Image copyright Getty ImagesIn 1906, HMS Dreadnought was launched. Described as a deadly fighting machine, it transformed the whole idea of warfare and sparked a dangerous arms race.On 10 February 1906 the world's media gathered in Portsmouth to watch King Edward VII launch what he and his ministers knew would be a world-beating piece of British technology.It was both an entrancing piece of high technology and a weapon of previously unimagined destructive power. What the king unveiled that day was the Royal Navy's newest warship - HMS Dreadnought.At the time, Britain was a nation obsessed with the Navy. The Navy was at the centre of national life - politically powerful and a major cultural force as well, with images of the jolly sailor Jack Tar used to sell everything from cigarettes to postcards. The 100th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar just months earlier had served to remind anyone who doubted it of the Royal Navy's power, size and wild popularity.So if the British public had come to expect their Navy to be world-beaters, they were delighted with Dreadnought, and eager to hear all about her. Story of the Royal NavyThe 15-part series Britain at Sea is presented by Admiral Lord West. It is broadcast at 13:45 BST on BBC Radio 4.Britain at Sea is available for via the BBC iPlayer.There was plenty to hear, for Dreadnought, says John Roberts of the Museum of Naval Firepower, 'really transformed naval warfare rather like the tank did on land warfare.
In fact Dreadnought was described at the time as 'the most deadly fighting machine ever launched in the history of the world'.Dreadnought brought together for the first time a series of technologies which had been developing over several years. Most important was her firepower. She was the first all big-gun battleship - with ten 12-inch guns. Each gun fired half-ton shells over 4ft tall and packed with high explosive. They weighed as much as a small car. Standing next to one today, it is easy to see how a single broadside could destroy an opponent - and do so at 10 miles' distance.
Image copyright Getty Images Image captionThe Dreadnought battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth in 1935These great distances caused problems of their own - in controlling and directing the fire - and Dreadnought was one of the first ships fitted with new equipment to electrically transmit information to the gun turrets.For potential enemies on the receiving end this was a terrifying prospect. Admiral Lord West, a former head of the Royal Navy, calls Dreadnought 'a most devastating weapon of war, the most powerful thing in the world'.Potential adversaries would also have trouble outrunning her. New steam turbine engines gave her a maximum speed of about 25mph. They made her more reliable than previous ships, and able to sustain a higher speed for much longer.But there was something else, too. Dreadnought had been built in just one year - a demonstration of British military-industrial might at a time when major battleships generally took several years to build.
The Providence-class dreadnought, also known as the Providence-class cruiser-carrier or the Providence-class carrier/destroyer, and more commonly known as the Separatist dreadnought, was a capital ship that the Confederacy of Independent Systems utilized during the Clone Wars.The dreadnought consisted of two variants, one smaller model that measured 1,088 meters long and a larger model that. Oct 26, 2016 Dreadnought V. Dreadnoughts II, III, IV and V were all ships of the line, armed with between 52 and 98 guns. Launched between 1654 and 1801, all these ships had fairly modest naval careers—except.
This, says Roberts, was an 'enormous achievement which made the Germans sit up because their shipbuilding capability just could not match that'. Image copyright Getty ImagesIn 1917, on a patrol ship in the dangerous waters around Britain, the artist and illustrator Norman Wilkinson had a brainwave.
He developed a radical camouflage scheme that used bold shapes and violent contrasts of colour. His purpose was to confuse rather than conceal.At the time, Germany was already beginning to expand her navy, but Britain had an unassailable lead, with hundreds of ships deployed all around the world. That superiority meant that in a world where it wasn't possible to take a train to France or a flight to Spain, the Royal Navy was the bulwark of Britain's defence - and by protecting the world's trade routes the guarantor of her wealth, too.Into this comfortable and comforting world, Dreadnought came like a bolt from the blue. On the one hand she demonstrated the Royal Navy's technical and industrial lead over the navies of new nations like Germany and the United States. But on the other, Dreadnought reset every navy almost to zero.All previous battleships - including all of those in the Royal Navy - were now obsolescent, and would soon be known dismissively as 'pre-Dreadnoughts'.Now anyone who could build enough Dreadnoughts could challenge the Royal Navy's pre-eminence. Couldn't they?They certainly tried. The unveiling 'set ablaze the big naval armament race with Germany, who was determined to keep up with us', says Roberts.
'Once we'd launched Dreadnought, she had to have Dreadnoughts, and better Dreadnoughts, and as she built her Dreadnoughts we progressively had to build more, bigger, and more powerful Dreadnoughts.' Britain was soon joined by Germany, France, the US, Japan and Italy in building Dreadnoughts while Brazil and Turkey ordered theirs from British shipyards.In Britain there was Dreadnought fever as the public clamoured for more shipbuilding and the Liberal government, caught trying to reduce naval spending, was forced on the defensive. One election meeting was disrupted by cries of 'Dreadnought! We want eight and we won't wait' was another popular cry as naval propagandists demanded that number of new ships. The result was hardly a surprise. As the Home Secretary, Winston Churchill, wryly noted: 'The Admiralty had demanded six ships; the economists offered four; and we finally compromised on eight.'
