load. Her crew numbered 690 officers and ratings.

The ship was powered by two 3-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller. Eight water-tube boilers provided steam to the engines, which produced a maximum of 11,000 indicated horsepower (8,200 kW) when forced. This was intended to allow them to reach a speed of 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph). She carried a maximum of 1,490 long tons (1,510 t) of coal, enough to steam 4,720 nautical miles (8,740 km; 5,430 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

The ship was armed with four 32-calibre BL 13.5-inch Mk I–IV guns in two twin gun turrets, one fore and aft of the superstructure. Each gun was provided with 80 shells. Hood's secondary armament consisted of ten 40-calibre 6-inch Mk I-III guns mounted in casemates in the superstructure. A major problem with the four of these guns mounted on the upper deck was that they were mounted low in the ship and were unusable at high speed or in heavy weather. They were removed in 1904. The ship carried 200 rounds for each gun.

Defence against torpedo boats was provided by eight QF 6-pounder guns, although the exact type of gun is not known. Four of these were mounted on the main deck in casemates on the sides of the hull and suffered from the same problems as the six-inch guns. Hood also mounted a dozen QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns mounted in the superstructure and fighting tops. Like her sisters, the ship was fitted with seven 18-inch torpedo tubes. Two of these were mounted in the bow below the waterline, four were placed in the sides of the hull, two on each broadside, and one in the stern. These last five tubes were all above water. She also was fitted with a plough-shaped underwater ram.