HMS Dreadnought, The Revolutionary British Battleship
"The ship that [British Admiral Sir John]Fisher set out to build would become known as the HMS Dreadnought, a name that came from the saying “dread nought but God.' ”
"Feb. 10, 1906, King Edward VII smashed a bottle of champagne against the bow of the British Navy’s newest warship as a crowd of 60,000 watched. But the bottle didn’t break. It took the king multiple tries to finally shatter the glass, which, perhaps, shouldn’t have been surprising. The newly built HMS Dreadnought was unlike any ship that had ever existed.
"The Dreadnought was not only equipped with a stunning array of high-powered guns. It could not only outrun any other ship on the planet. It had also been built by the British Navy in roughly 12 months.
"World powers across the globe took notice, and the United States, Russia, and France swiftly started building “dreadnoughts” of their own. But the new British warship especially caught the attention of Germany.
"The Germans had long desired to become a world power, and they knew that a strong navy was key. Though the Germans had already started to expand their navy at the turn of the 20th century, the introduction of the HMS Dreadnought put this effort into overdrive. Before long, Germany and Great Britain were engaged in a naval arms race.
"On the eve of World War I, the two countries began to battle for supremacy at sea.
"The Brewing Naval Arms Race Between Great Britain And Germany
"At the turn of the 20th century, both Great Britain and Germany wanted to modernize their navies — although for different reasons.
"For Germany, it was a matter of being taken seriously as an empire. As a relatively new country — Germany had unified in 1871 — the Germans believed that a strong navy was the key to becoming a global power.
"Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz set out to make this dream a reality by building up the German Navy. The Navy Bills of 1898 and 1900 aimed to expand Germany’s network of ships, with the goal of creating a fleet that could stand up to the British. Tirpitz reasoned that if the Imperial German Navy was competitive with the Royal Navy, Great Britain would be more accommodating toward Germany’s ambition to become a world power." . . .
A senior staff writer for All That's Interesting since 2021 and co-host of the History Uncovered Podcast, Kaleena Fraga graduated with a dual degree in American History and French Language and Literature from Oberlin College. She previously ran the presidential history blog History First, and has had work published in The Washington Post, Gastro Obscura, and elsewhere. She has published more than 1,200 pieces on topics including history and archaeology. She is based in Brooklyn, New York.