The reason for the fever was that the stakes for the UK were so high. Only the Royal Navy could ensure British security, and only the Royal Navy, by protecting trade routes, could ensure her prosperity.No other major nation was so reliant on its navy for its wealth and security. Lord West describes the disparity: 'For us, supremacy at sea was fundamental for our survival. For them it was just nice to have.'
Pre-war Battleship DesignTechnological development during the steamship age pushed 19 th century warship design to its limits, featuring battleships mounting large caliber, turreted guns, driven by high output piston steam engines, and protected by steel armor. By the turn of last century, a typical battleship mounted four 12-inch guns in two twin-turrets and was armed with an assortment of intermediate gun batteries throughout the ship. Reciprocating steam engines produced enough power to drive the ships to high speeds, typically fifteen to eighteen knots.Major drawbacks of these designs included difficulty in fire control for the different caliber ammunition. Also, the steam engines required lengthy periods in port for maintenance overhauls and could not be run at full speed for very long without risking breakdowns.Early in the 20 th century, British Admiralty leaders learned of plans by American, Italian and Japanese navies to design and build “all big gun” battleships, a concept publicized by Italian naval engineer in 1903.
Led by First Sea Lord, Sir, British decision makers designed the HMS Dreadnought to steal the lead on the plans of other navies and launch a battleship that would outfight any ship afloat.Dreadnought Design InnovationsFisher’s team produced a design that incorporated a number of innovations into a single hull. Chief among HMS Dreadnought’s design characteristics was a main battery of ten 12-inch guns, mounted in five twin-turrets. The turrets were arranged with one at the bow, one on each wing of the ship’s bridge, and two along the centerline to the rear of the superstructure. Thus, the arrangement allowed the ship to fire eight heavy guns in a broadside, as compared to contemporary battleships that could answer only with four heavy guns.
HMS Dreadnought possessed no intermediate battery, making fire control and ammunition storage less difficult.Other features included turbine steam propulsion - the first use of lighter, dependable and efficient turbine engines in a battleship. These new engines allowed HMS Dreadnought to steam at almost twenty-one knots continuously, providing a speed advantage over potential enemy ships that would allow fleets to better close with a retreating enemy, avoid a more numerous enemy, or evade a torpedo threat when present. Dreadnought also featured redistributed armor to protect guns, engines, and magazines more effectively. Finally, an innovative bulkhead structure in the interior of the ship made flood control easier, providing better survivability.A hybrid heavy cruiser design, called a battlecruiser, featured similar characteristics, but possessed less heavy armor and fewer large guns to provide for even higher speed. Fisher’s concept for the battlecruiser was for it to be able to chase down any ship it wanted to attack, as well as be able to run from anything more powerful. When necessary, the battlecruiser could join the battle fleet and serve alongside Dreadnought battleships, since its large guns could provide a similar offensive capability.Ship HistoryTaking advantage of guns and turrets already completed for other ships and using other prefabricated construction, HMS Dreadnought was laid down in February 1906 and commissioned in December of the same year, a remarkable construction record for the time. By comparison, the US Navy’s first Dreadnought-style battleships, the USS South Carolina and USS Michigan, were laid down in December 1906 and not completed until early 1910.
Thus, in a single stroke Fisher and the Royal Navy stole the lead on other navies planning to produce an “all big gun” battleship and made all other battleships obsolete.As newer and larger Dreadnought designs joined the Royal Navy, the original vessel served as flagship for the Home Fleet from 1907 to 1911. During the First World War, HMS Dreadnought gained fame by being the only battleship to sink a when she rammed U-29 in March 1915. During the, she was in refit and thus never actually fired a shot in anger during the war.
After the war, she was sold for scrap along with most of her consorts and broken up in early 1923.ImpactContemporaries and historians have criticized Fisher for wiping the slate clean and negating advantage in pre-Dreadnought battleships. A new with began in 1906 but Britain would never lose its lead in battleships; by the outbreak of the war, Britain possessed twenty-nine Dreadnought battleships and battlecruisers while Germany only had seventeen. At the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916, 249 ships engaged in a massive naval battle that included fifty-eight Dreadnought battleships and battlecruisers, thirty-seven of them British and twenty-one of them German.Indeed, HMS Dreadnought provided her name to a new concept for battleship design that would continue to improve through the Second World War. The world’s final battleship class afloat, the US Navy’s Iowa class that served until the 1990s, owed its existence to the Admiralty’s leaders from the early years of the century.John Abbatiello, Independent ScholarSection Editor.