Battleship of the English fleet dreadnought. Dreadnought (ship class). New explanatory and word-formative dictionary of the Russian language, T. F. Efremova

Dreadnought (ship class)

The oldest surviving dreadnought, BB-35 Texas, launched in 1912

Superdreadnought

Five years after the Dreadnought was commissioned, a new generation of more powerful battleships was built. The first super-dreadnoughts are considered to be the British Orion-class battleships. The introduction of powerful 13.5-inch (343 mm) main caliber artillery and increased onboard armor allowed them to be called “super”. In the five years between Dreadnought and Orion, displacement increased by 25%, and the weight of the broadside doubled.

Notes

Literature

Taras A. E. Encyclopedia of armadillos and battleships. - M.: Harvest, AST, 2002. - ISBN 985-13-1009-3
All the world's battleships. 1906 to the present. - London: Conway Maritime Press, 1996. - ISBN 0-85177-691-4
Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1906-1921. - Annapolis, Maryland, U.S.A.: Naval Institute Press, 1985. - ISBN 0-87021-907-3
Friedman N. U.S. Battleships: An Illustrated Design History. - Annapolis, Maryland, U.S.A.: Naval Institute Press, 1985. - ISBN 0-087021-715 -1
Silverstone P.H. The New Navy. 1883-1922. - New York, USA: Routledge, 2006. - ISBN 978-0-415-97871-2
Gardiner R., Gray R. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906–1921. - New York, USA: Naval Institute Press, 1984. - ISBN 0-87021-907-3

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At the beginning of 1905, in those very days when the Russian fleet was rushing to the shores of Japan to meet its destruction, the Committee created by the First Sea Lord John Arbuthnot Fisher had already developed a plan for the reconstruction of the British fleet “from keel to keel”. The admiral himself declared: “I will change everything! And I don’t advise you to interfere with me - I will destroy anyone who gets in my way.” In a memorandum sent to members of the Admiralty, Fisher wrote: "The new fleet will consist of four classes of ships and will meet all the requirements of modern warfare." He listed these classes: battleships with a displacement of 15,900 tons, capable of speeds of up to 21 knots; armored cruisers (15,900 tons, 25.5 knots), destroyers (900 tons, 36 knots) and submarines (350 tons, 13 knots).

The committee that was to revive the British fleet in a new capacity included experienced naval officers, prominent shipbuilders and major industrialists. Together they knew almost everything about artillery, armor and the performance of ships, fire control and torpedoes, communications and fuel. Among the civilians it included such luminaries of British science as Sir Philip Watts, a shipbuilder who left his private company to take up the post of director of the Royal Dockyards in Portsmouth, and Lord Kelvin, the famous Irish physicist and mathematician at the University of Glasgow, who invented the temperature scale and the submarine cable. , which made the international telegraph a reality. Members of the Committee also included Prince Louis of Battenberg, Rear Admiral, Chief of Naval Intelligence and nephew (by wife) of King Edward VII, 46-year-old Captain John R. Jellicoe, who, like Fisher himself, had extensive experience and diverse knowledge in maritime affairs and knew artillery down to its intricacies. His fame did not extend beyond a narrow circle of naval officers, but it was he who, in the hour of severe trials, was destined to take command of the newborn fleet.

First of all, the Committee began to realize Fisher's long-standing and reverent dream - the creation of a battleship. Conducting artillery exercises for a ship, squadron, or fleet, he often used Napoleon’s favorite formula “Frappez vite et frappez fort” (“Strike often and hard”) and had long nurtured the image of a ship that would sail faster and deliver blows more crushing than the previous ones. Five years before his “accession”, he persuaded his friend V. H. Gard, who then held the position of chief builder at the Royal Dockyards in Malta, to sketch drawings of such an ideal ship. Fisher gave the imaginary battleship the name Antacable, and the project the Committee began working on in 1905 received the same name. It is not known by whom and when the name “Dreadnought” (“Fearless”) was chosen, which had the fate of becoming a symbol of a new era in shipbuilding and naval art.

However, this name, which at different times was borne by seven ships of the British fleet (the first Dreadnought fought with the Invincible Armada in 1588), was in line with the long-standing tradition of “animating” a new warship entering service, giving it the name of its predecessor, once instilling fear in enemies.

But no matter what the name of the ship being created was, it marked a real breakthrough in navigation and - for all its novelty - was the brainchild of its time. Although later it was Fisher who began to be considered the creator of the Dreadnought, it was not he who owned the defining and fundamentally new features of this battleship - high speed qualities combined with the fact that it was armed exclusively with long-range, large-caliber artillery. Scientific achievements in this area made it possible to increase the salvo range more and more, and naval thought around the world gradually came to the conclusion of the need to replace the “motley” naval artillery with heavy and homogeneous main-caliber guns.

In addition to the fact that this made it possible to conduct intense fire at a maximum distance, the unification of naval artillery greatly facilitated the search for a target and determining the distance to it. In the recent past, both were left largely to chance until Admiral Sir Percy Scott invented the electric gunfire control device in 1912. Until then, the guidance and target search systems remained at the same level as in Nelson's times. Officially it was called “take it into the fork,” but it would be more appropriate to say “fire as God pleases.”

The artillery spotter officer, being in the conning tower, ordered a series of salvos to be fired during the battle and, based on the bursts, “pinpointed” the places where the shells fell. Then he made adjustments, using a speaking tube connected to the gun turrets to communicate with the gunners, and hoped for the best. Only after the target was taken into the “fork”, that is, half of the shells went short and half overshot, was the true range of the target determined, and then very arbitrarily and approximately, since the area of the “fork” could be no less than an acre. Even the well-trained gunners of Admiral Togo in the Battle of Tsushima failed in half the cases: out of every 100 shells fired from a distance of 7000 yards, only 42 hit Russian ships, and 58 exploded uselessly at sea.

Of course, while long-range artillery was “talking,” small-caliber guns turned into ballast. But when the ships got close enough to put all calibers into action, the rough approximation of fire adjustments became especially clear. It was often difficult for an officer to notice the explosions of small and medium shells among the high columns of water thrown up by the main caliber shells. When he succeeded, his work had only just begun: 6-, 9-, and 12-inch shells heading towards the same target had different trajectories and, therefore, required different elevation angles. Thus, the fire spotter in the utter hell of the battle had to shout corrections into the speaking tube for not just one gun, but for all the calibers on board.

