pre-dreadnought
Noun
Meaning
pre-dreadnought (plural pre-dreadnoughts)
(nautical, military, historical) A late 19th-century or early 20th-century battleship with a small number of big guns (typically no more than four) and a large number of quick-firing medium-caliber guns. It was made largely obsolete in 1906 by the dreadnought type of battleship.
Synonyms
Examples
Britain answered with further shipbuilding, but by the end of the pre-dreadnought era, British supremacy at sea had markedly weakened.
Here, we abstract the transition between four different generations of capital ships, beginning with the coal-burning, armored pre-dreadnought battleship type that dominated major navies until 1905.
The British one sank an obsolete Turkish pre-dreadnought battleship off the Golden Horn of Istanbul.
The beginning of the pre-dreadnought era coincided with Britain reasserting her naval dominance.
The provisions of the Versailles Treaty restricted the German Navy to 15,000 men and no submarines, while the fleet was limited to six pre-dreadnought battleships, six cruisers and 12 destroyers.
This delay enabled the Spanish to skip the final generation of pre-dreadnought battleships, and instead contemplate internationally competitive vessels.