To her credit, Hood was the largest RN warship and a beautiful vessel that could be used to advertise the power of the Royal Navy, serve when required as a Royal Yacht, look magnificent as the Flag Ship. On the debit side, she was a wet ship, some saying that there were destroyers that were drier in any sort of weather. Most significantly, she proved unable to match the rate of fire and accuracy of the German battleship Bismarck and her thin sparingly applied armour was unable to protect her magazines from plunging fire, resulting in her loss with almost all hands. In fairness to the ship, the shock of her destruction was as much to do with unfounded belief in her invulnerability, and poor gun handling skills that may have resulted from her crew becoming accustomed to acting as a floating billboard for Britain and the Royal Navy, rather than as a working ship of war.