The first design of a ship capable of carrying on board a large number of long-range guns was developed by a man endowed with outstanding talents, but who lived in a country whose fleet was weak and small. The Italian shipbuilder Vittorio Cuniberti had already given him the first gun platform and projectile lifts driven by electricity. In 1902, he presented to the government a design for a 17,000-ton battleship armed with a dozen 12-inch guns, 12-inch armor protecting the vital centers of the ship. However, Italy had neither the money nor the “production capacity” to build it. The battleship remained in the blue. Cuniberti shared his idea with the Englishman Fred T. Jane, publisher of the yearbook “Warships,” which contained both lists of ships included in the fleets of the whole world and the opinions of leading scientists, often polar opposites. In 1903, Jane published Cuniberti's design and his article entitled "The Ideal Battleship for the British Navy."

The “ideal battleship,” in addition to large-caliber artillery, was supposed to have an unheard-of speed of 24 knots, which was six knots higher than the average of that time. “The bull in the empty space of the circus arena consoles himself with the thought that since he surpasses the agile and agile bullfighter in strength, the battlefield will certainly remain behind him,” Cuniberti declared with imagery worthy of the heir of the Romans, “but he is too slow to overtake his opponent, and he almost always manages to avoid the terrifying blow of the horns.”

The appearance of the article in the yearbook evoked the most controversial responses, perfectly characterizing the confusion in the minds that reigned at that time. Conservative-minded British experts reacted to it with a wide range of feelings - from indignation to polite bewilderment. Sir William White, who previously headed the shipbuilding department, considered the proposal to remove auxiliary artillery from ships as outrageous. The Engineer magazine was less categorical and expressed itself evasively: “The day will come when such a ship will appear in our fleet, but, in our opinion, it will not be soon.” However, such a day has come. The President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, who loved the navy very much, but had little understanding of it, submitted to Congress a proposal to build for the American Navy Naval forces battleship with uniform and heavy armament. At the beginning of 1904, this bill was approved, and the Americans laid down two battleships. Meanwhile, work was already in full swing at the Japanese shipyards. And Jackie Fisher needed all his devilish zeal and eloquence to convince his inert compatriots: it was time to catch up with the “leaking away” world.

For the members of the Committee created by Fisher, the question of heavy and homogeneous weapons was obvious, but without causing controversy, it was on a different plane for them: how many large-caliber guns should be on the ship and where to place them. They finally settled on ten (Cuniberti’s project included 12), since, according to the unanimous opinion of the Committee members, the displacement of the future battleship should not exceed 18,000 tons.

They decided to place them as follows: one pair - on the nose; two more pairs - in the middle part of the ship (midship) on the left and right sides; and two more - closer to the stern, but in the center, so that all four guns could fire simultaneously both from the sides and from the stern. This synchronicity was of particular importance: six guns fired from the bow or stern and eight from the side, while the best battleships of the previous era, armed with four 12-inch guns, fired from the bow (or stern) with two guns and from the side with four. Thus, the Dreadnought had twice the firepower of any battleship firing a broadside, and three times more firepower than any battleship firing from bow guns. The latter circumstance especially pleased the assertive and aggressive Fischer, who was firmly convinced that the enemy would always run away from the pursuing Dreadnought and would then come under the deadly fire of the bow guns, more powerful than the fire on the side.

The design documentation was prepared by May 1905 and the blues were sent to the Royal Dockyards in Portsmouth, where the hull was laid down on October 2. From that day on, the construction moved forward at breakneck speed. Fischer got involved so quickly in all the details, so persistently hurried and urged the engineers and workers that his invariable phrase “Pull in - or get out!” became a proverb among the dockers.

However, he was far from just a customizer - Fischer came up with and implemented many innovations that saved time at each stage of construction. One of these innovations was standard, that is, interchangeable, design parts. Just at the time when the Committee was developing the Dreadnought project, the battleship King Edward VII was being completed on the slipway, the massive hull of which was welded from several thousand steel plates of various configurations - they were cut from sheets brought from factories, and then within several took months to put together and fit together - this work was reminiscent of putting together a “puzzle picture”. Fisher insisted that the Dreadnought's hull consist largely of interchangeable steel plates of standard rectangular shape. They were brought from the factory, unloaded and any of them was placed in the right place, and all the delays - however small - were associated with the wait for sheets of a particularly complex configuration. This simple innovation saved almost a whole year of working time, and if on average the construction of a ship from laying to launching took 16 months, then the 527-foot hull of the Dreadnought, literally before the eyes of the amazed dockers, took shape in just 18 weeks - a negligibly short period. On February 10, 1906, the new battleship was prepared for launching.

The completion of the building “next to the wall” and the installation of weapons and equipment also took place with lightning speed. The foundry capacity in 1905 was such that it would have taken several years to produce ten 12-inch guns. However, Fisher, who never took into account generally accepted norms and rules, achieved the immediate installation of eight guns intended for the battleships Agamemnon and Lord Nelson under construction. Thanks to this “interception,” work was again carried out far ahead of schedule.

On October 3, 1906, the Dreadnought began sea trials. Instead of 3-3.5 years, which usually took ships of this class to be built, the mighty armored battleship was born in one year and one day, that is, by the standards of that time - in the blink of an eye. Many rightly saw something providential in this. And although it was not Fisher who invented this unprecedented ship, no one disputed the decisive role of the admiral in the fantastic speed with which the Dreadnought was built, and in how wisely and resourcefully he led the creation of this Leviathan.

Sea trials of the Dreadnought became a real sensation. From Portsmouth he went south to the Mediterranean Sea, and from there, across the Atlantic, to Trinidad, after which he returned to his native shores. Tests have shown that at full load the turbines are capable of providing the ship with a speed of 21 knots. Even more impressive was that the battleship completed the journey to the West Indies and back (about 7,000 miles) at an average speed of 17.5 knots and without a single breakdown - a result unprecedented for ships equipped with piston engines.

The most crucial moment of the test was shooting. The Dreadnought had to fire a salvo with its entire side - from eight 12-inch guns. Sir Philip Watts, director of the Portsmouth shipyards where the new ship was born, awaited this moment with trepidation. “He was very gloomy and serious,” recalls one of the officers present at the shooting, “as if he was afraid that at the very first salvo the ship would fall apart. However, a roar muffled by the distance was heard, and the Dreadnought shuddered slightly. Dozens of people crowding on the shore did not even realize that eight 12-inch guns had been fired at once. And the ship “shuddered slightly” because it sent shells weighing a total of 21,250 pounds at 8,000 yards.

