The launch of HMS Dreadnought in February 1906 ushered in a new era in naval warfare. As a result the country embarked on a whirlwind Although the Royal Navy was by far the largest fleet in the world, and the Dreadnought levelled the playing field – Britain had to build a new fleet of dreadnoughts from scratch, and build them faster than her foreign rivals. Fisher not only supported Watts, but he ensured that the first ship of this new type – the Dreadnought – was approved and built in record time.
His visionary ship was also faster than its predecessors, as it relied on steam turbines for propulsion. Watts had a vision – the creation of a battle fleet of multi-turreted big gun battleships, capital ships that were larger and more powerful than any warship that had come before. Dreadnought was the brainchild of two men – the British First Sea Lord Admiral Sir John Fisher, and Sir Philip Watts, the Director of Naval Construction (DNC). Nothing more clearly demonstrates the revolutionary aspect of the Dreadnought than the fact that virtually overnight these earlier battleships were deemed antediluvian, and no longer worthy of a place in a modern battle fleet. They were referred to by the somewhat derogatory term ‘pre-dreadnoughts’. Following her completion in 1906 she not only became the most powerful warship in the world, but she also rendered all previous battleships obsolete. Only one combined that honour with the even greater one of having an era of naval history named after her. Fewer still were so revolutionary that they gave their name to a type of ship.
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