WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.040 Welcome. I want you to imagine Just for a moment, 00:00:04.419 --> 00:00:07.259 a single piece of technology. A very large piece 00:00:07.259 --> 00:00:09.460 of technology, to be fair. Right, yeah. A huge 00:00:09.460 --> 00:00:12.259 piece of technology. But something so incredibly 00:00:12.259 --> 00:00:14.679 revolutionary that the very day it's unveiled, 00:00:15.460 --> 00:00:19.379 it instantly renders every single previous iteration 00:00:19.379 --> 00:00:22.300 on Earth completely obsolete. It's overnight. 00:00:22.500 --> 00:00:24.339 Overnight. And not only that, but its arrival 00:00:24.339 --> 00:00:28.440 immediately sparks this panic -induced, multi 00:00:28.440 --> 00:00:32.479 -billion dollar global It is the ultimate disruptive 00:00:32.479 --> 00:00:34.799 technology. I mean, when we talk about tech disruption 00:00:34.799 --> 00:00:37.229 today, our minds usually go straight to... you 00:00:37.229 --> 00:00:39.810 know, software, artificial intelligence, that 00:00:39.810 --> 00:00:42.109 sort of thing. Exactly. But the disruption we 00:00:42.109 --> 00:00:44.729 are looking at today was constructed from thousands 00:00:44.729 --> 00:00:47.549 of tons of steel. Yeah. So today we are taking 00:00:47.549 --> 00:00:49.509 a deep dive into the source material and the 00:00:49.509 --> 00:00:51.649 dreadnought battleships of the early 20th century. 00:00:51.789 --> 00:00:54.210 Which is such a fascinating era. It really is. 00:00:54.250 --> 00:00:57.289 We're drawing from a highly comprehensive historical 00:00:57.289 --> 00:00:59.729 article that covers the origins, the engineering 00:00:59.729 --> 00:01:04.930 design, and the staggering global impact of the 00:01:04.930 --> 00:01:08.010 dreadnought. And we are simply imparting what's 00:01:08.010 --> 00:01:10.069 in these historical sources, looking at the facts 00:01:10.069 --> 00:01:12.409 as they were recorded. Absolutely. As we go through 00:01:12.409 --> 00:01:15.549 this, our goal is to uncover how this single 00:01:15.549 --> 00:01:18.409 ship design radically changed naval warfare, 00:01:18.969 --> 00:01:21.569 why it became the ultimate status symbol of national 00:01:21.569 --> 00:01:23.489 power. Really similar to nuclear weapons today, 00:01:23.629 --> 00:01:26.019 honestly. Right. And what it teaches us about 00:01:26.019 --> 00:01:29.200 the terrifyingly fast pace of technological evolution. 00:01:29.379 --> 00:01:32.319 OK, let's unpack this. Because to really appreciate 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:34.959 the disruption, we have to understand what naval 00:01:34.959 --> 00:01:37.680 combat actually looked like in the 1890s. The 00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:39.859 pre -Dreadnought era. Right, the pre -Dreadnought 00:01:39.859 --> 00:01:42.900 era. So in the 1890s, battleship design was built 00:01:42.900 --> 00:01:46.140 around a very specific tactical philosophy. A 00:01:46.140 --> 00:01:48.299 typical battleship of that era would feature 00:01:48.299 --> 00:01:50.719 a mixed battery of guns. Meaning different sizes. 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:53.780 Yeah, exactly. You would have, say, four heavy 00:01:53.780 --> 00:01:57.219 12 -inch guns. But the real focus... The core 00:01:57.219 --> 00:02:00.280 of the ship's offensive capability was this extensive 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:03.200 secondary armament. Lots of smaller guns. Tons 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:05.299 of them. We're talking about lots of rapid fire 00:02:05.299 --> 00:02:07.680 guns, usually between four and seven inches in 00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:10.759 diameter. And the entire combat strategy was 00:02:10.759 --> 00:02:13.240 simply to close the distance with the enemy ship. 00:02:13.259 --> 00:02:16.379 Right up in there. Right. Get close and then 00:02:16.379 --> 00:02:20.039 unleash a devastating hail of fire at relatively 00:02:20.039 --> 00:02:22.509 close range. Which, you know, makes perfect sense 00:02:22.509 --> 00:02:25.810 for the time because at long ranges, naval gunneries 00:02:25.810 --> 00:02:28.210 simply wasn't accurate enough yet. You couldn't 00:02:28.210 --> 00:02:30.189 hit anything. Right. You had to get in close 00:02:30.189 --> 00:02:32.610 to ensure those shells actually did some damage. 