Tests of the Dreadnought revealed only one design flaw: when the ship turned, its stability decreased. Its first commander, Sir Reginald Bacon, recalled that “at speeds above 15 knots, when the rudders were shifted more than 10 degrees, there was not enough power to level the ship, and she continued to circle in place until the speed dropped to 15 knots.” " There was one more trouble - on the way back from the Atlantic, the speed for some unknown reason dropped by one knot, and two days later, for no apparent reason, it returned to its previous level. It turned out that the loose skin sheet acted as a brake. These problems were resolved quite quickly - as soon as the Dreadnought returned from sea trials. On the whole, they were unusually successful, and in December 1906, Fisher wrote in delight: “Dreadnought” should be renamed “Hard Egg.” Why? Because it cannot be broken!"

Equipping one ship with ten heavy 12-inch guns was certainly a major achievement. But weapons are not everything. Other mind-boggling engineering ideas were also embodied in the Dreadnought.

The Dreadnought's forecastle was unusually long, with a 28-foot bulwark running along the bow. Due to these design features, the deck was not flooded with water in stormy weather, which dramatically increased the accuracy of gun pointing. The bow below the waterline had a bulbous protrusion - this improved the seaworthiness of the ship. In the middle part the body was straightened, which made it look somewhat like a box. Such contours softened the roll. Along the sides below the waterline were underwater keels, which had a triangle-shaped cross-section with the apex directed at an angle downward. These keels damped vibrations caused by vortex flows from the propellers.

The ship had anti-torpedo protection - booms installed from the hull, and steel nets for intercepting torpedoes. Another means of protection against torpedo attacks was mine artillery - twenty-seven 12-pounder guns, manually aimed. They were dispersed throughout the ship and were installed on superstructures, including on top of the gun turrets.

Going against centuries of tradition, the Dreadnought's mainmast was three-legged. This design gave maximum stability to the Mars, from which firing data was transmitted to the towers. The idea itself was wonderful. But the designers did not take into account one essential detail - the mast was located between two chimneys. Not only did the smoke from the front chimney seriously impede visibility, it was hot, and in stormy weather, when the fireboxes were working at full speed, the tubular structure of the mast became so hot that it was simply impossible to move along the ladder located inside it and leading from the hold to Mars .

In all respects, the Dreadnought was the most complex technical device of its time. She was longer (527 feet), wider (82 feet), and had a deeper draft (26.5 feet) than any older generation of battleships. Its displacement was 17,900 tons, 750 tons more than the largest warship of the time.

Each Dreadnought turret weighed 500 tons, and the weight of one main gun exceeded the weight of all the guns of Horatio Nelson's flagship Victory combined. The towers stood on fixed barbettes, reinforced with vertical steel beams and covered with drums welded from 11-inch armor plates. To protect the ammunition magazines and other compartments, the middle part of the ship along the waterline was covered with an 11-inch armor belt. Behind the armor were bunkers, shaped like a cut wedge in cross-section, which contained most of the 2,900-ton coal reserves. The bunkers were the second protective belt.

In addition, watertight bulkheads ran from the keel to 9 feet above the waterline, dividing the hold into 18 hermetic compartments. This ensured the ship's high survivability - engineers believed that the Dreadnought could withstand two direct torpedo hits while remaining in service. (If necessary, the Dreadnought itself could conduct a torpedo attack - five torpedo tubes were installed on the ship).

The power plant driving this entire colossus was the latest technology. Classic reciprocating steam engines with their roaring and rattling pistons were becoming a thing of the past. The Dreadnought was the first heavy warship to be equipped with steam turbines. It contained eight Parsons turbines. Eighteen boilers of the Babcock and Williams system produced steam. Developing a power of 23,000 hp. s., the machine rotated four propellers. The turbines made it possible to develop a cruising speed of 17.5 knots. The maximum speed of the Dreadnought reached 21 knots. The cruising range was 6620 miles.

The twin counterbalance rudders were controlled by a helm from the bridge or from any of four spare helm stations scattered throughout the ship. Two of them were located at command posts located on the tops of both masts; they could only be reached via ladders running inside a tubular structure covered with armor (these cavities were also used as a voice pipe).

A crew of 773 people was required to operate the floating fortress. Placing it in residential compartments was another breakthrough into the future. Traditionally, sailors huddled in cramped quarters in the bow, and officers were located in relatively spacious cabins in the stern. On the Dreadnought, everything was turned upside down: the crew was placed at the stern - closer to the car, and the officers were given the middle part - next to the bridge. Each of the five Dreadnought towers was served by a crew of 35 people. The team’s actions were brought to the point of automaticity: in just 10 minutes, a twin 12-inch artillery mount could fire 12 shots at a target located 20 miles away. The 850-pound shells were stored in a shell magazine located in the hold. The projectile was delivered via a suspended monorail to the intake pocket - the first link in the ammunition lifting system. Then, moving upward, the projectile arrived on the deck of the powder magazine, where four powder charges were loaded into the intake. Even higher, directly under the turret, there was a working compartment where the shot was completed. Here the projectile and powder charge were placed in a feeder, which, moving along rails curved in the form of an arc, fed the shot to the bolt. The feed mechanism worked hydraulically. The shot was sent into the barrel chamber by a hydraulic rammer - first the projectile, and then the powder charges.

The bolt was locked, and the gun barrels rose to the desired elevation angle, turning on axles - massive bushings on each side of the barrel. They rested on support bearings mounted in the walls of the tower. This is how vertical guidance was carried out. At the same time, the entire tower rotated along an axis through a gear mechanism - a toothed rim and pinion. In this way, the angle of deflection of the barrel was set, i.e., horizontal guidance was carried out. The aiming angles were set from the central post by the officer who controlled the fire.

The recoil force of the guns rolled back approximately 18 inches, and the hydraulic knurling brought them to their original position, after which the guns were reloaded. But first a small but extremely important action was performed. To eliminate the possibility that the hot gases remaining in the barrel from the previous salvo would throw a new charge directly at the gunners, after each shot the barrel chamber was cooled with a stream of water and compressed air.

