In 1905 Admiral Sir John 'Jackie' Fisher (1841 - 1920) lowered his flag in HMS Victory, Portsmouth, moved to the Admiralty in London as 1st Sea Lord and began to drag the British Navy and its Admirals into the 20th Century to face a European threat he saw on the horizon. Admiral Fisher lobbyed for a Battlecruiser Building Programme but was granted a Battleship Building Programme, his Ships Design Commitee set about a design called Dreadnought which was the name of the Lead Ship. The Dreadnought never had a badge, 5 HM Ships have beared the name and Admiral Fisher's Dreadnought was named after the Royal Dockyard Portsmouth built 1801 Ship which served at Trafalgar in 1805.
The design met with Admiral Fisher's approval and buliding started on slipway No' 5 at the Royal Dockyard Portsmouth she displaced 18,000 tons, thats the combined displacement of 5 or 6 Modern Destroyers. HMS Dreadnought was launched by King Edward VII and fitted out in No' 15 Drydock in the Royal Dockyard Portsmouth. Legend has it that Admiral Fisher on one of his many visits to Portsmouth to see HMS Dreadnought had his desk, chair, papers and sandwiches placed on a turret and there he sat whilst it was craned into HMS Dreadnought as to keep the building on schedule. 1 year and 1 day after the first keel plates were laid, HMS Dreadnought was steaming through Spithead and into the Solent for trials becoming the worlds first steam turbine warship unequalled afloat anywhere in the world at the time. Shipbuilding in 1905 was not like todays clean, precise and automated shipbuilding, it was a spectacle to behold, firstly it was a 69 hour week, there'd be tens of men fetching, carrying, advising, examining, idolling and loafing, tens of pheumatic rivet guns hammering away, 2 or 3 cranes would be swinging plating, girders and essentials in all directions. Engineers would be fitting in the ships vitals before and as the inner decks were being plated in. It was a hive of noise and industry! HMS Dreadnought served through WW1 patroling the East Coast, and is and remains the only Battleship to have sunk a Submarine. In 1918 she was placed in reserve and then sold and broken up in 1923.
Interested in life in the Dreadnought Era then I recommend
Men from the Dreadnoughts.
by Henry Baynham.
As for Admiral Sir John fisher he retired from the Royal Navy in 1910 but was called out of retirement by 1st Lord of the Admiralty (Political Head of British Navy ) Winston Churchill in 1914 only to resign over Churchills rushed implementation of the Dardanelles Campaign.
For more details of Admiral Sir John Fishers career go to www.admirals.org.uk