HMS Dreadnought. Super Drawings in 3D from Kagero

[Shar2]

HMS Dreadnought

Kagero Super Drawings in 3D

HMS Dreadnought was a battleship of the Royal Navy that revolutionised naval power. Her entry into service in 1906 represented such a marked advance in naval technology that her name came to be associated with an entire generation of battleships, the "dreadnoughts", as well as the class of ships named after her, while the generation of ships she made obsolete became known as "pre-dreadnoughts". She was the sixth ship of that name in the Royal Navy.

Admiral Sir John "Jacky" Fisher, First Sea Lord of the Board of Admiralty, is credited as the father of the Dreadnought. Shortly after he assumed office he ordered design studies for a battleship armed solely with 12-inch guns and a speed of 21 knots. He convened a "Committee on Designs" to evaluate the alternative designs and to assist in the detailed design process. One ancillary benefit of the Committee was that it would shield him, and the Admiralty, from political charges that they had not consulted leading experts before designing such a radically different battleship.

Dreadnought was the first battleship of her era to have a uniform main battery, rather than having a few large guns complemented by a heavy secondary battery of somewhat smaller guns. She was also the first capital ship to be powered by steam turbines, making her the fastest battleship in the world at the time of her completion. Her launch helped spark a major naval arms race as navies around the world, particularly the German Imperial Navy rushed to match her in the build-up to World War I.

From 1907–1911, Dreadnought served as flagship of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet. In 1910, she attracted the attention of notorious hoaxer Horace de Vere Cole, who persuaded the Royal Navy to arrange for a party of Abyssinian royals to be given a tour of a ship. In reality, the "Abyssinian royals" were some of Cole's friends in blackface and disguise, including a young Virginia Woolf and her Bloomsbury Group friends; it became known as the Dreadnought hoax. Cole had picked Dreadnought because she was at that time the most prominent and visible symbol of Britain's naval might. She was replaced as flagship of the Home Fleet by HMS Neptune in March 1911 and was assigned to the 1st Division of the Home Fleet. She participated in King George V's Coronation Fleet Review in June 1911.

Dreadnought became flagship of the 4th Battle Squadron in December 1912 after her transfer from the 1st Battle Squadron, as the 1st Division had been renamed earlier in the year. Between September and December 1913 she was training in the Mediterranean Sea. At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, she was flagship of the 4th Battle Squadron in the North Sea, based at Scapa Flow. She was relieved as flagship on 10 December by HMS Benbow.

Ironically for a vessel designed to engage enemy battleships, her only significant action was the ramming and sinking of German submarine SM U-29, skippered by K/Lt Otto Weddigen (of SM U-9 fame), on 18 March 1915. U-29 had broken the surface immediately ahead of Dreadnought after firing a torpedo at HMS Neptune and Dreadnought cut the submarine in two after a short chase. She almost collided with HMS Temeraire who was also attempting to ram. Dreadnought thus became the only battleship ever to sink a submarine.

She was refitting from 18 April to 22 June 1916 and missed the Battle of Jutland on 31 May, the most significant fleet engagement of the war. Dreadnought became flagship of the 3rd Battle Squadron on 9 July, based at Sheerness on the Thames, part of a force of pre-dreadnoughts intended to counter the threat of shore bombardment by German battlecruisers. During this time she fired her AA guns at German aircraft that passed over her headed for London. She returned to the Grand Fleet in March 1918, resuming her role as flagship of the Fourth Battle Squadron, but was paid off in July to begin another refit. Dreadnought was put into reserve at Rosyth in February 1919. Dreadnought was put up for sale on 31 March 1920 and sold for scrap to T.W. Ward & Company on 9 May 1921 for the sum of £44,000. She was broken up at Ward's new premises at Inverkeithing, Scotland, upon arrival on 2 January 1923.

This is the third of this series that this reviewer has had to review recently and they still don’t disappoint. This title begins with eight pages of history, design philosophy, building and the career of this great ship. This is followed by fifty eight pages of the fabulous 3D drawings that these books are renowned for. It should be noted that all the drawings are of the ship as she was in 1907, so hopefully there will be another book with Dreadnought in her later modification states. As usual every part of ship is covered in the drawings. They are all very detailed and will be a boon to the modeller, particularly if they are using one of the amazing etched detail sets that are available. At the time, the Dreadnought was equipped with an anti torpedo net system that could be rigged even when at sea, although the speed was heavily restricted. Some of the drawings in the book show the ship with the nets rigged allowing the modeller to see exactly how the booms were spread and the cables that attached them to the ship. If you’re prepared to do a fair bit of rigging then these will be invaluable. Alternatively there are drawings showing how the nets and booms were stowed on what was known as the net shelf.

Unlike most of the other books the majority of drawings aren’t annotated, which is a shame as they can be useful in identifying the part of ship and the equipment shown in the drawing. That said though the drawings should be pretty self explanatory to the majority of maritime modellers. To bring a maritime model alive it really needs to have railings and rigging. Both of these items are well represented in this book along with the awning stantions, although the awnings themselves aren’t shown it shouldn’t take too much to work out how they are fitted. The rigging in the diagrams are particularly useful, especially showing where and how the various halliards, standing rigging and aerials are attached and how the aerial spreaders are spaced.

Also included is a double sided A2 sheet with five view plans, (Port, Starboard, Above, Bow and Stern), in both 1:350 and 1:700 scale on one side. On the other side there are more detailed plans of the main gun turrets, 12 pdr mounts, all the ships boats, (32ft Cutter, 45ft Steam Pinnace, 42ft launch, 40ft Admirals Barge, 27ft Whaler, 23ft Gig and 16ft Dinghy), all in 1:100 scale except for the 12pdr plans which are in 1:50. Also on this side is a drawing of the starboard side of the ship but with a slightly higher viewing angle, which not only gives a better plan view of the rigging but also of the rigged anti-torpedo nets.

Conclusion
This is another superb book in the series. Doing a few of these in a row does make it difficult to express how good these books are in different ways, but they really are superb. The drawings are so clear and so detailed it’s like you took a photo on the ship itself and the detailed plans on the pull out sheet would look great hung on the wall in front of your modelling desk as you build. If you’re a maritime modeller and you want to build a 1907 HMS Dreadnought then you must get this book and some detail sets to really go to town on and make yourself a museum quality model.

Review sample courtesy of

[Ray S]

Shar2, thanks for that review. The images you have shown are really good, and I am very glad my Dreadnought build stalled a few months ago. I Obviously knew subliminally this was in the pipeline!

Thanks again,

All the best, Ray

[Antoine]

Thanks for the review.

I'll have to wait for the 1915 edition.

If only there will be one.