For centuries in the era of sail, the wind and the elements were dominant factors in war at sea. Even Admiral Nelson’s brilliant defeat of the French at the Battle of Trafalgar was seen as more a mark of the man, than of Britain’s fleet of wooden sailing ships. When the industrial revolution ushered in the era of steam propulsion, the British naval establishment resisted change fearing it would make its massive fleet of wooden sailing men-of-war obsolete overnight. The French, with less to lose, embraced the new technology and produced the world’s first armour plated ironclad, GLOIRE. Britain, forced to follow, replied with two revolutionary iron hulled steam powered fighting ships, WARRIOR and BLACK PRINCE.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the American Civil War tested a brazen new weapon – the turret gun. Its success, plus the rapid development of naval guns, steam technology and the use of steel armour plate and steel for hull construction, changed the entire concept of designing and building all future ships-of-war.
The late 19th century saw bold new fleets emerge – those of Italy, the United States, Russia and Japan. The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5 gave Japan its first major naval victory in the Battle of Tsushima, making its emergence as a powerful maritime nation.
By the turn of the century it was Germany that Britain had to fear. Kaiser Wilhelm II deliberately set about building a navy that could rival Britain for supremacy of the seas. The British countered, introducing a stunning new design – HMS DREADNOUGHT – the largest, fastest and deadliest battleship ever created. Rather than quell the opposition, DREADNOUGHT started an arms race of global proportions – a race that would finally contribute to the outbreak of “the war to end all wars”, World War I.
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