High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! HMS Formidable (1898)—the third of four ships of that name to serve in the Royal Navy—was the lead ship of her class of pre-dreadnought battleships. She was the second British battleship to be sunk by enemy action during the First World War. Despite reports of submarine activity, whilst on exercise in the English Channel in 1914, she sank after being hit by two torpedoes.