Gelion
Retired Captain
Russia has reasons to believe that any military action against Russia will turn into a world war. My advice is to back down and get a new agreement with Germany.
The sixth HMS Dreadnought' of the British Royal Navy was the first battleship to be entirely armed with only the largest guns available, instead of having secondary and sometimes tertiary batteries of smaller guns. She was also the first large warship to be powered by steam turbines, making her the fastest warship of her size. She was so much in advance of existing designs that ships built to her pattern were known generally as "dreadnoughts", and everything else classified as "pre-dreadnoughts". Her introduction sparked off a major naval arms race as navies around the world rushed to match her.
Existing battleship designs of the era typically mounted four large guns in dual-gun turrets fore and aft, and then a number of smaller guns lining the sides in a fashion similar to older sailing ships. Not only did this limit the amount of long-range firepower to four guns, but it also allowed water into the ship through the many openings nearer the waterline.
By 1892 the power of his turbines had increased from the very first prototype of 4 kW in 1885 to a respectable 100kW. But there were still no buyers and no market. By now his engines were powerful enough to power small boats. He decided to build a boat that would demonstrate the potential of his machine. In 1894 Parsons took out patent No. 394 for 'Propelling a vessel by means of a steam turbine, which turbine actuates the propeller or paddle shaft directly or through gearing'. The steam turbine blasted jets of high-pressure steam against blades inside a wheel, producing a continuous rotational motion instead of the push-pull action of previous steam engines. The same year saw the formation of the Steam Turbine Company, the prospectus of which stated that: