Dreadnought Gallery

H.M.S Neptune ready to be lauched 1909

H.M.S Neptune, the first of the Royal Navy super-Dreadnought battleships, photograph showing her in stocks ready for launching at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard. She was relieved as fleet flagship in 1914 and joined the First Battle Squadron. At the outbreak of World War One, the First Fleet became the Grand Fleet, Neptune and was present at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. After the war she was quickly transferred to the reserve fleet and subsequently sold for scrap in 1922. Date: 1909

© Mary Evans Picture Library

The Dreadnought Hoax, report in The Sketch

Page from The Sketch magazine reporting on the Dreadnought hoax. The incident was a joke played by a group led by Horace de Vere Cole, including the writer Virginia Stephen (Woolf, seen far left in the bottom picture) who dressed up as the Emperor of Abyssinia and his party, and turned up out of the blue to inspect the battleship 'Dreadnought'. The group were 'received with the usual courtesies accorded to distinguished visitors, and were shown over the vessel.' The Dreadnought hoax was not the first time this group had played the joke. The top photograph shows the Abyssinian princes on an occasion when they visited the Mayor of Cambridge as the Sultan of Zanzibar and his suite. Date: 1910

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

Illustrated War News front cover, naval, 12 August 1914

Front cover of the first issue of the Illustrated War News, produced within a week of the outbreak of the First World War and dedicated to covering all aspects of the conflict. Cover shows a British battleship flanked by the British and French flags. Date: 1914

© Mary Evans Picture Library

1914, 1st, Battleship, Battleships, British, Cover, Covers, Dreadnought, Dreadnoughts, Flags, French, Front, Great, Historical, History, Illustrated, Issue, Jack, Naval, Navy, News, Patriotic, Patriotism, Power, Sea, Seapower, Ship, Ships, Union, War, World, Ww1, Wwi