Dreadnoughts and battlecruisers
Leaps in naval technologies and intense rivalry with Germany spurred on massive changes to Britain’s senior service in a century famous for the biggest wars the world has ever seen.
From 1890 to 1914 the increase in size, speed and power was immense. The Royal Sovereign-class ships, built during the 1890s, marked a significant improvement in ship design for its time.
However, the advent of HMS Dreadnought in 1906 heralded a revolution in battleship design with subsequent improvements and technological advances.
By 1914 the Queen Elizabeth-class of dreadnought battleships had made even the original dreadnought obsolete with its superior speed, armour and firepower.
The invention of the battlecruiser, a ship combining the speed of an armoured cruiser with the big guns of a battleship, was also a celebrated leap in ship design. But the use of the battlecruiser in close fire sea battles had dreadful consequences in World War One.
Article highlights
-
Dreadnoughts and battlecruisers
Follow the links to find more about...
The Naval Arms Race
The lessons of the Russo Japanese War 1904 - 1905
Jackie Fisher and the Admiralty
Battleship design 1890 - 1914
Article highlights
-
Majestic class battleships 1894 – 1896
Majestic class 1894 – 1896
Ships of the class were HM Ships Majestic, Caesar, Hannibal, Illustrious, Jupiter, Magnificent, Mars, Prince George and Victorious. The ships were 14 890 tons with a complement of 672 men and could reach a top speed of around 16 knots.
With nine ships, this was the largest class of battleships ever built anywhere in the world. Experts considered the ships a great success and the design formed the basis of many classes that followed.
HMS Dreadnought revolutionised battleship design making all pre-Dreadnought ships obsolete. If taken as a typical pre-dreadnought class used at the turn of the 20th century, the Majestics can chart the difference between the pre-dreadnoughts and subsequent dreadnought designs.
As with all battleships of the time, the Majestics were powered by coal-fired triple expansion steam engines. They had a thick belt of armour round their vital parts, four long-barrelled guns in even more heavily armoured turrets with magazines directly below, about 12 lesser cannons in casemates along the sides and smaller rapid firing guns to deal with torpedo boats.
The Royal Navy fitted the Majestic class with a new main armament of 12-inch guns, considered superior to the 13.5-inch guns they replaced. There were also improvements in the way the guns were mounted.
The high velocity 12-inch guns were also possible by the introduction of “cordite” as a smokeless propellant. In order to gain the maximum benefit from the use of cordite the guns had to have longer barrels in order that the shell could reach a higher velocity before leaving the muzzle.
The introduction of this technology and type of gun resulted in weight and space saving. This allowed for a larger provision of secondary armament and more ammunition for the quick firing smaller guns, which was important in tackling the fast torpedo boats being introduced to the fleets in the late 19th century.
Another example of weight saving then being applied elsewhere was the use of Harvey armour which because it gave the equivalent protection with much reduced thickness more areas of the ships could be so protected. The Majestics had 9-inches of armour around their middle with 14-inches on their barbettes.
Since the Royal Navy had moved from the age of sail to the age of steam, British battleships had been fitted with expansion engines.
The Majestic battleships were powered by coal-fired triple expansion engines that would reuse the steam they made, making them more economical than the original single expansion engines as they used less coal and manpower.
Another feature of naval life on battleships that did not begin to alter until the introduction of the Queen Elizabeth class dreadnoughts of 1914-15 was the job of coaling the ship.
The Navy needed massive amounts of coal in order to power the ships. Coaling ship was a dirty job which the majority of the ship’s crew would have to help out with.
The Royal Navy also used the class for experiments in new technology. The Royal Navy used HMS Victorious to carry out experiments in “methods of controlling, directing and ranging gun fire in action”. This included testing out internal communications on board including early versions of electrical equipment.
The Royal Navy also fitted these ships with early and experimental wireless telegraphy (W/T) apparatus in 1902.
Article highlights
-
HMS Dreadnought, battleship 1906
HMS Dreadnought 1906
Dreadnought was the only ship of its class, but it inspired many subsequent battleships and new battlecruisers culminating with HMS Vanguard, launched in 1944.
Shipwrights laid the keel of the new battleship in Portsmouth Dockyard on 2 October 1905. The hull was launched on 10 February and the ship was completed in a record time, officially after only a year and a day in December 1906.
