The believed cause for the disaster on the Hood was the same as a lot of other ships: The HMS Defense and HMS Queen Mary, and Invincible at Jutland, and the HMS Barham in the med. all were lost to magazine explosions in their secondary ammunition lockers. Dive expeditions to the Jutland wrecks showed that many of the flash-proof protection doors were open, and that there were bags of powder in undestroyed turrets in places they should not have been doctrinally stored.

HMS Invincible, in particular was well known as the fastest firing ship in the fleet during the war and it appeared that the crew was cutting corners to save time. I myself have seen practice similar to this in tanks. The M1 has a blast door to seperate the ammo from the gun and to direct explosions away from the crew compartment. It takes more time to load the gun, so some crews lock the doors open or have a round "lap loaded" in the turret when there is already one in the gun.

I saw an incredible documentary on youtube from the divers and naval experts that made these discoveries. If I can find it again, I'll post.

I do agree with you on the findings of the Hood, and of the other dives that discovered the doors of the ammo lockers were open, although this video only talks about a small portion of what really happened, it defiantly sums it up really well. The other videos are really cool to watch too.

http://wn.com/The_Battleships__Jutland_Clash_Of_The_Dreadnoughts

That is a great clip. Ever seen the footage of the Barham? Its incredibly sobering to see men climbing over the side just before it blows up. When I saw it, it was touching to think all those people died.

I'm sure that he meant this when he said that they where not sure what cause the explosion.

HMS Barham.

Video on her death. WARNING: Graphic Footage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdrISbwy_zI

You can see the sailors on her hull as it rolls over before exploding.

hey AndrusN, check out the Wikipedia article:

"Despite the official explanation, some historians continued to believe that the torpedoes caused the ship's loss while others proposed an accidental explosion inside one of the ship's gun turrets that reached down into the magazine. Other historians have focused on the cause of the magazine explosion. The discovery of the ship's wreck in 2001 confirmed the conclusion of both boards, although the exact reason why the magazines detonated will forever be a mystery as that area of the ship was thoroughly destroyed in the explosion."

suck it. they DON'T know what really caused the ship's explosion. stop acting like you have a doctorate in history and study your resources before you start spouting off.

It's a well known fact that us Brit's didn't care about safety and just left doors open. A shell hit, it exploded, the end. Bismarck was capsized by wussy Germans.

First of all, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! When was the Hood hit by a torpedo?
Second, I do have a doctorate in Naval History, so suck it.
Third, I think you need to take your own advice, and check your resources for researching things. Wikipedia? Nuff said.

Pwnding noobs!

Doctorate in Naval History my a$$. Any layman would know they meant that the torpedoes stored INSIDE the ship were what might have caused the explosion.
I cross checked the resources used for the HMS Hood on Wikipedia, and found they were credible.

Suck it. Again.

You just don't get it do you? The Royal Navy lost at least half a dozen capital ships to magazine explosions due to exactly what we've been talking about for the entire last page. Seemingly routine hits have ignited ammunition stored in places where it shouldn't have been, and flash proof doors being left open have allowed even secondary magazines to spread catastrophic fires to spread in seconds. There is no reason to believe that Hood is any different than any of these other ships. The physical evidence all shows that the 4" magazine exploded.

If even the fanatical RN loving Sindher is saying that RN sailors were a bit untidy isn't a wake up call..... well.... then you midas well be telling us the sky is green.