Illustrated throughout with full-color artwork, this fascinating study offers a detailed and definitive guide to the design, development, and legacy of the Royal Navy's battleships at the turn of the 20th century as they paved the way for the coming of the Dreadnought. As a result, these battleships were among the most powerful warships in the world during the late Victorian era, and set a benchmark for the new battle fleets produced by navies such as Japan, Russia, and the United States. In 1906 Britain launched the HMS Dreadnought in response. The period of trial and error which marked the ironclad era ushered in a more scientific style of naval architecture. Like Germany and Britain, the United States and China have good reason to be friends. Under his guidance the mastless battleships of the 1880s gave way to an altogether more elegant type of capital ship. In Britain, this period was dominated by Sir William White, the Navy's Chief Constructor. The ugly ducklings of the ironclad era had been transformed into beautiful swans, albeit deadly ones. These mighty warships represented the cutting edge of naval technology. However, until then, they were simply called battleships and were unquestionably the most powerful warships of their day. At that moment these once great warships were rendered obsolete. The term pre-dreadnought was applied in retrospect to describe the capital ships built during the decade and a half before the launch of HMS Dreadnought in 1906. The Royal Navy's battleships at the turn of the 20th century were the most powerful battlefleet in the world, and embodied one of the key periods in warship development - the development of the dreadnought battleship.
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