Royal Oak

very impressive picture, was it common for ships of this size to have the sea break over them like that?

That was the price of building the bow with very little sheer or flare. A clipper bow, with lots of flare near the weather deck, tends tends to throw spray out and away from the weatherdeck. In addition, such a bow tends to increase buoyancy as it pitches downward, so that it the tendency to pitch lessens the deeper the bow pitches. All those old WW-I era Dreadnoughts (not just the British ones) tended to ride like this.

This was taken during the spring cruise of 1934. the weather played havoc with the exercises.