"Dreadnought", like any completely new phenomenon, was not greeted favorably by everyone. Sir George Clarke, Secretary of the Imperial Defense Committee, argued that it was sheer folly to take such a technological risk, and insisted that "our policy in the field of shipbuilding is not to get ahead of ourselves, but to improve on what has already been tried by others." Sir William White, who before the advent of Fisher and Philip Watts served as director of the Portsmouth shipyards, and therefore had reason to declare that “the grapes are green,” considered it unacceptable to “put all your eggs in one or two huge, expensive, majestic, but very vulnerable baskets.” . And the caustic Admiral Charles Beresford, Fisher’s colleague and rival, said: “This class of ships will not give us any advantages.”

Beresford, who commanded the fleet, could not stand the First Sea Lord, who was his immediate superior, and, obviously, transferred his hostility to Fisher’s favorite brainchild. However, there is some truth to Beresford's remark. Such a qualitative leap in the Dreadnought's armament gave rise to certain problems that were unexpected for its creators: next to it, all existing battleships seemed hopelessly outdated, and this made the so jealously guarded numerical superiority of the British fleet meaningless. An entire armada of slow-moving, weakly armed battleships, protected by thin armor, would not be able to cope with a squadron of new dreadnoughts. Germany, no doubt, had to seize on the idea of creating such ships to close the gap, and Britain, if she wanted to maintain her priority and the title of "Mistress of the Seas", had to begin a grueling naval arms race.

It was not for his great achievements that the Dreadnought ended up in history. There were no high-profile exploits behind it, its giant guns remained silent throughout the war, and only once did the ship have the opportunity to participate in a battle. It happened in March 1915 in the North Sea: he met the submarine U-29, rammed it and sank it. The Dreadnought is famous not for what it did, but for what it was. In 1906, when the ship entered service, it was so ahead of its era that all the battleships launched after it had nothing fundamentally new - they were simply the embodiment of the ideas embedded in its concept. The emblem of the Dreadnought was a golden key, clutched by a hand in a knight's gauntlet, which, of course, was supposed to symbolize the ambitious aspirations of the Admiralty, which saw in the new ship the key to the door leading to undivided supremacy at sea.

Dreadnought(English) dreadnought- “fearless”, after the name of the first ship of this class) - a generation of artillery warships that appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, a characteristic feature of which was homogeneous artillery armament from a large number of guns of only large caliber ( all-big-gun). In a broad sense, the term can be applied to ships of various classes that have this feature (battleships, battlecruisers, heavy cruisers, etc.), but most often this concept is associated with a battleship and is synonymous with a battleship of the first quarter of the 20th century. The world's last dreadnought - HMS Vanguard- was built in Great Britain in 1946, and served until the late 1950s.

History of appearance

Pre-dreadnought era

The “all-big-gun” principle was not new. Even in the era of wooden sailing ships, battleships were armed in this way, the batteries of which consisted of 100 or more guns of the same caliber. The first battery battleships of the 1860s were fully consistent with this principle. However, later the evolution of battleships took a different path - first towards reducing all artillery to several “monster guns” of up to 18″ (460 mm) caliber, short-barreled, with disgusting ballistics, designed to penetrate the thickest armor in close combat with a solid armor-piercing projectile, and then - after the advent of medium-caliber rapid-fire guns firing explosive shells - the specialization of artillery according to the tasks it performed. The armament of typical battleships of the 1890s, which are commonly called pre-dreadnoughts, consisted of four 12” (305mm) main caliber guns placed in turrets and a medium caliber gun, which included from six to eighteen rapid-fire guns with a caliber of 4.7” (120mm) up to 7.5” (191 mm), housed in smaller gun turrets, casemates or sponsons. According to the doctrine of that time, a naval battle should have started at a great distance and then shortened the distance to deliver a decisive blow with more accurate and rapid-firing medium-caliber guns, which easily penetrated the weakly armored ends of the then battleships, while the 305-mm main caliber could penetrate at a long distance the main armor belt that protected the citadel and the middle of the hull, the armor thickness of which exceeded 400 mm. Each gun was under the command of its own gunner, and due to the imperfection of distance determination techniques and the lack of a centralized fire control system, the main caliber had low accuracy and rate of fire, so the effective battle distances of the battleships were not too high and the main strength of the battleships in battle was medium caliber.

Only big guns

The return to the idea of using unified large-caliber artillery at the beginning of the 20th century was closely related to the desire of all major naval powers to increase firepower and firing range. Improvements in the mechanisms for feeding projectiles and the introduction of an electric drive at the end of the 19th century made it possible to increase the rate of fire of heavy guns of caliber 9.2” (234 mm) – 10” (254 mm), which were practically not inferior in rate of fire to medium-caliber artillery, while possessing much higher firepower and firing range. The rate of fire was also positively affected by the appearance of new turret installations, which made it possible to reload without returning the gun to the center plane, and in some cases, without even changing the elevation angle. The introduction of new sights and rangefinders made it possible to increase the accuracy of large-caliber artillery, but, importantly, the shooting methods themselves improved: at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, they began to work out the adjustment of firing by bursts of shells, which made it possible to conduct centralized fire control and cover the target not with single shots, but broadsides. The exercises of the British Mediterranean Fleet under the command of Admiral Fisher clearly showed that adjustments to shell bursts make it possible, even without introducing any achievements of forward progress, to confidently fire at previously considered prohibitive distances of 25-30 cables (4.5-5.5 km) . However, the introduction of the new method encountered one of the main disadvantages of pre-dreadnoughts: the main and auxiliary caliber guns had different ballistics, but at a long distance the splashes from their shells became almost indistinguishable, which greatly interfered with the correct adjustment of fire. The Russo-Japanese War clearly demonstrated the inconsistency of the old system of weapons of different caliber artillery. According to the results of the Battle of Tsushima, the most effective results were obtained by concentrated main-caliber fire of entire formations of ships on one target. At the same time, the newest battleships of that time had much higher survivability and a more advanced armor scheme, which made even 254-mm guns ineffective, while the development of mine-torpedo weapons made reducing the battle distance undesirable. Admirals and designers around the world made the necessary conclusions, and just a year after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, the first ship of a new type appeared - HMS Dreadnought .