00:02:33.090 --> 00:02:37.189 But then an external technology forces this complete 00:02:37.189 --> 00:02:40.810 strategic pivot. Yes. The catalyst for change 00:02:40.810 --> 00:02:43.530 and the whole reason navies were suddenly forced 00:02:43.530 --> 00:02:46.810 to rethink everything was the torpedo. The torpedo. 00:02:46.949 --> 00:02:49.750 Torpedo technology was improving at an alarming 00:02:49.750 --> 00:02:53.020 rate. The source material notes that by 1903 00:02:53.020 --> 00:02:56.860 and 1904, the U .S. Navy was evaluating new torpedo 00:02:56.860 --> 00:02:59.340 designs that were suddenly effective at a range 00:02:59.340 --> 00:03:03.379 of 4 ,000 to 8 ,000 yards. Which completely undermines 00:03:03.379 --> 00:03:06.569 that entire close the distance strategy. You 00:03:06.569 --> 00:03:08.729 can't safely get within a few thousand yards 00:03:08.729 --> 00:03:11.270 of an enemy to use your rapid fire guns if they 00:03:11.270 --> 00:03:13.550 can just launch a torpedo and sink you from miles 00:03:13.550 --> 00:03:17.849 away. Precisely the issue. Navies realized they 00:03:17.849 --> 00:03:19.990 had to figure out how to fight at much longer 00:03:19.990 --> 00:03:22.509 distances to stay out of that torpedo range. 00:03:22.990 --> 00:03:25.770 And the tipping point for this realization happens 00:03:25.770 --> 00:03:28.770 during the Russo -Japanese War. Right. Specifically 00:03:28.770 --> 00:03:31.210 at the Battle of the Yellow Sea. This is in August 00:03:31.210 --> 00:03:33.969 1904. Right. The Russian and Japanese fleets 00:03:33.969 --> 00:03:36.610 clashed and they shocked naval observers worldwide 00:03:36.610 --> 00:03:38.650 by actively hitting each other with their heavy 00:03:38.650 --> 00:03:41.750 12 -inch guns at a massive distance of 14 ,000 00:03:41.750 --> 00:03:44.090 yards. And everyone else was taking notes. Oh 00:03:44.090 --> 00:03:46.870 absolutely. But that unprecedented range introduced 00:03:46.870 --> 00:03:49.830 an enormous logistical nightmare for the gunnery 00:03:49.830 --> 00:03:52.969 officers. When you are firing at 14 ,000 yards 00:03:52.969 --> 00:03:55.610 you cannot aim by line of sight. It's just too 00:03:55.610 --> 00:03:57.960 far. Way too far. The curvature of the Earth 00:03:57.960 --> 00:04:00.460 and the sheer distance make it impossible. Instead, 00:04:00.599 --> 00:04:02.819 you have to fire a coordinated group of shells, 00:04:03.280 --> 00:04:05.740 a FALVO, and then you literally watch where the 00:04:05.740 --> 00:04:08.599 towering columns of water splash up around the 00:04:08.599 --> 00:04:12.840 enemy ship. Splashes? Yes. You then adjust your 00:04:12.840 --> 00:04:16.160 mathematical calculations based on those splashes. 00:04:16.459 --> 00:04:18.459 Let me make sure I'm picturing this correctly. 00:04:18.779 --> 00:04:20.959 You fire, you wait for the shells to land, you 00:04:20.959 --> 00:04:23.500 see a splash, say 500 yards short of the target. 00:04:23.540 --> 00:04:25.879 Right. And then you adjust the angle of the guns 00:04:25.879 --> 00:04:28.500 upward for the next salvo. That is the basic 00:04:28.500 --> 00:04:31.620 concept, yes. Now imagine trying to do that math 00:04:31.620 --> 00:04:34.360 when your ship is firing a mix of 12 -inch, 10 00:04:34.360 --> 00:04:37.079 -inch, and 6 -inch guns all at the very same 00:04:37.079 --> 00:04:40.199 time. Oh, wow. The splashes erupting around the 00:04:40.199 --> 00:04:43.209 target are all different sizes. They're all mixed 00:04:43.209 --> 00:04:45.649 together, and the gunners peering through their 00:04:45.649 --> 00:04:48.689 optics literally cannot tell which splash belongs 00:04:48.689 --> 00:04:50.910 to which gun. Because you can't correct your 00:04:50.910 --> 00:04:53.290 aim if you have no idea whose shell just landed. 