. The thickness of the nickel steel deck ranged from . Nickel-steel torpedo bulkheads thick were fitted abreast of the magazines and shell rooms. The sides of the conning tower were thick. After the Battle of Jutland revealed a vulnerability to plunging shellfire, 1 inch of additional armour, weighing approximately , was added to the magazine crowns and turret roofs. Construction and career Princess Royal was laid down at the Vickers shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness on 2 May 1910. She was launched on 29 April 1911 by Louise, Princess Royal, and commissioned on 14 November 1912. She cost £1,955,922 plus an additional £120,300 for her armament. Upon commissioning, Princess Royal joined the 1st Cruiser Squadron, which was renamed the 1st BCS in January 1913. Rear-Admiral David Beatty assumed command of the 1st BCS on 1 March 1913. The squadron, including Princess Royal, visited Brest in February 1914 and ports in the Russian Empire during June. Battle of Heligoland Bight Princess Royal first saw combat during the Battle of Heligoland Bight on 28 August 1914. She was part of Beatty's battlecruiser force, which was originally to provide distant support to the British cruisers and destroyers closer to the German coast if the German High Seas Fleet sortied in response. The battlecruisers headed south at full speed at 11:35, when the British light forces failed to disengage on schedule, as the rising tide meant that German capital ships would be able to clear the bar at the mouth of the Jade Estuary. The British light cruiser had been crippled earlier in the battle and was under fire from the German light cruisers and when Beatty's battlecruisers appeared out of the mist at 12:37. Strassburg was able to duck into the mists and evade fire, but Cöln was quickly crippled by the squadron's guns. Before Cöln could be sunk, Beatty was distracted by the sudden appearance of the German light cruiser directly to his front, and ordered pursuit. Ariadne was reduced to a burning hulk after only three salvos at less than . Princess Royal sailed from Cromarty on 28 September to rendezvous with a Canadian troop convoy bound for the United Kingdom. She rejoined the 1st BCS on 26 October, but was detached again a few days later to reinforce the North Atlantic and Caribbean Squadrons in the search for Admiral Graf Spee's German East Asia Squadron after it destroyed the British West