In December 1904, Fisher formed the Commission on Designs to produce drawings for an ultramodern capital ship. In cutting out the venerated battleships that had maintained Queen Victoria’s empire for generations, Fisher repeated his clarion call for reform, enjoining his subordinates: “No pandering to sentiment! No regard for susceptibilities! No pity for anyone! We must be ruthless, relentless and remorseless!” Over the next three years, Fisher’s reforms cut 5.4 million pounds sterling from the navy’s annual budget, and he was about to put the savings into something entirely new.
The blow fell when Fisher took 154 warships out of active service.
Fisher’s dream was to scrap the old expensive ships of the line in favor of fast, heavily armed but lightly armored battle cruisers. Long-range guns were rarely used except in target practice, where they were embarrassingly inaccurate except at short ranges. The Royal Navy of 1904 was dominated by old, slow battleships dating back to the Sans Pareil class, laid down in 1885. By 1904, when he was appointed first sea lord (director of fleet operations), he was determined to replace the dogma of Queen Victoria’s navy with a technologically advanced fleet. Putting to sea in 1854, “Jacky” Fisher had come up through the ranks in a navy that was making the uncertain transition from sail to steam, and in the process he built his reputation as the Royal Navy’s most relentless voice of reform.Īppointed director of naval ordnance in 1886, Admiral Fisher helped develop a quick-firing breechloading gun and sped innovations in torpedo and mine technology. The ship that shocked naval ministries around the world was the product of the fertile mind of Sir John A. But as bluish cordite smoke faded over the waters and the echoes of the guns’ thunder died down, Britannia realized it had not just launched a battleship, it had started a revolution. Naval experts had predicted the recoil from this barrage would damage and perhaps even sink the steel leviathan. On that day, the waters of the English Channel churned under a frightful salvo fired from the eight 12-inch guns of a new British warship, HMS Dreadnought. On October 18, 1906, every battleship in the world, save one, became irrelevant. Dreadnought revolutionized naval warfare Close
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