The speed with which Dreadnought was completed was only possible by ordering a lot of material in advance, by utilising guns and fittings already under construction for other ships.
The Royal Navy actually completed the last of the pre-dreadnought classes, the Lord Nelson class of battleships, after the first dreadnought due to its guns and materials being utilised in the construction of the new ship.
HMS Dreadnought was twice as powerful in heavy gun power as any existing battleship, faster by at least 3 knots and only required a similarly sized crew. Once completed the ship rendered all other battleships obsolete.
The design incorporated many new and existing technologies. The naval battles of the recent Russo-Japanese War greatly influenced the new design. After the war all naval observers thought that the big gun was the decisive factor in the battle for the supremacy of the seas.
Furthermore, due to the increasing ranges of battle, the need for a larger calibre of guns also occurred so that spotters could accurately identify the fall of shot.
Whilst a number of the leading Navies in the world were grappling with the concept, the vast resources available to the Royal Navy in terms of design effort and ship building capacity allied to the dynamic leadership provided by Admiral Fisher ensured that Britain produced the first ship.
As a consequence of the successful design, all future battleships are often referred to as ‘dreadnoughts’.
The ship had five twin 12-inch gun turrets against two twin turrets of previous designs. The disadvantage of the design was the use of wing turrets, which limited arc of fire and reduced the effective broadside to only four turrets.
The Royal Navy did not deal with this disadvantage in the immediate classes that followed since they had reservations about the impact of superimposed turrets when fired.
Designers assessed that the ship did not need a secondary armament due to its long-range firepower. However, the threat from close action with torpedo boats ensured that the navy added 12-pounder guns.
After Dreadnought's construction the guns were recognised as being insufficient so the next class of dreadnought battleships, the Bellerophon class, dropped the 12-pounder guns and made their secondary armament up of 4-inch guns.
Steam turbines provided the propulsion of the vessel. These had been introduced in the late 1890s and had been used in destroyers, but this was the first use in a large warship and they were larger than any used before.
The engines were lighter and more powerful than the reciprocating type, and required less crew to look after them. HMS Dreadnought was a comparatively massive 18,110 tons but only had a complement of 695 men and was capable of a speed of 21 knots.
The other major advance with this ship was the use of turbine engines driving 4 shafts rather than the 2 of previous classes. This along with changes in the hull design produced a speed of 21 knots – a 3-knot advantage over every other battleship in the world.
These engines also had a high level of reliability particularly over high speeds and also had a lower frequency and length of overhauls.
HMS Dreadnought was one of the first ships to be fitted with electrical range finding instruments. The ship had most of the instruments to give effective long-range fire but the co-ordination of all the instruments was still not achievable.
The Navy fitted a Director Tower housing a Dumaresq device for predicting the rate of change within the range and a rangefinder above the ship in the tripod mast.
They also built a Transmitting Station, or T/S, into the heart of the ship for receiving and calculating ranges for a more centralised gunnery system. It was 1909 before an effective centralised system was introduced on HMS Neptune.
The dreadnought battleships really caught the public’s imagination when HMS Dreadnought was completed in 1906. HMS Dreadnought was as famous in its day as Concorde or the space shuttle in theirs. Many types of souvenirs were produced for sale to the general public.
Article highlights
-
Orion class battleships 1910 – 1911
Orion class 1910 – 1911
The Orion-class included HM Ships Orion, Conqueror, Monarch and Thunderer. The ships were 22 200 tons with a complement of around 752 men. They were a sixth class of dreadnoughts to be produced and were the first "super dreadnoughts" which were heavier, with better armour protection and carrying bigger guns than HMS Dreadnought.
The main armament fitted was the 13.5-inch gun instead of the 12-inch gun. The latest version of the latter was proving to be inaccurate and suffered too much barrel wear.
The new gun had a lower muzzle velocity and larger shell, which helped reduce instability in flight and thus increase accuracy. It could fire a 1400 pound shell 24 000 yards.
All main armament was now on centre line for the first time in British battleship design. There were however, problems with this design as it retained old designed sighting hoods. These hoods prevented the gun crew of the top turrets firing without the risk of injuring the gun crew of the lower ones.
Designers also greatly improved fire control apparatus in these ships, enabling the main turrets to fire salvos in most weather conditions. In 1911 the Royal Navy installed a second prototype Director Control system in HMS Thunderer.
