![]() The diagonal tubes are spars for torpedo nets. HMS Ramillies was the fourth ship of the influential Royal Sovereign class. Some historians see these ships as a vital step towards pre-dreadnoughts others view them as a confused and unsuccessful design. The guns were mounted in open barbettes to save weight. Equipped with breech-loading guns of between 12-inch and 16 ¼-inch (305 mm and 413 mm) calibre, the Admirals continued the trend of ironclad warships mounting gigantic weapons. These ships reflected developments in ironclad design, being protected by iron-and-steel compound armour rather than wrought iron. The distinction between coast-assault battleship and cruising battleship became blurred with the Admiral-class ironclads, ordered in 1880. Navies worldwide continued to build masted, turretless battleships which had sufficient freeboard and were seaworthy enough to fight on the high seas. Devastation was the first ocean-worthy breastwork monitor because of her very low freeboard, her decks were subject to being swept by water and spray, interfering with the working of her guns. Both ships dispensed with masts and carried four heavy guns in two turrets fore and aft. HMVS Cerberus, the first breastwork monitor, was launched in 1868, followed in 1871 by HMS Devastation, a turreted ironclad which more resembled a pre-dreadnought than the previous, and its contemporary, turretless ironclads. The first ironclads-the French Gloire and HMS Warrior-looked much like sailing frigates, with three tall masts and broadside batteries, when they were commissioned in the early 1860s. The pre-dreadnought developed from the ironclad battleship. This ship, launched in 1875, should not be confused with her famous successor, launched in 1906, marking the end of the pre-dreadnought era. HMS Dreadnought shows the low freeboard typical for early ironclad turret-ships. The last decisive clash of pre-dreadnought fleets was between the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Imperial Russian Navy at the Battle of Tsushima on. ![]() Meanwhile, the battleship fleets of the United Kingdom, France, and Russia expanded to meet these new threats. New naval powers such as Germany, Japan, the United States, and to a lesser extent Italy and Austria-Hungary, began to establish themselves with fleets of pre-dreadnoughts. The similarity in appearance of battleships in the 1890s was underlined by the increasing number of ships being built. These ships distinctively carried a main battery of very heavy guns upon the weather deck, in large rotating mounts either fully or partially armoured over, and supported by one or more secondary batteries of lighter weapons on broadside. Built from steel, protected by compound, nickel steel or case-hardened steel armour, pre-dreadnought battleships were driven by coal-fired boilers powering compound reciprocating steam engines which turned underwater screws. In contrast to the multifarious development of ironclads in preceding decades, the 1890s saw navies worldwide start to build battleships to a common design as dozens of ships essentially followed the design of the Royal Navy's Majestic class. The pre-dreadnought battleships were the pre-eminent warships of their time and replaced the ironclad battleships of the 1870s and 1880s. In their day, they were simply known as 'battleships' or else more rank-specific terms such as 'first-class battleship' and so forth. Their designs were conceived before the appearance of HMS Dreadnought in 1906 and their classification as 'pre-dreadnought' is retrospectively applied. Pre-dreadnought battleships were sea-going battleships built from the mid- to late- 1880s to the late 1900s. ![]() HMS Royal Sovereign was the first pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy.
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