White, the Director of Naval Construction, these were replaced with four guns. The new ships, though based on the general type that had formed the basis of the preceding four battleship designs, marked the first significant change in the series. Like all late pre-dreadnoughts that entered service in the mid-1900s, Hibernia was made almost instantaneously obsolescent by the commissioning of the all-big-gun in December 1906, armed with a battery of ten heavy guns compared to the typical four of most pre-dreadnoughts. Hibernia was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of . The King Edward VII-class battleships displaced normally and up to fully loaded. Her crew numbered 777 officers and ratings. The King Edward VII-class ships were powered by a pair of 4-cylinder triple-expansion engines that drove two screws, with steam provided by sixteen water-tube boilers. The boilers were trunked into two funnels located amidships. The King Edward VII-class ships had a top speed of from . Hibernia had a main battery of four 40-calibre guns mounted in twin-gun turrets fore and aft. These were supported by a heavy secondary battery of four guns in four single turrets, two on each broadside. The ships also mounted ten 6-inch 50 calibre guns mounted in casemates, in addition to fourteen 12-pounder guns and fourteen 3-pounder guns for defence against torpedo boats. As was customary for battleships of the period, she was also equipped with five torpedo tubes submerged in the hull; two were on each broadside, with the fifth in the stern. Hibernia had an armoured belt that was thick; the transverse bulkheads on the aft end of the belt was thick. The sides of her main battery turrets were also 8 to 12 in thick, atop 12 in barbettes, and the 9.2 turrets had sides. The casemate battery was protected with of armour plate. Her conning tower had 12-inch-thick sides. She was fitted with two armoured decks, thick, respectively. Service history Early career HMS Hibernia was laid down at Devonport Dockyard on 6 January 1904, launched on 17 June 1905, and completed in December 1906. She was the last of the eight King Edward VII-class battleships to be completed. Hibernia was commissioned on 2 January 1907 at Devonport Dockyard for service as flagship of the Rear-Admiral, Atlantic Fleet. She transferred to the Channel Fleet for service as Flagship, Rear-Admiral on 27 February 1907. During this period, William Boyle, 12th