![]() Armed with five turrets containing 12-inch guns, Dreadnought could hurl 850-pound explosive shells 14 miles. Three boiler rooms drove high-pressure turbine engines generating 23,000 horsepower. At 527 feet long and displacing 18,000 tons, it was the largest warship ever built. The ship was reduced to reserve in 1919 and sold for scrap two years later.In 1906, the British Navy launched HMS Dreadnought. In May 1916 she was relegated to coastal defence duties in the English Channel, before rejoining the Grand Fleet in 1918. ![]() Nor did Dreadnought participate in any of the other First World War naval battles. Dreadnought did not participate in the Battle of Jutland in 1916 as she was being refitted. Ironically for a vessel designed to engage enemy battleships, her only significant action was the ramming and sinking of German submarine SM U-29 thus she became the only battleship confirmed to have sunk a submarine. Her launch helped spark a naval arms race as navies around the world, particularly the Imperial German Navy, rushed to match it in the build-up to the First World War. ![]() 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.
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