HMS as one of Courageous was designed Admiral Jackie Fisher’s three light battlecruisers, built for speed and to navigate the waters of the Baltic Sea, in Fisher’s unrealistic pre-World War I plan to invade Germany by way of its Baltic coastline.
The order for the ship went to Armstrong Whitworth & Co on the River Tyne, with her keel being laid on 26 March 1915, at a time when it was becoming clear that the Great War would not be over quickly. She was launched some 11 months later, on 5 February 1916, and just 19 months after her keel was laid, on 4 November 1916, she was completed and commissioned.
During her initial trials she sustained structural damage in heavy seas, but by early 1917 she was part of the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron. In November 1917 she took part in the Battle of Heligoland Bight and during 1918 she patrolled the North Sea.
Following the Armistice of November 1918, became a turret drill ship at Portsmouth, before being placed in reserve. In 1922, with the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty, which limited capital ship tonnage, the Royal Navy had to dispose of battleships and battlecruisers. The treaty also had been shifted from Portsmouth to Devonport where, for the next four years, she would undergo her conversion from battlecruiser to aircraft carrier.