First dreadnought

The initiator of the creation of the ship, the name of which has become a household name for the entire class, is Admiral John Arbuthnot Fisher, who was the first to formulate the principle of “Only big guns” and is considered the “father” of the British battle fleet. It was on his initiative that a commission was assembled that formulated the following requirements for the new ship of the Royal Navy:

Structural improvements to the hull should be introduced, primarily improved anti-torpedo protection.
The armored freeboard area should be as large as possible, since an unarmored one will be hit by high-explosive shells.
The speed of the ship must be increased; it is necessary to replace the piston steam engine with a turbine one.
It is necessary to have as many large-caliber guns as possible. When introducing a centralized fire control system for main-caliber artillery on a ship from a single post of the ship's chief artillery officer, only single-caliber artillery is applicable.
The number of small-caliber, rapid-fire guns should be increased, and they should be distributed throughout the ship, since an attack by destroyers will most likely take place late in the battle, when many of them will be damaged or disabled.
Having a ram is not practical.
There must be equipped and protected observation points on the masts.
Wood and other similar flammable substances must be excluded from the structure.

After discussing the revolutionary project at the Admiralty, a decision was made to build it, and on October 2 the ship was laid down, which received the name HMS Dreadnought. Construction took exactly a year and one day, and on October 3, 1906, the world saw the world's first battleship. Dreadnought revolutionized the world of naval warfare. Despite the fact that of the five two-gun main caliber turrets with 305 mm artillery, intended for squadron battleships of the type being built at the same time Lord Nelson, only eight broadsides could fire, the firepower of the battleship was not inferior to the power of several battleships at once, but was better concentrated, and due to the superiority of the installation of turbines on a large ship, unheard of at that time, rather than steam engines, it was faster than any battleship and could much it took longer to go at full speed, which made it possible to impose an advantageous battle distance on the enemy. It should be noted, however, that Fisher was not the only one who came up with the idea of such a ship. Back in 1903, the Italian shipbuilding engineer Vittorio Cuniberti drew up a design for a battleship with a main caliber of twelve 305 mm guns, a 305 mm armor belt and a speed of 24 knots. This project remained on paper, but in March 1905, a few months before the British, two battleships of the type were designed in the USA South Carolina, however, due to protracted construction, they appeared later, only in 1910. Since the advent of HMS Dreadnought, ironclads have ceased to be the main force at sea. Now the power of fleets was measured by the number of dreadnoughts, which led to an arms race that lasted throughout the first quarter of the 20th century.

Dreadnought race

Great Britain

Having begun a new stage of the arms race, the British sought to maintain a dominant position in it, and already in 1906-1907 three battleships of the type were laid down Bellerophon, almost no different from HMS Dreadnought. The next three ships of the type also retained minimal differences from the first dreadnought. St. Vincent, on which, in order to increase armor penetration, 305-mm guns were installed, which had a barrel length of 50 calibers, in contrast to previously used guns with a barrel length of 45 calibers, but it was not possible to achieve the expected result: with an increase in the mass of gun turrets and a decrease in firing accuracy, penetration increased only slightly. However, the need to maintain the fast pace of the dreadnought race did not allow time to be wasted on correcting errors, and the following battleships, HMS Neptune and a type consisting of two dreadnoughts Colossus had the same weapons. On these ships, an attempt was made to change the location of the gun turrets in order to be able to fire a broadside salvo from all ten guns, but the new layout of the main battery was unsuccessful and, due to the risk of damage to the superstructures, only four of the five turrets could fire on one side.

The further development of dreadnoughts was due to the growing confrontation with Germany, which was also actively building a battle fleet. The next series of four battleships of the type Orion was devoid of the main disadvantages of previous dreadnoughts and had much stronger armor, and all ten guns, the caliber of which had increased to 13.5” (343 mm), could actually fire from one side. Type Orion marked the beginning of a generation of “superdreadnoughts”, battleships with main caliber artillery from 343mm and above. Subsequent dreadnoughts of the type King George V And Iron Duke developed the idea of battleships of the type Orion, until in 1912, on the initiative of the new First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, five super-dreadnoughts of the type appeared Queen Elisabeth with eight 15" (381 mm) caliber guns arranged in a linearly elevated pattern. For the first time in the world, pure oil heating of boilers was introduced on these ships, and thanks to a more powerful power plant with increased displacement and armor, the speed was increased to 24 knots. The latter Five battleships of the type, laid down in 1913-1914, became British pre-war dreadnoughts. Revenge, retaining the weapons of the previous type with more powerful armor and lower speed.

Germany

With the start of the dreadnought race, the German Empire set its sights on creating a powerful fleet capable of challenging the British Royal Navy. The first German dreadnoughts were four ships of the type Nassau, founded in 1907. Twelve main-caliber guns were located so that only eight could fire on one side, and the artillery itself had a slightly smaller caliber of 11” (280mm) than on British dreadnoughts, which, with a lower weight of the salvo, had a faster rate of fire, while the ships themselves had low speed, but good armor. Four dreadnought types Ostfriesland were a further development of the type Nassau and retained the key features of its predecessor with more powerful 305mm artillery. Following types Kaiser And König, laid down in 1909-1911 and 1912-1913, respectively, in two series of four dreadnoughts, had not twelve, but ten 305-mm guns, but due to a different placement scheme, all guns could fire from one side, and more advanced power plants made it possible to increase the speed of travel with even more increased armor. The last battleships of the German Empire were super-dreadnoughts of the type laid down in 1913-1915. Bayern, which became the pinnacle of German shipbuilding at that time. Only the first two ships out of the planned four were put into operation, but the completed super-dreadnoughts, thanks to powerful artillery of eight 380-mm guns and good armor, were not inferior to the latest British battleships of the type Revenge And Queen Elisabeth.

USA

The first American dreadnoughts, two ships of the type South Carolina, were laid out and designed in 1905, even before construction began HMS Dreadnought. Due to displacement restrictions set by Congress, the ships' armor was rather weak and the speed was low, but nevertheless, the designers took some advanced design solutions, such as the world's first placement of main battery artillery in a linearly elevated plane, thanks to which the type South Carolina with its eight 305-mm guns was not inferior in weight to the British broadside HMS Dreadnought, which had two more guns. Due to lengthy construction, by the time work on the battleships was completed in 1910, they were already considered obsolete, but during the construction of the first dreadnoughts there were no longer restrictions on displacement, which made it possible to create much more balanced ships. Pairs of dreadnoughts laid down in 1907-1909 Delaware , Florida And Wyoming differed from South Carolina gradually increasing displacement, armor, number of 305-mm main caliber guns and speed increased to 21 knots, and in 1910 the first American super-dreadnoughts appeared - two battleships of the type New York, which represented a logical development of the type Wyoming with artillery of ten 356-mm main caliber guns. Due to the decision to replace the turbines with more efficient steam engines, the speed did not change and remained within 21 knots.

