They were capable of running at full power for much longer periods of time, whereas the old reciprocating steam engines were liable to run themselves to pieces if used to the same extent. They ran much more smoothly, making maintenance and general life below decks easier.

Steam turbines were more efficient and compact, enabling higher speeds. Speed: This was the first battleship to be constructed with revolutionary new steam turbines, rather than the old triple expansion reciprocating steam engines. What's the point in covering your ship in medium to small guns that could theoretically savage an opponent up close when the opponent can blast you out of the water before you can even begin to get close enough?Īccuracy: The vessel was one of the first to be equipped with a modern fire control system that could electrically transmit firing instructions to the turrets, which enabled it to make effective use of the large main guns which would have been hopelessly inaccurate just a few decades previously. The design did away with the old practice of having a vast number of secondary guns of various calibres in favour of having the largest number of heavy guns as possible, which could fire further and hit harder than the previous masses of secondaries. There were four main aspects of Dreadnought responsible for this.įirepower: Dreadnought was armed with 10x 305 mm cannons and could broadside with 8 of them in an era where a battleship could have half that and be considered heavily armed. HMS Dreadnought is the battleship that launched the dreadnought revolution when built by First Sea Lord Jackie Fisher in 1906, turning every previous battleship obsolete to the point that they are now collectively referred to as pre-dreadnoughts and Dreadnought became the official name of this new class of warship.

The HMS Dreadnought, 1917 is a rank V British battleship

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