Shipwreck Monday-HMS Dreadnought

 

HMS Dreadnought was a battleship of the Royal Navy. She revolutionized naval power. HMS Dreadnought entry into service in 1906. HMS Dreadnought represented such a marked advance in naval technology that her name came to be associated with an entire generation of battleships, the "dreadnoughts", as well as the class of ships named after her, while the generation of ships she made obsolete became known as "pre-dreadnoughts". She was the sixth ship of that name in the Royal Navy.

Admiral Sir John "Jackie" Fisher, First Sea Lord of the Board of Admiralty, is credited as the father of the HMS Dreadnought. Shortly after he assumed office he ordered design studies for a battleship armed solely with 12-inch guns and a speed of 21 knots. He convened a "Committee on Designs" to evaluate the alternative designs and to assist in the detailed design process. One ancillary benefit of the Committee was that it would shield him, and the Admiralty, from political charges that they had not consulted leading experts before designing such a radically different battleship.

HMS Dreadnought was the first battleship of her era to have a uniform main battery, rather than having a few large guns complemented by a heavy secondary battery of somewhat smaller guns. HMS Dreadnought was also the first capital ship to be powered by steam turbines, making her the fastest battleship in the world at the time of her completion. HMS Dreadnought launch helped spark a major naval arms race as navies around the world, particularly the German Imperial Navy rushed to match her in the build-up to World War I.

HMS Dreadnought did not participate in any of World War I's naval battles as she was being refitted during the Battle of Jutland in 1916. This was only time that British dreadnought battleships fired on their German counterparts during the war. However, HMS Dreadnought became the only battleship ever to sink a submarine when she rammed the SM U-29 when it unexpectedly broke the surface after firing a torpedo at another dreadnought in 1915. After Jutland, HMS Dreadnought was relegated to coast defense duties in the English Channel, only rejoining the Grand Fleet in 1918. She was reduced to reserve in 1919 and sold for scrap on 9 May 1921 for £44,000.