大象传媒

Britain and Germany were locked in a naval arms race in the run-up to WW1. A new class of warship, the Dreadnought, emerged from Portsmouth Dockyard in 1906. With her speed and powerful long-range guns, the Dreadnought was a game-changer in the race for maritime supremacy.

The first class of HMS Dreadnought was built with astonishing speed 鈥� in less than a year. Further Dreadnought warships quickly followed, so that by 1914 both England and Germany had powerful Navies.

But the future Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, regarded the ship as 鈥渁 piece of wanton and profligate ostentation鈥�, and the arms race as a 鈥渇atal competition鈥� leading to war.

In 1914, fourteen thousand people worked at Portsmouth Dockyard. New ships were launched every year. But the workers faced many hazards including machinery, hot materials and asbestos.

In November 2013, BAE Systems announced that 500 years of military shipbuilding in Portsmouth would come to an end, as the firm cut jobs across the UK.

Location: HM Naval Base, Portsmouth PO1 3LJ
Image shows dreadnoughts and hydroplane, British Grand Fleet, North Sea, First World War, 1914
Image courtesy of Print Collector / Getty Images
Presented by Marcus White

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