Battleships

Battleships in the 19th century were built to mount the largest naval guns available. The first British battleship was the Minotaur . Completed in 1863 it was armed with a 9-inch muzzle-loading guns. By 1898 battleships like Germany's 10,000-ton Fuerst Bismark , had become slow moving gun platforms.

The all-steel, armoured battleships of the early 20th century carried breech-loading artillery mounted on revolting turrets wth an effective range of over 100,000 metres. Battleships were rendered obsolete by the British dreadnought completed in 1906.

First World War Encyclopedia (3,250 pages - £4.95)