
Shortly after he assumed office in 1904, he ordered design studies for a battleship armed solely with 12 in (305 mm) guns and a speed of 21 knots (39 km/h 24 mph). Admiral Sir John "Jacky" Fisher, First Sea Lord of the Board of Admiralty, is credited as the father of Dreadnought. Likewise, the generation of ships she made obsolete became known as " pre-dreadnoughts".

The ship's entry into service in 1906 represented such an advance in naval technology that her name came to be associated with an entire generation of battleships, the " dreadnoughts", as well as the class of ships named after her.

HMS Dreadnought was a Royal Navy battleship whose design revolutionised naval power.
