But few commanders had the imagination needed to see aircraft as more than flying scouts for surface ships.Īn American brigadier general named Billy Mitchel could see their potential. More than a hundred could be built for the price of a single submarine. Submarines, which Germany used in World War I to effectively strangle British imports, cost 90% less. US Naval Academy graduates jockeyed for assignment to battleships, which remained the most coveted appointments for both officers and enlisted men. Ignoring these developments, Great Britain built an additional 30 battleships during the war, at a cost that left it virtually bankrupt by war’s end.įollowing German defeat in World War I, battleships remained the symbol of naval power. But while battleships on all sides spent much of the war safely at anchor, two new disruptive technologies emerged: submarines and naval aircraft. Both sides held back to ensure that their battleships were not sunk. The battle of Jutland in 1916 was an exception, bringing 28 Royal Navy battleships face to face with 16 German battleships. In World War I (1914–1918), most British battleships served defensive duty, keeping the German fleet bottled up in port. A single battleship accounted for more than 2 million pounds sterling, the equivalent of over US$5 billion today, or almost 10% of Great Britain’s naval budget in 1900. Poorer nations could only look on with envy. The Great Powers-Great Britain, the USA, Germany, Russia, Japan, and Italy-scrambled to build their own. This was a significant upgrade from the first Royal Navy Dreadnought (1573), which flung solid shot weighing 10 to 12 pounds several hundred yards in “broadsides” against other wooden ships.ĭreadnought rendered other warships obsolete. Armed with five turrets containing 12-inch guns, Dreadnought could hurl 850-pound explosive shells 14 miles. Three boiler rooms drove high-pressure turbine engines generating 23,000 horsepower. At 527 feet long and displacing 18,000 tons, it was the largest warship ever built. In 1906, the British Navy launched HMS Dreadnought.
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