British PreDreadnoughts
Entries in bold indicate photos.
Devastation Class
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Devastation Thunderer |
The first mastless seagoing turret ships were at first criticised for their layout, but were soon realised as a revolution in ship design. An explosion in one of Thunderers guns in 1879 finally persueded the Admiralty to adopt breech loaders. |
Dreadnought Class
| Dreadnought | Dreadnought was intended to be the third of the Devastation class, but was built to an improved design. |
Inflexible Class
| Inflexible | Inflexible was built as a response to the Italian Duilios. She was originally built with brig rigging, which was soon removed. |
Ajax Class
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Agamemnon Ajax |
Ajax and Agamemnon were intended as smaller versions of Inflexible. They were both poor seaboats, and proved dangerous to manouvere in formation. |
Colossus Class
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Colossus Edinburgh |
Originally designed with muzzle loaders, the explosion on Thunderer forced a rethink and redesign with breech loaders. |
Admiral Class
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Anson Benbow Camperdown Collingwood Howe Rodney |
The Admirals were fast, but had a low freeboard, and were very wet at speed. |
Victoria Class
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Sanspareil Victoria |
Victoria was the first British battleship to be powered by triple expansion engines, though to little advantage, with the low length on breadth ration of 5:1. Although mounting powerful gun, they were muzzle loaders, which had to be drawn into a deckhouse to be reloaded. |
Trafalgar Class
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Nile Trafalgar |
This class was the last of the single citadel turret battleships, and were the heaviest British warships built at the time. |
Barfleur Class
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Barfleur Centurion |
The Barfleurs were intended as second class battleships, authorised by the 1889 Naval Defence Act. |
Royal Sovereign Class
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Empress Of India Hood Ramillies Repulse Resolution Revenge / Redoubtable Royal Oak Royal Sovereign |
Built under the 1889 Naval Defence Act, the Royal Sovereigns had higher freeboard than previous ships and were better seaboats. The Hood was built to a different design, with proper turrets, rather than the barbettes of the others. |
Renown Class
| Renown | Renown was designed as an enlarged Barfleur, and served as Admiral Fishers flasghip in the Mediterranean. Later, Renown was used as a Royal yacht. |
Majestic Class
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Caesar Hannibal Illustrious Jupiter Magnificent Majestic Mars Prince George Victorious |
The largest class of battleships built, the Majestics proved good ships, and set the standard for British capital ships for the next 3 classes. The class was an improvement on the previous Royal Sovereigns, and cost about 5% less per unit. They were also the last battleships to have side by side funnels. The last 2 introduced partial oil firing. |
Canopus Class
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Albion Canopus Glory / Crescent Goliath Ocean Vengeance |
Although effectivly obsolete, this class saw much action in WW1, Canopus firing the opening shots at the Falklands. |
Formidable Class
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Bulwark Formidable Implacable Irresistable London Prince Of Wales Queen Venerable |
All the survivors of this class took part in the Dardanelles operation. |
Duncan Class
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Albemarle Cornwallis Duncan Exmouth Montagu Russell |
The Duncans were similar to the Majestics, but as a higher speed was required along with the same armament, and a smaller displacement, the armour had to be reduced. The Duncans were the first to change the Victorian livery for grey overall. |
Swiftsure Class
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Swiftsure Triumph |
Both these ships were originally built for the Chilean navy. Suspicion that the Russians would buy them from the Chileans resulted in the Admiralty buying them instead. |
King Edward VII Class
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Africa Britannia Commonwealth Dominion Hibernia Hindustan King Edward VII New Zealand / Zeelandia |
The last of the Majestic style class had an increased secondary armament in response to criticism that other navies, particularly American and Japanese, had better ships because of their improved secondary guns. |
Lord Nelson Class
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Agamemnon Lord Nelson |
The last predreadnoughts built for the Royal Navy, which were completed after Dreadnought. The class was reduced to 2 because of the ships acquired from Chile. Legend has it that the preliminary designs for this class involved a Dreadnought style all 12" armament, but that conservatism overruled this. Some of the 12" guns intended for the other Lord Nelsons ended up on the Dreadnought. |
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