HMS Princess Royal was the second of two s built for the Royal Navy before the First World War. Designed in response to the s of the Imperial German Navy, the ships significantly improved on the speed, armament, and armour of the preceding . The ship was named after Louise, The Princess Royal, a title occasionally granted to the Monarch's eldest daughter. Completed in 1913, Princess Royal participated in the Battle of Heligoland Bight a month after the start of World War I in August 1914. She was then sent to the Caribbean Sea to prevent the German East Asia Squadron from using the Panama Canal. After the East Asia Squadron was sunk at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in December, Princess Royal rejoined the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron (BCS). During the Battle of Dogger Bank, the ship scored only a few hits, although one crippled the German armoured cruiser . Shortly afterward, she became the flagship of the 1st BCS, under the command of Rear-Admiral Osmond Brock. Princess Royal was moderately damaged during the Battle of Jutland and required a month and a half of repairs. Apart from providing distant support during the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in 1917, the ship spent the rest of the war on uneventful patrols of the North Sea. She was placed into reserve in 1920, then was sold for scrap in 1922 to meet the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. Design The Lion-class battlecruisers, nicknamed the "Splendid Cats", were designed by Philip Watts, the Director of Naval Construction, to be as superior to the new German battlecruisers of the Moltke class as the German ships were to the Indefatigable class. The increase in speed, armour and gun size forced a 70% increase in size over the preceding battlecruisers. Princess Royal had an overall length of , a beam of , and a draught of at deep load. The ship normally displaced and at deep load, over more than the earlier ships. She had a metacentric height of at deep load. Propulsion The Lion-class ships had two paired sets of Parsons direct-drive steam turbines housed in separate engine-rooms, each set driving two propeller shafts using steam provided by 42 Yarrow large-tube boilers. Designed power was for a speed of . In September 1912, Princess Royal began her sea trials and developed for a speed of . During maximum power trials in July