The British Battleship. Norman Friedman
view problem: he placed the steering position and charthouse that captains wanted above it, leaving vision from the conning tower clear. A ship would be conned from the compass platform above the charthouse.
Fisher became First Sea Lord on October 1904, having formally accepted the office the previous June. He definitely wanted new types of ships and in August First Lord Selborne assured him that he could be President of a committee to devise them.8 This became the Committee on Designs formed late in the year. As First Sea Lord, Fisher relied on seven more junior officers, who he described as ‘brains’, including Jellicoe and Bacon.9 Both Jellicoe and Bacon later became DNOs and Jellicoe was wartime C-in-C Grand Fleet. Bacon seems to have been responsible for Fisher’s conversion from 10in to 12in guns, as he pointed out late in 1904 that the new 12in guns could fire as rapidly as the 10in.10
Fisher’s first naval programme, for 1905–6, was largely defined by the First Lord’s interpretation of the Two-Power Standard: a 10 per cent edge in battleships (which had apparently been attained), a 2:1 ratio in armoured cruisers (which is why the Royal Navy was in such financial trouble; in 1904 the Royal Navy was clearly below this standard).11 A special committee convened to examine the state of the fleet and its future disposition concluded that the Royal Navy could afford to reduce its battleship programme but must accelerate cruiser construction – once an appropriate type had been developed. It therefore recommended that the three projected Lord Nelsons of the 1905–6 programme be reduced to one ship, the experimental type which became HMS Dreadnought, but that the programme should include no fewer than five armoured cruisers (the planned 1904–5 Minotaur was deferred pending development of a new design).12 First Lord Selbourne questioned some of the assumptions in the report concerning Russian ships then bottled up at Port Arthur. As the scale of the Russian disaster became apparent, the 1905–6 programme was pared down to the single battleship and three rather than five armoured cruisers, which became the Invincible class.
Fisher almost immediately asked Watts to design a fast battleship with uniform armament. Watts’ instructions to his deputy J H Narbeth do not survive, but Narbeth’s 22 November 1904 answer does. There were two main alternatives, each protected like a Lord Nelson, each capable of either 20 or 21 knots. Alternative A would be armed with eight 12in in pairs. Narbeth estimated that it would require 16,000 tons and 19,000 IHP for 20 knots (about 435ft × 83ft × 27ft) or 16,500 tons and 22,000 IHP for 21 knots (about 440ft × 63ft × 27ft). The list of alternatives shows A as an eight-gun ship on Lord Nelson plan, implying two twin turrets at the ends and single 12in at the corners of the superstructure. She would displace 16,500 tons (16,000 tons with turbines) and would cost £1,360,000. DNC had previously (10 November) produced a Legend for the 20-knot version: 450ft × 79ft 6in × 27ft, 17,500 tons. The considerably greater length compared to a Lord Nelson was an important factor in higher speed, as was much greater power (in the initial Legend, 25,000 IHP vs 16,750 IHP). Continuous sea speed, the measure of strategic mobility, was to be 18.5 knots rather than 16.5 knots.
Alternative B had twelve 12in guns. Narbeth estimated that the 20-knot version would displace 18,000 tons (475ft × 83ft × 27ft, 19,000 IHP); the 21-knot version would displace 18,800 tons (495ft × 83ft × 27ft, 22,000 IHP). This was apparently Narbeth’s hexagonal turret arrangement ship proposed in 1903. It would cost £1,700,000.
Narbeth wrote that ‘a little squeezing’ and some innovations would be required. The main engines could be run harder to produce 10 per cent more power on the same weight and space (as had been achieved in the Armstrong-designed Swiftsure and Triumph and in the Admiralty-designed armoured cruiser Monmouth and considerably exceeded in the Italian Benedetto Brin); bridge and conning tower could move aft to bring the fore barbette closer to the boilers and the funnel arrangement improved; existing freeboards could be retained despite the greater length of the ship (i.e., accepting greater wetness); and a better hull form could be adopted.