The Orion-class ships cost the Admiralty almost £1.9m to build. By World War One however, the Queen Elizabeth class battleships (1913-15) greatly outdated the Orions.
They had larger, guns, faster speeds and better armour protection, highlighting the massive technological change of the early 20th century.
Article highlights
-
Queen Elizabeth class battleships 1913 – 1915
Queen Elizabeth class 1913 – 1915
The Queen Elizabeth-class became known as ‘super fast dreadnoughts’ as they were faster, more heavily protected and carried a bigger main armament than any other warship at the time. Because of this, the ships were regarded as the finest battleships of their time.
The class included HM Ships Queen Elizabeth, Barham, Valiant, Warspite and Malaya. The ships were 27 500 tons and had a complement of 925 men.
The Queen Elizabeth class also was the first class of Royal Naval battleships to be powered entirely by oil, rather than coal, which gave them more endurance and efficiency.
They were also cleaner, more spacious and produced less smoke than coal-fired ships. Below is a paper prepared by former First Sea Lord Baron John Fisher of Kilverstone in his role as the Chairman for the Royal Commission on Fuel outlining the various arguments for switching to oil-fired engines.
The provision of oil for the warships meant that First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill had to secure oil supplies in wartime leading to the Anglo-Persian Oil Convention in 1913.
As a consequence of concerns about the supply of oil in wartime, the next class of dreadnoughts, the Revenge class, was built with both an oil and coal-firing capacity. This made it slower and less effective than its predecessor - an obvious back step in naval technology.
The Queen Elizabeth class was the first battleship to be built to carry the newly developed 15-inch guns that were being designed by the Admiralty.
The ship was developed around the guns as the naval arms race expanded the limits of naval technology. The 15” guns were to prove more accurate and suffer less barrel wear than the 13.5-inch gun.
They had a heavier broadside than any other five-turret predecessor with guns firing a 1920-pound shell thus producing a broadside of approximately 16 000 pounds.
Article highlights
-
HMS Invincible, battlecruiser 1907
HMS Invincible 1907
To Fisher the dreadnought design was a compromise on his vision of Britain’s new fighting ships. Fisher had envisaged a faster ship with less armour, more along the lines of a cruiser but with the firepower that the dreadnought ultimately carried. His battlecruiser brainchild was realised in 1907 with the launch of HMS Invincible.
HMS Invincible was the first battlecruiser ever built. This class represented the ultimate version of the Armoured Cruiser and was based on the combination of heavy guns and high speed. Admiral Fisher was convinced that speed could compensate for a lower level of armour protection.
The Invincible class consisted of HM Ships Invincible, Inflexible and Indomitable. They were long ships- 567 ft compared with HMS Dreadnought’s 527 ft. This was in order to accommodate the number of boilers required to give them their top speed of 26 knots compared with HMS Dreadnought’s speed of 21 knots.
This speed was also achieved by using 4 shafts and twin rudders. The ships were 17 373 tons and had a complement of 784 men in comparison to HMS Dreadnought’s 18 110 tons and 695 men.
These first battlecruisers only had eight 12-inch guns set in 4 turrets. The practice of wing turrets was still in place and meant that 50% of the main armament had limited firing arcs.
However, in recognition of the limitations of HMS Dreadnought’s 12-pounder guns, the battlecruiser’s secondary armaments were improved by the addition of 4-inch quick fire guns.
Article highlights
-
HMS Tiger, battlecruiser 1913
HMS Tiger 1913
HMS Tiger was the only ship of its class, a sister ship, Leopard, was planned but never built. Tiger was an improvement on the battlecruiser design and at 29 knots and 704 foot was the largest and fastest ship afloat at the time.
Designers were going to base HMS Tiger on the Lion class battlecruiser. Shipbuilders modified it, however, following the new and more balanced design of the Japanese battlecruiser Kongo under construction at Vickers shipbuilders at the time.
The end result was a ship that weighed 28 430 tons and had a complement of 1121 men.
The Royal Navy installed 13.5-inch guns with a better arrangement of the wing turrets to allow a better arc of fire. They also increased the ship’s secondary armament from 4-inch guns to 6-inch guns, matching the newest British battleships of the time.
Unfortunately for the battlecruisers, the lightly armoured ships were vulnerable against similar ships with large calibre guns as witnessed at the Battle of Jutland in 1916.
HMS Tiger survived the battle, its distant relative, HMS Invincible, however, did not.