00:04:53.970 --> 00:04:56.310 If a 6 -inch shell makes a splash, you might 00:04:56.310 --> 00:04:58.870 mistakenly adjust the 12 -inch gun based on that. 00:04:59.269 --> 00:05:01.470 What's fascinating here is that standardizing 00:05:01.470 --> 00:05:04.230 the gun caliber wasn't just about packing more 00:05:04.230 --> 00:05:06.730 explosive power onto a single hull. Though that's 00:05:06.730 --> 00:05:08.670 definitely a plus. Right, certainly a welcome 00:05:08.670 --> 00:05:11.170 benefit. But it was actually an elegant solution 00:05:11.170 --> 00:05:13.870 to the incredibly complex math of long -range 00:05:13.870 --> 00:05:16.709 fire control. It simplifies the equation. Exactly. 00:05:17.160 --> 00:05:19.819 If every gun on your ship is a 12 -inch gun, 00:05:20.279 --> 00:05:22.579 then every splash you see on the horizon is a 00:05:22.579 --> 00:05:25.259 12 -inch splash. You can calculate your range 00:05:25.259 --> 00:05:27.639 adjustments uniformly. That makes so much sense. 00:05:27.800 --> 00:05:29.600 In fact, the source mentions that in October 00:05:29.600 --> 00:05:33.540 1903, an Italian naval architect named Vittorio 00:05:33.540 --> 00:05:36.480 Cunaberti actually published a paper outlining 00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:39.300 an ideal ship. He kind of saw the future. He 00:05:39.300 --> 00:05:42.160 really did. He envisioned a vessel armed entirely 00:05:42.160 --> 00:05:45.689 with 12 12 inch guns that would use this uniform 00:05:45.689 --> 00:05:49.050 battery to deliver rapid, devastating fire at 00:05:49.050 --> 00:05:51.350 long range. So the idea was out there in the 00:05:51.350 --> 00:05:54.310 ether. It was a global epiphany. The UK wasn't 00:05:54.310 --> 00:05:57.209 alone in seeing this future. Japan laid down 00:05:57.209 --> 00:06:00.689 an all big gunship called the Satsuma in 1905. 00:06:00.850 --> 00:06:02.889 And the United States authorized the Michigan, 00:06:03.189 --> 00:06:05.029 which was part of the South Carolina class around 00:06:05.029 --> 00:06:07.170 that same period. The race was officially on, 00:06:07.170 --> 00:06:09.790 but the British really flexed their industrial 00:06:09.790 --> 00:06:12.120 capabilities here to take the lead. They did. 00:06:12.459 --> 00:06:15.620 They were driven largely by an incredibly energetic 00:06:15.620 --> 00:06:19.589 First Sea Lord, Admiral John Fisher. Fisher recognized 00:06:19.589 --> 00:06:22.389 the tactical shift and pushed the British shipbuilding 00:06:22.389 --> 00:06:25.449 industry to its absolute limits to beat competing 00:06:25.449 --> 00:06:27.629 nations to the punch. And the speed at which 00:06:27.629 --> 00:06:30.689 they accomplished this is staggering. The keel 00:06:30.689 --> 00:06:34.189 of HMS Dreadnought was laid down in October 1905. 00:06:34.550 --> 00:06:37.509 It was launched in February 1906. Just months 00:06:37.509 --> 00:06:39.829 later. Yeah, and the ship was fully completed 00:06:39.829 --> 00:06:43.810 by October 1906. One single year from laying 00:06:43.810 --> 00:06:47.819 the keel to a finished 20 ,000 ton warship. It's 00:06:47.819 --> 00:06:50.040 an insane demonstration of British industrial 00:06:50.040 --> 00:06:53.259 might. And this ship, HMS Dreadnought, possessed 00:06:53.259 --> 00:06:56.120 two truly revolutionary features. The first, 00:06:56.160 --> 00:06:58.139 as we mentioned, was the all big gun layout. 