An important stage in the development of American dreadnoughts was the type Nevada, on which a new “all or nothing” reservation scheme was first applied, the essence of which was to increase the thickness of the armor belt in areas of vital areas of the ship with unarmored ends in order to increase survivability. The next super-dreadnoughts of the American fleet were a logical development of the type Nevada and went down in history as “standard battleships”: super-dreadnoughts with similar characteristics, capable of operating effectively as part of formations. Within the framework of the concept of “standard battleships”, dreadnoughts of the types Pennsylvania , New Mexico And Tennessee, which had the same main caliber artillery of twelve 356-mm guns placed in three-gun turrets, good survivability and a low speed of 21 knots. The Washington Naval Agreement stopped the development of battleships, resulting in the last "standard battleships" of the United States to become three super-dreadnoughts of the type Colorado, whose armament was more powerful than that of their predecessors and consisted of eight 16” (406mm) guns.

Japan

Following the results of the Russo-Japanese War, the Imperial Japanese Navy set a course for increasing the number of 12” guns on new ships. It was assumed that two ships of the type Satsuma were supposed to be battleships with a homogeneous 305 mm artillery, but due to problems with the availability of the required number of heavy guns, it was decided to equip them with mixed 305 mm and 254 mm artillery, so Satsuma And Aki remained armadillos. Only in 1909 was it possible to lay down the first Japanese dreadnoughts of the type Kawachi, equipped with twelve 305-mm main caliber guns, the arrangement of which was similar to the first German dreadnoughts of the type Nassau. However, the 305-mm artillery of the dreadnoughts of the Japanese fleet had different barrel lengths and, accordingly, different ballistics, which is why, despite the presence of artillery of a single caliber, the inherent problems of pre-dreadnoughts with long-range fire adjustment remained. After the laying of four battle cruisers of the type developed according to the British design in 1911-1912 Kongo, armed with eight 356mm guns and not inferior in performance to the latest battlecruisers of the Royal Navy, in 1912-1913 the first full-fledged superdreadnoughts of the Imperial Japanese Navy were laid down - two battleships of the type Fuso, which, when similar to the type Kongo in size carried much more powerful main caliber artillery of twelve 356 mm guns, housed in six two-gun turrets. Using the experience gained during the construction of the Fuso type, Japanese designers finalized the project, slightly changing the location of the gun turrets, the distribution of armor and reducing the caliber of mine artillery, resulting in the super-dreadnoughts of the type laid down in 1915 Ise became a logical continuation of the type Fuso. The last super-dreadnoughts of Japan were two battleships of the type Nagato. Laid down at the end of the First World War, these ships carried eight 410mm guns and were also the first Japanese ships to be armored according to the American scheme, making them one of the most powerful ships in the world at the time of the signing of the Washington Naval Agreement. Superdreadnought type Nagato They were distinguished by high survivability and firepower with good speed and driving performance, which the Japanese managed to keep secret for a long time.

Russia

Other countries

Learning about the construction of an Italian dreadnought Dante Alighieri, the government of Austria-Hungary decided to create four dreadnoughts of the type Viribus Unitis. It was believed that for combat operations in the Adriatic, performance and cruising range were insignificant, which led to the appearance of a battleship that had good artillery for a ship with a limited displacement of twelve 305-mm guns in three-gun turrets and medium armor, but unsatisfactory anti-torpedo protection and a dense layout. It was also planned to build super-dreadnoughts of the type Ersatz Monarch with ten 350 mm guns and still limited displacement and low speed, but their construction was canceled due to the outbreak of the First World War.

The Ottoman Empire tried to acquire English-made dreadnoughts. In 1911, the Turkish government ordered a dreadnought from Great Britain. Reshadiye, however, due to financial problems, it was unable to pay for the order and construction of a battleship created on the basis of super-dreadnoughts of the type King George V with artillery of 10 343-mm main caliber guns, was continued, but at the expense of the British. In 1914, the Ottoman Empire offered to buy Reşadiye and order a similar one Fatih and repurchase the dreadnought intended for Brazil Rio de Janeiro with seven two-gun 305mm turrets, renaming it Sultan Osman I, but the First World War spoiled their plans. Construction Fatih was discontinued, and two other dreadnoughts were requisitioned and incorporated into the Royal Navy under new names: Reshadiye was renamed to HMS Erin, A Sultan Osman I- V HMS Agincourt. Nevertheless, Turkey managed to acquire a dreadnought when the German Empire handed over to the Turks a battle cruiser of the type Moltke , SMS Goeben. Dreadnought was renamed Yavuz Sultan Selim and was part of the Turkish fleet under the name Yavuz before being withdrawn from the fleet in 1954 and subsequently scrapped in 1973, remaining in active service longer than any other dreadnought.

Greece attempted to acquire its own dreadnought by ordering it from Germany. According to the project, the battleship Salamis was supposed to be armed with eight 356-mm guns of American production, but with the outbreak of the First World War its construction stopped and the “smallest super-dreadnought in the world,” which received this nickname for its powerful weapons with an extremely small displacement, was cut into pieces without ever entering into operation. Spain began building its dreadnoughts in 1909. Due to lack of funding, the construction of three battleships of the type Spain lasted for an extremely long period of time, and the ships themselves went down in history as the smallest dreadnoughts in the world, having, despite the size of a squadron battleship, mediocre speed and poor protection, an armament of eight 305 mm guns.

