HMS Dreadnought (1905)
HMS Dreadnought (1905) was a British battleship of a radically new fast, "all-big-gun" design, urged by Admiral "Jacky" Fisher. By having the speed to pick her engagements, and firepower greater than any other vessel of the time, she triggered a European arms race, since she made obsolete every other battleship, even British ones being built at the same time.[1]
The "all-big-gun" design meant she had no secondary battery. Earlier battleships had secondary and tertiary batteries of guns of appreciable size, meant to fight other armored ships. This added great complexity to the fire control systems of the day, but not much practical firepower.
She never actually fired a gun in anger, although did destroy a German submarine by ramming. Obsoleted by continuing naval advancement, she was scrapped in 1923.
References
- ↑ Robert K. Massie (1991), Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War, Ballantine, ISBN 0-345-37556-4, pp. 468-473