00:06:58.420 --> 00:07:01.740 Dreadnought carried 10 heavy 12 inch guns, entirely 00:07:01.740 --> 00:07:04.399 abandoning that traditional mixed caliber strategy 00:07:04.399 --> 00:07:06.480 of the past. And the second revolutionary feature 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:08.720 was hidden beneath the deck. The propulsion system. 00:07:09.220 --> 00:07:13.529 Yes. Dreadnought utilized steam turbines. This 00:07:13.529 --> 00:07:16.470 was a profound leap forward in maritime engineering. 00:07:17.250 --> 00:07:19.829 Previous battleships relied on reciprocating 00:07:19.829 --> 00:07:22.990 steam engines. If you picture the giant pumping 00:07:22.990 --> 00:07:25.990 pistons you might see on an antique steam locomotive. 00:07:26.149 --> 00:07:28.250 The chug, chug, chug kind of motion. Right, that 00:07:28.250 --> 00:07:30.730 is a reciprocating engine. They were heavy, and 00:07:30.730 --> 00:07:33.129 at high speeds, the immense pistons shook the 00:07:33.129 --> 00:07:36.410 ship violently. Steam turbines, however, utilized 00:07:36.410 --> 00:07:38.829 continuously spinning blades. Like a jet engine 00:07:38.829 --> 00:07:41.529 almost. Very similar concept. They generate far 00:07:41.529 --> 00:07:44.040 more power for less weight, and run much smoother. 00:07:44.500 --> 00:07:46.319 This allowed the Dreadnought to achieve a top 00:07:46.319 --> 00:07:49.620 speed of 21 knots. Which is fast for a huge hunk 00:07:49.620 --> 00:07:52.740 of steel. Very fast. It made every older battleship 00:07:52.740 --> 00:07:55.079 on the water fundamentally obsolete in terms 00:07:55.079 --> 00:07:57.000 of speed and maneuverability. Here's where it 00:07:57.000 --> 00:07:59.670 gets really interesting. By building the dreadnought, 00:07:59.850 --> 00:08:02.529 the UK effectively wiped out its own vast numerical 00:08:02.529 --> 00:08:05.230 advantage on the seas. They did? Overnight, all 00:08:05.230 --> 00:08:08.089 of those older mixed -gun ships became colloquially 00:08:08.089 --> 00:08:10.870 known as pre -dreadnoughts. The British had just 00:08:10.870 --> 00:08:13.870 reset the global naval board back to zero. Everyone, 00:08:14.069 --> 00:08:16.209 including themselves, was starting fresh. It 00:08:16.209 --> 00:08:19.790 was an enormous strategic gamble. They willingly 00:08:19.790 --> 00:08:22.370 threw away their dominant lead in older ships 00:08:22.370 --> 00:08:25.129 because they knew the all -big -gun era was inevitable. 00:08:25.389 --> 00:08:27.649 They determined it was better to be the ones 00:08:27.649 --> 00:08:30.410 leading that era rather than reacting to it later. 00:08:30.610 --> 00:08:33.429 And once that board is reset, naval architects 00:08:33.429 --> 00:08:36.210 worldwide start trying to figure out the anatomy 00:08:36.210 --> 00:08:39.600 of these new leviathans. Watching the evolution 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:41.919 of the ship designs is like watching a bizarre 00:08:41.919 --> 00:08:44.559 puzzle being solved in real time. It really is. 00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:46.559 They have all these giant guns and they have 00:08:46.559 --> 00:08:48.600 to figure out where to actually place them on 00:08:48.600 --> 00:08:50.399 the hull. Because it was a very steep learning 00:08:50.399 --> 00:08:53.879 curve. The primary goal is to have as many guns 00:08:53.879 --> 00:08:56.840 as possible able to fire on a broadside. Meaning 00:08:56.840 --> 00:08:58.899 they can all rotate and fire straight out to 00:08:58.899 --> 00:09:00.980 the side of the ship simultaneously. Exactly. 00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:03.620 But the initial layouts were all over the place. 