Application

World War I

Despite the active arms race that preceded the start of the First World War, dreadnoughts did not take part in active combat operations during the war itself. The outcome of the war was decided primarily on land, and admirals avoided the use of dreadnoughts, considering them too valuable combat units, so most of the time the battleships remained at their bases. The British Royal Navy had a significant numerical superiority over the German High Seas Fleet, so the Germans tried to avoid a large-scale clash with the British, setting themselves the goal of imposing a battle on the British fleet on favorable terms. In the first two years of the war, the only engagements involving dreadnoughts were the Battle of Heligoland, the Battle of Dogger Bank and German raids on the English coast. The only major naval battle involving battleships was the Battle of Jutland on May 31, 1916. Having figured out the German plan to lure out and break up the Grand Fleet piece by piece, the British withdrew all combat-ready ships, and after a collision with superior forces, the German fleet had to retreat, losing 11 of its ships and destroying 14 British ones. After this battle, the German dreadnoughts no longer tried to break the blockade and remained at their bases until the very end of the war.

Russian dreadnoughts also did not participate in naval battles: in the Baltic, their actions were limited by minefields, and in the Black Sea, due to the lack of rivals, their role was limited to shelling the coast. The only exception is combat "Empress Mary" And SMS Goeben, during which the German battlecruiser was damaged, but was able to escape. In total, following the results of the First World War, only three English battlecruisers that were damaged during the Battle of Jutland were sunk exclusively by artillery fire. The dreadnoughts received the main damage from mine and torpedo weapons, which indicated the growing potential of the submarine fleet.

Post-war years

After the end of the First World War, the place of the leading maritime powers was taken by the United States and Japan, which almost did not participate in the war and avoided losses. Japan launched a large-scale program to build the “8+8” dreadnought fleet, which included the construction of eight battleships and eight battlecruisers with 410 mm and 460 mm caliber guns in preparation for the war for supremacy in the Pacific Ocean. The Americans and the British, who did not want to give up their former superiority in the fleet, had similar designs for ships with 406-mm and 457-mm artillery, but this arms race would have dealt a serious blow to the economies of war-exhausted states, so in 1922 between the USA, Great Britain, Japan , France and Italy signed the Washington Naval Agreement. All programs for the construction of new ships were curtailed, and the number, tonnage and armament of the fleets of the largest maritime powers were limited. Most of the dreadnoughts were dismantled for metal, and only the most modern ships remained in service. The number of super-dreadnoughts with 406-mm artillery was seriously limited, of which only seven remained as a result of the agreement: Japan left the super-dreadnought Nagato and received the right to complete Mutsu, USA retained three super-dreadnoughts of the type Colorado, and Great Britain, which did not have ships with 406 mm weapons, was allowed to build two battleships of the type Nelson. Subsequently, after World War II, in which, due to the increased role of the submarine fleet and aviation, the battle fleet did not take an active part, the dreadnoughts that survived the war were decommissioned in the 1950s and dismantled for metal. The last battleships of the dreadnought era, finally excluded from the fleets, were super-dreadnoughts

Literature

Taras A. E. Encyclopedia of ironclads and battleships. - M.: Harvest, AST, 2002. - ISBN 985-13-1009-3
All the world's battleships. 1906 to the present. - London: Conway Maritime Press, 1996. - ISBN 0-85177-691-4
Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1906-1921 ISBN 0-87021-907-3
Friedman N. U.S. Battleships: An Illustrated Design History. - Annapolis, Maryland, U.S.A.: Naval Institute Press, 1985. - ISBN 0-087021-715 -1
Silverstone P.H. The New Navy. 1883-1922. - New York, USA: Routledge, 2006. -

The oldest surviving dreadnought, USS Texas (BB-35), launched in 1912

Exactly 110 years ago, on February 10, 1906, the British warship Dreadnought was launched in Portsmouth. By the end of that year she was completed and commissioned into the Royal Navy.

At the same time, the Dreadnought was not unique - the revolutionary ship became the product of the long evolution of battleships. Its analogues were already going to be built in the USA and Japan; Moreover, the Americans began developing their own dreadnoughts even before the British.

But Britain was the first.

The calling card of the Dreadnought was its artillery, which consisted of ten main caliber guns (305 millimeters). They were supplemented by many small 76-mm guns, but the intermediate caliber was completely absent on the new ship.

Such weapons strikingly distinguished the Dreadnought from all previous battleships. They, as a rule, carried only four 305 mm guns, but were supplied with a solid medium-caliber battery - usually 152 mm.

The habit of equipping battleships with many—up to 12 or even 16—medium-caliber guns was explained simply: the 305-mm guns took quite a long time to reload, and at that time the 152-mm guns were supposed to shower the enemy with a hail of shells. This concept proved its worth during the war between the United States and Spain in 1898 - in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba, American ships achieved a depressingly small number of hits with their main caliber, but literally riddled the enemy with medium-caliber “rapid fire.”

However, the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 demonstrated something completely different. Russian battleships, which were much larger than Spanish ships, withstood a lot of hits from 152-mm guns - only the main gun caused serious damage to them. In addition, the Japanese sailors turned out to be simply more accurate than the American ones.

12-inch guns on HMS Dreadnought © Library of Congress Bain collection

The author of the concept of a battleship equipped exclusively with heavy artillery is traditionally considered to be the Italian military engineer Vittorio Cuniberti. He proposed building a battleship for the Italian navy with 12 305 mm guns, a turbine power plant using liquid fuel, and powerful armor. The Italian admirals refused to implement Cuniberti's idea, but allowed it to be published.

In the 1903 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships, a short article—only three pages—appeared by Cuniberti, “The Ideal Fighting Ship for the British Navy.” In it, the Italian described a giant battleship with a displacement of 17 thousand tons, equipped with 12,305-mm cannons and unusually powerful armor, and even capable of reaching a speed of 24 knots (which made it a third faster than any battleship).

Just six of these “ideal ships” would be enough to defeat any enemy, Cuniberti believed. Due to its firepower, his battleship was supposed to sink an enemy battleship in one salvo, and thanks to its high speed, it was supposed to immediately move on to the next.

The author considered rather an abstract concept, without making precise calculations. In any case, it seems almost impossible to fit all of Cuniberti’s proposals into a ship with a displacement of 17 thousand tons. The total displacement of the real Dreadnought turned out to be much larger - about 21 thousand tons.

So, despite the similarity of Cuniberti’s proposal with the Dreadnought, it is unlikely that the Italian had a great influence on the construction of the first ship of the new class. Cuniberti's article was published at a time when the "father" of the Dreadnought, Admiral John "Jackie" Fisher, had already reached similar conclusions, but in a completely different way.

