HMS Dreadnought (1906)

The sixth HMS Dreadnought of the British Royal Navy was the first battleship to be entirely armed with only the largest guns available, instead of having secondary and sometimes tertiary batteries of smaller guns. She was also the first large warship to be powered by steam turbines, making her the fastest warship of her size. She was so much in advance of existing designs that ships built to her pattern were known generally as "dreadnoughts", and everything else classified as "pre-dreadnoughts". Her introduction sparked off a major naval arms race as navies around the world rushed to match her.

Existing battleship designs of the era typically mounted four large guns in dual-gun turrets fore and aft, and then a number of smaller guns lining the sides in a fashion similar to older sailing ships. Not only did this limit the amount of long-range firepower to four guns, but it also allowed water into the ship through the many openings nearer the waterline.

Dreadnought was the idea, eventually, of Admiral Jackie Fisher, who became First Sea Lord in 1904. Fisher wanted to replace existing battleships with fast all-big-gun armoured cruisers, called battlecruisers, which could deal with both battleships and cruisers. Armour was not as important as the number of big guns that could penetrate any armour at long range, the savings in weight of the reduced armor resulting in higher speeds, allowing the ships to run from unfavourable situations. However, Fisher's colleagues at the Admiralty were not so revolutionary, so Fisher gave in and built an all-big-gun battleship instead.

The concept was simple, and had been a consideration among naval planners for a few years. Dreadnought would use steam turbines in place of the older triple-expansion engines that had powered almost all previous ships, with a design speed of 21 knots. This would allow her to outrun any combat ship then afloat, making her largely immune to mass attacks by an enemy fleet, or by smaller but deadly craft such as torpedo boats and submarines. Thus protected from smaller ships, lighter guns that would normally be placed along the sides of the ship to deal with them could be removed. This left considerably more room for only the largest of guns, which were placed on turrets on the main deck. In a duel with an opposing battleship, she would be able to bring to bear at least eight of her ten 12 inch guns, while facing perhaps four guns of similar size, and a host of smaller weapons that would not even be able to be used as the Dreadnought cruised at long range and moved away from any attempt to close with her to bring these smaller weapons to bear. This arrangement of armament meant the Dreadnought was equal to three or more battleships in "real" firepower during combat.

So convinced that construction of the design would be ordered, Fisher started stockpiling steel for use on the ship before a construction slip was even available. This proved lucky, because during the stockpiling phase a new hull shape was identified that would decrease drag, and therefore increase speed. Fisher, happy with the original 21 knot speed, used up the additional performance by further increasing the weight of armor. The final design mounted 11 inches of armor on the sides and turrets, about 3 inches more than designs from only a year earlier. Construction finally started in October 1905, and she was launched in February 1906, after only four months on the ways, and went to sea on October 3rd, only a year and a day after construction started.

Dreadnought was commissioned for trials December 1906, and in January 1907 she sailed for the Mediterranean Sea and then to Port-o-Spain, Trinidad. Her engines and guns were given a thorough workout by Captain Sir Reginald Bacon. His report stated No member of the Committee on Designs dared to hope that all the innovations introduced would have turned out as successfully as had been the case. The Royal Navy's next six battleships were built along essentially the same lines. Returning to Portsmouth, Dreadnought became flagship of the Home Fleet between 1907 and 1912. As such she spent most of her time in home waters, with occasional cruises to Spain and the Mediterranean.

Her building, trials and early service were closely watched by the world's naval authorities. Her design so thoroughly eclipsed earlier types that subsequent battleships were generically known as "dreadnoughts" and previous ones disparaged as "pre-dreadnoughts." Her time of outright superiority was short, however. Dreadnought had originally been built to show other navies the futility of attempting to go toe-to-toe with the Royal Navy, but as in the past (see HMS Warrior for instance), they underestimated the German fleet's desire to maintain parity. Her contruction sparked off another naval arms race, and soon all major fleets were adding Dreadnought-like designs.

As even faster designs were put into service, Dreadnought found herself vunerable to smaller craft again, and since the design ignored these as a factor, she was generally underarmored for torpedo attacks. Smaller 12-pounder guns were added on top of the main turrets to help fend off torpedo boats, and a system for anti-torpedo netting was added along the sides for protection while in port. However these changes were not enough to convince the Admiralty that she would be safe with newer torpedo boats and submarines shadowing the battle fleets.

Dreadnought saw only limited action in World War I. For the first two years of the war she served in the Fourth Battle Squadron in the North Sea. Her most significant action, ironically, was ramming and sinking the German submarine U-29 on 18 March 1915. Withdrawn from the fleet because her low speed made it impossible to keep station, from May 1916, Dreadnought was flagship of the 3rd Battle Squadron, based on the Thames to counter the threat of bombardment by German battlecruisers. She returned to the Grand Fleet from March to August 1918. Put in reserve at Rosyth after the war, Dreadnought was paid off on March 31, 1920. Sold to T. Ward & Company in 1922, she was broken up at Inverness in 1923.

See HMS Dreadnought for other ships of the same name.

See also: Dreadnought Hoax

General characteristics