00:09:03.879 --> 00:09:06.299 Germany tried a hexagonal layout on their NASA 00:09:06.299 --> 00:09:08.659 class, with turrets pointing out in practically 00:09:08.659 --> 00:09:12.100 every direction. Right. And Britain tried staggering 00:09:12.100 --> 00:09:14.600 wing turrets on the Neptune so guns could fire 00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:17.340 across the deck. At one point on the Agincourt, 00:09:17.580 --> 00:09:20.940 Britain just crammed 14 12 -inch guns into seven 00:09:20.940 --> 00:09:23.320 turrets directly down the centerline. Which is 00:09:23.320 --> 00:09:25.399 just absurd. The ship must have looked entirely 00:09:25.399 --> 00:09:28.259 disproportionate. It did. But the ultimate winner 00:09:28.259 --> 00:09:30.649 of this design puzzle as the source details, 00:09:31.230 --> 00:09:33.570 was pioneered by the U .S. Navy on the South 00:09:33.570 --> 00:09:36.870 Carolina. It was called the Superfiring Layout. 00:09:37.149 --> 00:09:39.789 That is where you stack one turret slightly higher 00:09:39.789 --> 00:09:42.649 and directly behind the one in front of it. Yes. 00:09:42.929 --> 00:09:45.289 The raised turret can fire directly over the 00:09:45.289 --> 00:09:48.309 roof of the lower turret. Initially, designers 00:09:48.309 --> 00:09:50.529 were worried that the concussive blast wave from 00:09:50.529 --> 00:09:53.789 the upper guns would injure the crew operating 00:09:53.789 --> 00:09:56.330 the lower turret. Which is a valid concern. Very 00:09:56.330 --> 00:09:59.289 valid. But once they solved that structural issue, 00:09:59.399 --> 00:10:02.080 It became the global standard. It was the most 00:10:02.080 --> 00:10:04.879 efficient possible use of space and weight, allowing 00:10:04.879 --> 00:10:07.720 all main guns to fire on a broadside without 00:10:07.720 --> 00:10:10.000 widening the ship unnecessarily. Speaking of 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:11.919 weight, we have to talk about the armor. Because 00:10:11.919 --> 00:10:13.720 these ships weren't just designed to dish out 00:10:13.720 --> 00:10:16.059 damage, they had to withstand the exact same 00:10:16.059 --> 00:10:18.460 firepower they were putting out. And armor schemes 00:10:18.460 --> 00:10:21.019 evolved just as rapidly as the weapons. Early 00:10:21.019 --> 00:10:23.820 on, designers relied on the central citadel concept. 00:10:24.529 --> 00:10:27.889 Imagine a heavily armored steel box sitting deep 00:10:27.889 --> 00:10:30.769 inside the ship. This box protected the absolute 00:10:30.769 --> 00:10:33.950 vitals. The boilers generating the steam, the 00:10:33.950 --> 00:10:36.490 engines driving the propellers, and the explosive 00:10:36.490 --> 00:10:38.850 magazines where the ammunition was stored. Because 00:10:38.850 --> 00:10:41.710 if an enemy shell pierces any of those three 00:10:41.710 --> 00:10:44.070 things, the ship is permanently out of the fight, 00:10:44.230 --> 00:10:48.029 or worse, it detonates entirely. Exactly. Now, 00:10:48.110 --> 00:10:50.529 the U .S. Navy took this a step further, developing 00:10:50.529 --> 00:10:53.169 what became known as the All -or -Nothing Protection 00:10:53.169 --> 00:10:56.519 Scheme. The logic was completely uncompromising. 00:10:57.840 --> 00:11:00.100 Basically. If a part of the ship is critical 00:11:00.100 --> 00:11:02.740 to its survival, armor it as heavily as physically 00:11:02.740 --> 00:11:05.580 possible. If it is not absolutely vital, give 00:11:05.580 --> 00:11:08.240 it zero armor. The bow and stern of the ship 00:11:08.240 --> 00:11:10.919 were left entirely unarmored, but that central 00:11:10.919 --> 00:11:13.700 raft, as they called it, was designed to be virtually 00:11:13.700 --> 00:11:16.049 impenetrable. And there is an incredible real 00:11:16.049 --> 00:11:18.690 world payoff to this specific design philosophy 00:11:18.690 --> 00:11:20.909 that the sources point out happens decades later. 00:11:21.309 --> 00:11:24.610 Fast forward to the 1942 naval battle of Guadalcanal. 00:11:24.850 --> 00:11:27.990 The American battleship USS South Dakota accidentally 00:11:27.990 --> 00:11:30.370 silhouetted herself against the glow of burning 00:11:30.370 --> 00:11:33.870 ships and took 26 direct hits from Japanese guns. 00:11:34.250 --> 00:11:37.370 She absorbed a brutal pounding. Her upper decks 00:11:37.370 --> 00:11:40.250 were shredded. Radar was knocked out. Fire started. 