E Nelson was laid down in December 1922 at the Newcastle yard of Vickers-Armstrong. She was launched on September 3rd 1925 and completed in June 1927. Her armament consisted of nine 16-inch guns in triple turrets all sited forward of her bridge, twelve 6-inch guns in twin turrets, six 4-7 inch A.A. guns and eight 2 pounder pom-poms. Also two submerged torpedo tubes housed one on each beam forward below the lower deck line. It is interesting to note these torpedos were of the 24.5 inch type common in the Japanese Navy, but unique to Nelson and Rodney within the Royal Navy as were their 16-inch guns. In order to save weight extensive use was made of new materials in her construction, such as light weight steel, aluminum, fir for her deck in place of the traditional teak and plywood for many internal non structural bulkheads and fittings, all of which was fireproofed. Her completed displacement was 33,950 tons over a thousand tons under the limit imposed.