In one letter to Lloyd George he suggested that the Liberal government was Pro-German. That night he made a speech where he spoke out on the arms race: "My principle is, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, less money for the production of suffering, more money for the reduction of suffering." (3)Īlfred Harmsworth, Lord Northcliffe, used his newspapers to urge an increase in defence spending and a reduction in the amount of money being spent on social insurance schemes. David Lloyd George had a meeting with the German Ambassador, Count Paul Metternich, and told him that Britain was willing to spend £100 million to frustrate Germany's plans to achieve naval supremacy. The British government believed it was necessary to have twice the number of these warships than any other navy. Germany built its first dreadnought in 1907 and plans were made for building more. It cost over £2 million, twice as much as the cost of a conventional battleship. A total of 526 feet long (160.1 metres) it had a crew of over 800 men. It was also faster than any other warship and could reach speeds of 21 knots. It was the first major warship driven solely by steam turbines.
In the waterline section of her hull, the ship was armoured by plates 28 cm thick. In addition to her 12-inch guns, the ship also had twenty-four 3-inch guns (76 mm) and five torpedo tubes below water. The gun turrets were situated higher than user and so facilitated more accurate long-distance fire. She had ten 12-inch guns (305 mm), whereas the previous record was four 12-inch guns. It was the most heavily-armed ship in history. (1)īritain's first dreadnought was built at Portsmouth Dockyard between October 1905 and December 1906. Alfred Harmsworth, the owner of The Daily Mail, The Times, The Daily Mirror and The Evening News, did what he could to support Fisher in this task. For the next five years fought to uphold the traditional "two-power standard" by which "the British had attempted to maintain a fleet twice as large as the combined naval forces of its two most likely foes". Fisher believed the German threat was real and that it was only a matter of time before the fleet across the North Sea would test his own. In October 1905, Admiral Sir John Fisher gained control at the Admiralty as First Sea Lord.
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