00:11:40.610 --> 00:11:42.809 But because of that all or nothing armored raft 00:11:42.809 --> 00:11:45.659 concept, her Her vitals were entirely untouched. 00:11:45.799 --> 00:11:48.100 She just kept going. The ship survived, maintained 00:11:48.100 --> 00:11:50.379 her engine power, and stayed afloat. It's an 00:11:50.379 --> 00:11:53.000 amazing story. It really proved that the underlying 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:55.659 physics and structural philosophy of that dreadnought 00:11:55.659 --> 00:11:59.110 era armor design were perfectly sound. The unarmored 00:11:59.110 --> 00:12:01.570 sections essentially acted as a buffer, allowing 00:12:01.570 --> 00:12:04.009 armor -piercing shells to pass cleanly through 00:12:04.009 --> 00:12:06.809 without detonating, while the armored raft deflected 00:12:06.809 --> 00:12:09.269 the catastrophic blows. Another profound shift 00:12:09.269 --> 00:12:11.429 in the anatomy of these ships was the fuel source. 00:12:11.769 --> 00:12:13.970 At first, they were running on coal. And thinking 00:12:13.970 --> 00:12:16.190 about the sheer physical reality of coal power 00:12:16.190 --> 00:12:19.090 on a warship is sobering. It was incredibly labor 00:12:19.090 --> 00:12:21.570 -intensive. Coal does not simply flow into an 00:12:21.570 --> 00:12:23.970 engine. Deep inside the hull of a coal -fired 00:12:23.970 --> 00:12:26.730 dreadnought, you had hundreds of laborers, called 00:12:26.730 --> 00:12:30.129 Stokers. working in hellish conditions, literally 00:12:30.129 --> 00:12:33.110 shoveling mountains of coal into roaring furnaces 00:12:33.110 --> 00:12:37.049 entirely by hand. Furthermore, coal dust is highly 00:12:37.049 --> 00:12:40.090 explosive, making it a constant operational hazard 00:12:40.090 --> 00:12:43.139 to the crew even outside of combat. And from 00:12:43.139 --> 00:12:46.019 a tactical standpoint, burning coal produces 00:12:46.019 --> 00:12:49.440 these towering plumes of thick black smoke. You 00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:51.440 are essentially broadcasting your position to 00:12:51.440 --> 00:12:55.000 the enemy from miles over the horizon while simultaneously 00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:57.539 blinding your own gunnery officers with soot. 00:12:57.840 --> 00:13:00.389 So the transition to oil was inevitable. Oil 00:13:00.389 --> 00:13:03.090 was a revelation for naval engineering. It possesses 00:13:03.090 --> 00:13:05.269 roughly twice the thermal content of coal by 00:13:05.269 --> 00:13:08.110 weight. It allowed for smaller boilers. And crucially, 00:13:08.409 --> 00:13:10.710 it could be fed automatically through pipes using 00:13:10.710 --> 00:13:13.509 pumps. Completely eliminating the need for that 00:13:13.509 --> 00:13:15.929 army of manual shovelers. The source material 00:13:15.929 --> 00:13:17.830 points out that the U .S. Navy led the shift 00:13:17.830 --> 00:13:21.129 wholeheartedly with the 1911 Nevada class. And 00:13:21.129 --> 00:13:23.110 the reason is purely geographical. The United 00:13:23.110 --> 00:13:25.409 States had vast domestic oil reserves. While 00:13:25.409 --> 00:13:27.980 European nations, however, were far more hesitant 00:13:27.980 --> 00:13:30.259 to make the switch. Right. And that is a crucial 00:13:30.259 --> 00:13:33.779 geopolitical nuance. The major European powers 00:13:33.779 --> 00:13:37.259 possessed plentiful, high quality coal reserves, 00:13:37.500 --> 00:13:39.940 but they had to import nearly all of their oil. 00:13:40.580 --> 00:13:43.179 Relying on an imported fuel source for your primary 00:13:43.179 --> 00:13:46.480 national defense fleet introduces a severe strategic 00:13:46.480 --> 00:13:48.620 vulnerability. Because if someone cuts off your 00:13:48.620 --> 00:13:51.360 supply lines? If a hostile nation blockades your 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:54.200 oil shipments, your entire Navy is paralyzed. 