HMS Dreadnought, the Arms Race, and World War I(1)

The Age of Steam was born at the beginning of the 19^th Century. In the midst of an industrial revolution, the first iron armored and artificially powered warships were commissioned. Warships would lose their sails, their wooden hulls, and even their primary armaments during this period of industrial advancement. In place of sails, ships would acquire steam engines, which would propel the vessels to previously unheard of speeds. Wooden hulls would be replaced with iron, from keel to gunwale granting tremendous strength and allowing warships to grow to gargantuan size. Huge rifled cannons mounted in traversable turrets would replace the fixed broadsides of previous ships of the line. Before this age warships were designed for and would always fight within sight of each other, after this era ships would no longer be designed for and would rarely fight within sight of each other.

By the turn of the 20^th Century naval warship design in the Age of Steam had reached its zenith and the most revolutionary design conceived during the period, HMS Dreadnought, would spark an arms race that culminated in a war so great, that at the time it would be called “The War to end all Wars.” The day HMS Dreadnought was commissioned all previous design were rendered obsolete, and a game of one-upmanship between the United Kingdom and the German Empire would commence, in which the German Empire sought to challenge the Royal Navy’s supremacy of the seas. The challenge would culminate with the Battle of Jutland; the largest modern naval battle fought solely surface combatants. HMS Dreadnought would be the catalyst for one of the most destructive wars in human history, and prove so dominant a design that all battleships before her would carry the description pre-dreadnoughts and those that followed would simply be known as dreadnoughts.

The first known instances of naval warfare occurred more than 3000 years ago in the Mediterranean Sea and thus began the Age of Galleys, with the basic tactics involved being to ram or board enemy vessels. Warships such, as the trireme and quinquereme, utilizing oars for primary propulsion, bronze-capped projections in the bow for ramming and movable bridges for boarding actions, were designed specifically for these tactics. This age would persist for the next 2000 years until advancements in two key categories forced design and tactics changes upon the navies of the world.

By early in the 16^th Century sails had replaced oars, and ships began to see cannons placed on deck. The prevailing naval tactics would turn away from ramming and boarding, to be replaced with standoff tactics built primarily around a ships broadside. The Age of Sail would endure for nearly 400 years, and provide for the emergence of an empire upon which the sun would never set. The age would begin its decline with the beginning of a revolution, not of war but of industry, that would forever alter every facet of human life.

The first practical steamship would be launched in 1807, designed by Robert Fulton. Fulton’s prototype vessel, Clermont, sailed up the Hudson River at 7 knots, rate of speed that was unheard of for the time.[1] The Age of Steam was in its infancy.

It would take 50 years of development for the next major advances in ship design. In 1858, the French warship La Gloire would be the first warship commissioned with iron plating, followed swiftly by the HMS Warrior; however as advanced as La Gloire and HMS Warrior were, they still used sails for long-range propulsion. Development on steam engines had been ongoing for 54 years before a major warship was launched that utilized only steam for propulsion and carried no sails whatsoever; in the event two ships were commissioned within days of each other. Both vessels, USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (ex-USS Merrimac) would also be clad in iron plate armor, and would meet each other in combat near Hampton Roads, Virginia. The Monitor would also harness another major advance in warship design; a turret for the primary weapons battery. The designers of the CSS Virginia looked backward for their vessels primary weapon, and installed a ram on the prow of their vessel. The ensuing battle, though technically indecisive, would prove the value of a turreted weapons platform and lay to rest the tactic of ramming for anything other than desperation.[2]

The last major advancement came in the mid 1870’s with steel frames and hulls replacing the wooden frames and hulls that had served since the beginning of seafaring history. The introduction of steel hulls allowed ships to grow in size exponentially, leading to pre-Dreadnought battleship displacements[3] approaching 16,000 tons. By 1890 all of the basic elements of the modern battleship had been developed, and in 1906 Great Britain combine them into a game changing vessel HMS Dreadnought.[4]

[1] (Foster n.d.)

[2] (Hore 2010)

[3] A ships size is defined by the amount, in weight, of water she displaces. A 16,000-ton vessel displaces 16,000-tons of saltwater. (NOT freshwater which has different buoyancy characteristics)

[4] (The Dreadnought 1906 Vol 25)