What is more, however, is that bigger guns gave an advantage in range. The committee members' job was to study the validity of Fisher's proposed ideas for a new type of battleship, one that would bring the needed heavy armament and speed to the water.īigger guns meant heavier shells that could do more damage to an opponent's vessel. He watched closely the events in the Russo-Japanese War, and what he learned from the May 1905 battle of Tsushima Strait had only confirmed his views: the ships with the biggest guns and fastest speed would rule the waves.Īlready in December 1904, Fisher had created a special committee made up of younger officers who were not adverse to experimentation and change. It was the nature of naval warfare itself, however, that Fisher wanted to change most. He controversially decommissioned many older naval vessels and confirmed reserve status upon 64 more in an effort to cut the Royal Navy's budget. With Fisher's appointment, the new reforms began. … He demanded oil instead of coal 20 years ahead of his time, substituted training in gunnery for cutlasses, training in engines and engineering for rigging and the handling of sails, introduced destroyers, pioneered in ordnance, armor and battleship design.” “Admiral Sir John Fisher was a force of nature entirely directed to the renaissance of British sea power through modernization of the Navy. In the book “The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914,” historian Barbara Tuchman wrote: Fisher was also reform minded and proved a visionary who desired to bring his service into the 20th century. The new first sea lord feared the challenge that Germany offered to British naval hegemony, and correctly predicted that war would break out in 1914. John “Jacky” Fisher became Britain's first sea lord, the highest ranking officer in the Royal Navy. As European nations began to grow closer to their allies in the 1890s and early 1900s, these states began to engage in a naval arms race. The United States, Great Britain, Russia, France, Germany and other nations began to use such battleships as the mainstays of their naval fleets. The vessel was born out of the European naval arms race of the period, and ultimately revolutionized naval warfare.Īfter the development of the ironclads in the mid-19th century, navies began to build larger battleships with heavier guns in the 1880s, though they were still powered by coal and steam. 10, 1906 - 110 years ago this week - the HMS Dreadnought was launched from its dockyard at Portsmouth, England.
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