Four days later Narbeth produced formal Legends for fast battleships, all armed with eight 12in, of three alternative speeds: 21 knots (A), 20 knots (B) and 19 knots (C).13 Some existing ships were rated at 19 knots. The basic designs used reciprocating engines. Substituting turbines would save considerable weight: for example, the engineering weight of A could be reduced from 2150 tons to 1700 tons. Protection could be a conventional citadel extending up to the upper deck; or citadel extending only up to the main deck, with 12in redoubts above. Watts followed up on 14 December with a Legend for a 21-knot battleship, armed with twelve 12in guns (Design D). Estimated displacement was 18,000 tons (500ft × 83ft × 27ft). D seems to have been a development of Narbeth’s earlier hexagonal turret twelve-gun design. Watts clearly favoured this arrangement as a convenient way to accommodate the ship’s vitals and also to provide space for essentials such as ships’ boats.
Docking considerations had doomed Watts’ previous large battleship – and this one was considerably larger. Throughout the Empire, seven docks could take the ship; another twelve suitable ones were building. The ship could not dock at Chatham, Devonport, Portsmouth, Birkenhead, Glasgow or at Sydney. The new First Sea Lord was more interested in superiority than in convenience. The next day Narbeth suggested a 500ft battleship armed with eight 12in guns. With 30,000 IHP such a ship would make 22.5–23 knots.
Dreadnought as completed had dismountable 12pdrs on her weather decks, four forward of ‘A’ turret and four on the quarterdeck. This bow view shows two guns on the forecastle deck forward. Such positions were acceptable because the guns would be used only at night, when the main armament was not firing. These guns rarely figure in photographs of the ship. In all, Dreadnought had twenty-seven such guns, more than in the Lord Nelsons and more widely spread than in previous ships. Two 12pdrs from forward and one from aft were soon moved to the turret tops (making ten in all); besides the five left on the weather decks, twelve guns were in embrasures in the superstructure – four forward, four abreast the forefunnel, four abreast the after funnel (ten were at forecastle deck level and two on the CT platform). Three weather-deck 12pdrs were removed in late 1907. In a 7 May–7 June 1915 refit the two guns atop ‘A’ turret were removed and two 12pdr guns and two 6pdr and high-angle guns mounted on the quarterdeck (for a total of four 12pdrs there). During a 20 April–25 May 1916 refit at Rosyth the aftermost pair of 12pdrs on the shelter deck were removed. Late in 1916 the two 6pdr high-angle guns were replaced by 3in guns. The two inner quarterdeck 12pdrs were converted into high-angle guns during a 23 July–19 August 1917 Portsmouth refit. Elimination of the two after flying-deck guns, the dismountable guns and the two guns atop ‘A’ turret reduced the anti-torpedo battery to eighteen 12pdrs in 1917.
Dreadnought is shown in June 1915, with early-war modifications. She has a main-battery director on her foretop. (John Roberts)
On 14 December Narbeth summarised the 21-knot designs, all with turbine power (23,000 IHP in each case).14 Continuous steaming power was 16,000 IHP, nearly the full power of a Lord Nelson. That gave a continuous sea speed of 19.5 knots (19.25 knots for the larger twelve-gun ship, which was 500ft rather than 460ft long). These figures went to DNC on 21 December.
None of these designs apparently satisfied Fisher. He consulted Admiral Sir A K Wilson, the highly-regarded tactician who commanded the Channel Fleet. Wilson pointed out that every tactical exercise became a broadside-to-broadside engagement: what counted was the number of guns which could fire on the broadside. All turrets should be on the centreline. In what Narbeth called the Castle Plan, the new design had six turrets in two three-turret groups fore and aft. Each group consisted of three superfiring turrets, as in the much later Dido and Atlanta class cruisers. This design required considerably more space. A Legend for this HMS Untakeable, the name Fisher privately used for his super-battleship, was dated 21 December 1904. She was much longer (555ft × 84ft × 26ft 6in, 20,700 tons) and higher-powered (27,000 SHP for 21kts), mounting twelve 12in guns and sixteen 4in (all the earlier designs had 12pdr anti-torpedo guns). Armour would have been thinner,