In 1900 Great Britain maintained a “two power standard” of naval strength. Numerically this meant that the Royal Navy must equal the combined strength of any other two nations.
The typical battleship at that time, more or less common to all navies, was a steel sip of about 17,000 tons with four 12-inch guns in two turrets and up to 40 smaller guns of varying and often questionable value, with a speed of 18-19 knots. These battleships were known generally as “mixed armament ships”, and their fighting range amounted to little more than 3,000 yards.
In 1904, Admiral Sir John Fisher was appointed First Sea Lord. Fisher had made up his mind that a new battleship was essential for Britain to retain her naval supremacy. This would have to be an “all big gun” ship, her guns needing to produce a much more deadly salvo at a greater range.
Thus HMS Dreadnought was born. The keel was laid on 2nd October 1905, four months later she was launched and this great revolutionary ship was ready for trials on 3rd October 1906.
Her cost was £1,783,883, but the gamble paid off. Built in almost complete secrecy, the “Dreadnought” mounted ten 12-inch guns in five turrets. She was protected by 12-inch armour, had a displacement of 17,250 tons and could attain a speed of 21 knots, powered by turbine engines. This awe inspiring ship overshadowed every other battleship afloat and especially those of Germany, the principal challenger to British naval supremacy.
Germany had already committed herself to building a series of Deutschland class battleships of 13,400 tons, with old fashioned mixed armament.
So, while Germany digested these unpleasant facts, Britain pressed ahead with her building programme and maintained her lead –at least on paper – to such an extent that by 1918 she had completed forty-eight Dreadnoughts to Germany’s twenty-six. France , Italy and Russia all commissioned these new and expensive symbols of power and even South American republics ordered a “brace or two”.
From then on “Dreadnought” gave it’s name to every capital ship of a similar kind built anywhere in the world until the end of the big ship era at the close of the Second World War.
GB SG1190,Sierra Leone SG2634, Marshall Is SG812