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1/350 HMS Dreadnought


Nick C

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On 2/23/2021 at 8:48 PM, Nick C said:

I’m not sure to be honest, I’ll check to see if there’s any mention of one in my reference stuff when I’m home this weekend.

Cheers

Nick

Hi Nick, Did you have a change to figure out if there exist a Builders Model of HMS Dreadnought ???

Edited by JohnMGD
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On 2/28/2021 at 6:37 PM, JohnMGD said:

Hi Nick, Did you have a change to figure out if there exist a Builders Model of HMS Dreadnought ???

Hi John, I’m afraid I couldn’t find anything specific. Best bet is as Kev says, science museum or Greenwich.

I did wonder about the Royal Navy Museum at Portsmouth as well? 
Sorry I can’t be more help. 
Cheers 

Nick

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I tried to find an e-mail address of the Royal Navy Museum, but the link on their site is not working for me ! :( I saw on the internet that this museum has a model of HMS Dreadnought.

A few days ago I also sent an e-mail to the Science Museum, awaiting an answer !

Edited by JohnMGD
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1 hour ago, JohnMGD said:

I tried to find an e-mail address of the Royal Navy Museum, but the link on their site is not working for me ! :( I saw on the internet that this museum has a model of HMS Dreadnought.

A few days ago I also sent an e-mail to the Science Museum, awaiting an answer !

Good luck! Be interested to know how you get on.

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  • 2 weeks later...

i found this working link

Dreadnoughts | NMRN Portsmouth (nmrn-portsmouth.org.uk)

but wont me set as a link, as the exhibition finished in 2007, so i have copied it for you

 

 

 

This exhibition ran from early 2006 until February 2007. It was commemoration of the centenary of the completion of HMS Dreadnought and also a comparison of shipbuilding techniques between 1906 and 2006.

 

HMS Dreadnought

 

HMS Dreadnought was the first of her kind. Her construction commenced on 2nd October 1905. The hull was launched on the 10th February and the ship was completed in a record time, officially after only a year and a day in December 1906. HMS Dreadnought gave her name to a new type of battleship, all the ships of her type that followed being known as dreadnoughts. The navies of the world immediately sought to copy and improve upon her design, and she started a naval building race that only ended after the conclusion of the First World War.

 

Towards the end of the 19th century, battleship design had settled down to give a fairly standard type, which all the major navies followed. It gave a ship of around 15,000 tons armed with two twin gun turrets mounting heavy guns of around 12"calibre, backed up by a battery of quick firing guns of about 6"calibre. They were protected by heavy armour up to 14" thick and driven by reciprocating steam engines to give a top speed of around 18 knots. They had a crew of around 750-800 men

 

 

A superb model of a typical pre-dreadnought battleship, HMS Albion, acted as an introduction to the exhibition. Painted in a Victorian style livery of green, white and buff, she looks quite different to the purposeful and austere grey of the Dreadnought model forming the focal point for the display.

 

A step forward

 

The design of the Dreadnought was a logical step forward, and utilised existing technology as well as introducing a number of new features.

 

The most obvious change was the increase in size to 18,000 tons, and the adoption of an all big gun armament. Ten 12" guns were now mounted in five twin turrets allowing eight guns to fire on either side, giving the firepower of two of the earlier ships. No secondary armament was fitted, but a number of 12pdr guns were provided for anti-torpedo boat defence. Propulsion was provided by steam turbines. These had been introduced in the late 1890s and had been used in destroyers, but this was the first use in a large warship, and they were larger than any used before. The engines were lighter and more powerful than the reciprocating type, and required less crew to look after them. They could drive the ship at 21 knots.

 

HMS Dreadnought  was, therefore, twice as powerful in heavy gun power as any existing battleship, faster by at least 3 knots and only required a similarly sized crew. Once completed she rendered all other battleships obsolete

 

She was still fuelled by coal and needed the services of teams of stokers to shovel coal into the furnaces by hand, and the control of her guns was still fairly rudimentary. Successive designs would improve the type, re-introducing a secondary armament, changing to oil fuel, and controlling the guns centrally to improve accuracy.

 

Building the Dreadnought

 

 

The speed with which Dreadnought was completed was only possible by ordering a lot of material in advance, by utilising guns and fittings already under construction for other ships, and by an incredible effort. She was a triumph of organisation at the Portsmouth Royal Dockyard. Up to 3000 men were employed on her construction working long shifts, often with the aid of floodlights, which were a new innovation.The exhibition shows the progress of the various stages of the Dreadnought's construction.

 

Living with the Dreadnought

 

Many men and their families had connections with the ship during her service and some of their stories are touched upon in the exhibition.

 

Sydney Hammond was one such man He joined the Royal Navy at the age of 19 in 1903.He joined the crew of HMS Dreadnought as a stoker for her first commission on 6th December 1906 and stayed with her until March 1909.His son has kindly loaned some postcards showing Sydney's time on board. He remembers his father telling him how dangerous it was when the ship was coaling. His job was working in the coalbunkers and with the sacks of coal being emptied from above, it would have been very easy to become buried!

 

The Dreadnought era

 

The Dreadnought battleship had its heyday in the First World War, reaching the height of power and importance in 1916 when the Grand Fleet of the Royal Navy met the German High Seas Fleet for the first and only time at the Battle of Jutland. HMS Dreadnought was not present at the battle, but she did hold the distinction of being the only battleship to sink a submarine when she rammed U29 in March 1915.

 

The importance of the battleship declined with the advent of air power. The Second World War saw the development of the fast battleship with radar and heavy anti-aircraft batteries, but by the end of the war they were really only useful as escort vessels and for shore bombardment. The days of the fleet action were over and the battleships replacement by the aircraft carrier as the most powerful type of warship was complete.

 

The last British battleship HMS Vanguard, still recognisably a Dreadnought was scrapped in 1960, and the type has now disappeared from the world's navies' after a reign of only 40 years.

Albion%20HMS%20Model%20Dreadnoughts%20ex

Dreadnouight%20model%202%20Dreadnought%2Dreadnought%20HMS%20(1906)%20Costruction

Edited by Kevin Aris
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