"Father" of the Dreadnought

Admiral Fisher, pushing the Dreadnought project through the British Admiralty, was guided not by theoretical, but by practical considerations.

While still commanding the British naval forces in the Mediterranean, Fisher experimentally established that firing from guns of different calibers made aiming extremely difficult. The artillerymen of that time, aiming their guns at the target, were guided by the splashes from the shells falling into the water. And at a long distance, splashes from shells of 152 and 305 mm caliber are almost impossible to distinguish.

In addition, the rangefinders and fire control systems that existed at that time were extremely imperfect. They did not make it possible to realize all the capabilities of the guns - British battleships could fire at 5.5 kilometers, but according to the results of real tests, the recommended aimed fire range was only 2.7 kilometers.

Meanwhile, it was necessary to increase the effective combat distance: torpedoes, the range of which at that time reached about 2.5 kilometers, became a serious enemy of the battleships. A logical conclusion was made: the best way to fight at long distances would be a ship with the maximum number of main caliber guns.

At some point, as an alternative to the future Dreadnought, a ship equipped with a variety of 234-mm guns, which were then already used by the British as medium artillery on battleships, was considered. Such a ship would combine rapid fire with enormous firepower, but Fischer needed truly “big guns.”

Fisher also insisted on equipping the Dreadnought with the latest steam turbines, which allowed the ship to develop over 21 knots, while 18 knots were considered sufficient for battleships. The admiral understood well that the advantage in speed allows him to impose on the enemy a favorable battle distance. Given the Dreadnought's vast superiority in heavy artillery, this meant that a few of these ships were capable of destroying an enemy fleet while remaining effectively out of reach of most of its guns.

Without a single shot

The Dreadnought was built in record time. As a rule, they call it an impressive year and one day: the ship was laid down on October 2, 1905, and on October 3, 1906, the battleship entered its first sea trials. This is not entirely correct - traditionally, the construction time is counted from the laying down to inclusion in the fleet. The Dreadnought entered service on December 11, 1906, a year and two months after the start of construction.

The unprecedented speed of work had a downside. The photographs from Portsmouth show that the hull assembly is not always of high quality - some armor plates are crooked, and the bolts securing them are of different sizes. No wonder - 3 thousand workers literally “burned” at the shipyard for 11 and a half hours a day and 6 days a week.

A number of shortcomings are associated with the ship design itself. Operation showed the insufficient effectiveness of the Dreadnought's latest fire control systems and its rangefinders - the largest at that time. The rangefinder posts even had to be moved so that they would not be damaged by the shock wave of a gun salvo.

The most powerful ship of the era never fired at the enemy with its main caliber. The Dreadnought was not present at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, the largest clash of dreadnought fleets, but was undergoing repairs.

But even if the Dreadnought were in service, it would have to remain in the second line - in just a few years it was hopelessly outdated. It was replaced in both Britain and Germany by larger, faster and more powerful battleships.

February 10. /TASS/. Exactly 110 years ago, on February 10, 1906, the British warship Dreadnought was launched in Portsmouth. By the end of that year she was completed and commissioned into the Royal Navy.

The Dreadnought, which combined a number of innovative solutions, became the founder of a new class of warships, to which it gave its name. This was the last step towards the creation of battleships - the largest and most powerful artillery ships ever to go to sea.
At the same time, the Dreadnought was not unique - the revolutionary ship became the product of the long evolution of battleships. Its analogues were already going to be built in the USA and Japan; Moreover, the Americans began developing their own dreadnoughts even before the British. But Britain was the first.

The Dreadnought's calling card was its artillery, which consisted of ten main caliber guns (305 millimeters). They were supplemented by many small 76-mm guns, but the intermediate caliber was completely absent on the new ship.

The habit of equipping battleships with many - up to 12 or even 16 - medium-caliber guns was explained simply: the 305-mm guns took quite a long time to reload, and at that time the 152-mm guns were supposed to shower the enemy with a hail of shells. This concept proved its worth during the war between the United States and Spain in 1898 - in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba, American ships achieved a depressingly small number of hits with their main caliber, but literally riddled the enemy with medium-caliber "rapid fire".

Authorship of the idea

In the 1903 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships there appeared a short - only three pages - article by Cuniberti, "The Ideal Fighting Ship for the British Navy." In it, the Italian described a giant battleship with a displacement of 17 thousand tons, equipped with 12,305-mm cannons and unusually powerful armor, and even capable of reaching a speed of 24 knots (which made it a third faster than any battleship).

"Father" of the Dreadnought

Admiral Fisher, pushing the Dreadnought project through the British Admiralty, was guided not by theoretical, but by practical considerations.

Fisher also insisted on equipping the Dreadnought with the latest steam turbines, which allowed the ship to develop over 21 knots per hour, while 18 knots were considered sufficient for battleships. The admiral understood well that the advantage in speed allows him to impose on the enemy a favorable battle distance. Given the Dreadnought's vast superiority in heavy artillery, this meant that a few of these ships were capable of destroying an enemy fleet while remaining effectively out of reach of most of its guns.

Without a single shot

The unprecedented speed of work had a downside. The photographs from Portsmouth do not always show high-quality assembly of the hull - some armor plates are crooked, and the bolts securing them are of different sizes. No wonder - 3 thousand workers literally “burned” at the shipyard for 11 and a half hours a day and 6 days a week.

The most powerful ship of the era never fired at the enemy with its main caliber. The Dreadnought was not present at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 - the largest clash of fleets consisting of dreadnoughts - it was under repair.

But even if the Dreadnought were in service, it would have to remain in the second line - in just a few years it became hopelessly outdated. It was replaced in both Britain and Germany by larger, faster and more powerful battleships.

Thus, representatives of the Queen Elizabeth type, which entered service in 1914-1915, already carried guns of 381 millimeter caliber. The mass of a projectile of this caliber was more than twice the weight of the Dreadnought projectile, and these guns fired one and a half times further.

Nevertheless, the Dreadnought was still able to achieve victory over the enemy ship, unlike many other representatives of its class. Its victim was a German submarine. Ironically, the mighty dreadnought destroyed it not with artillery fire or even a torpedo - it simply rammed the submarine, although the British shipbuilders did not equip the Dreadnought with a special ram.

However, the submarine sunk by the Dreadnought was by no means an ordinary one, and its captain was a famous sea wolf. But this is completely different

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