00:13:54.460 --> 00:13:57.299 Despite this glaring risk, Admiral Fisher in 00:13:57.299 --> 00:13:59.659 Britain pushed the Queen Elizabeth class to utilize 00:13:59.659 --> 00:14:02.840 oil anyway, simply because it was the only engineering 00:14:02.840 --> 00:14:05.860 solution to achieve a groundbreaking 25 knot 00:14:05.860 --> 00:14:08.679 top speed. Creating the first fast battleships. 00:14:08.740 --> 00:14:11.419 Exactly. Which provides a natural pivot into 00:14:11.419 --> 00:14:14.460 the geopolitical shockwaves created by the dreadnought. 00:14:14.799 --> 00:14:16.919 Because these ships weren't merely weapons, they 00:14:16.919 --> 00:14:19.240 were the ultimate geopolitical status symbol. 00:14:19.659 --> 00:14:22.120 To put it in modern terms, as we said earlier, 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:24.379 having a dreadnought in your fleet was similar 00:14:24.379 --> 00:14:26.799 to possessing a nuclear weapons program today. 00:14:26.940 --> 00:14:29.279 It was a very exclusive club. It signaled to 00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:31.379 the rest of the world that you are a genuine, 00:14:31.720 --> 00:14:34.620 undeniable global power. They became known as 00:14:34.620 --> 00:14:37.639 capital ships, the most important heavily armed 00:14:37.639 --> 00:14:40.580 warships in a nation's fleet, the ones that anchor 00:14:40.580 --> 00:14:43.480 the entire Navy. The international panic this 00:14:43.480 --> 00:14:47.120 caused cannot be overstated. The moment HMS Dreadnought 00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:50.480 hit the water, the ongoing Anglo -German naval 00:14:50.480 --> 00:14:53.259 arms race shifted into an entirely new gear. 00:14:53.960 --> 00:14:56.080 Germany passed a series of fleet acts, often 00:14:56.080 --> 00:14:58.279 referred to as the Tirpitz laws. Named after 00:14:58.279 --> 00:15:01.120 Admiral Tirpitz. Right. These laws were specifically 00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:03.620 designed to construct a dreadnought fleet capable 00:15:03.620 --> 00:15:05.980 of directly challenging British naval supremacy 00:15:05.980 --> 00:15:08.139 in the North Sea. And the UK government went 00:15:08.139 --> 00:15:11.179 to extraordinary lengths to stay ahead. By 1909, 00:15:11.340 --> 00:15:13.600 the source details this literal constitutional 00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:16.019 crisis in the UK stemming from the cost of these 00:15:16.019 --> 00:15:18.539 ships. They were just bleeding money. The government 00:15:18.539 --> 00:15:21.179 had to propose unprecedented taxes on wealthy 00:15:21.179 --> 00:15:24.779 landowners just to fund the naval budget. The 00:15:24.779 --> 00:15:27.120 House of Lords rejected the budget, triggering 00:15:27.120 --> 00:15:29.860 an absolute political meltdown, two separate 00:15:29.860 --> 00:15:32.480 general elections, and ultimately a permanent 00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:34.639 reduction in the political power of the House 00:15:34.639 --> 00:15:37.639 of Lords. All of this domestic turmoil over funding 00:15:37.639 --> 00:15:39.799 battleships. And the crushing financial burden 00:15:39.799 --> 00:15:43.320 forced the UK to fundamentally reorganize its 00:15:43.320 --> 00:15:45.919 global military strategy. They actually had to 00:15:45.919 --> 00:15:48.019 abandon their naval presence in the Mediterranean. 00:15:48.159 --> 00:15:50.500 Leaving it to the French. Yes, leaving the protection 00:15:50.500 --> 00:15:53.759 of those waters to the allied French Navy, just 00:15:53.759 --> 00:15:56.480 so the British could consolidate their own dreadnoughts 00:15:56.480 --> 00:15:58.779 and home waters to guard against the growing 00:15:58.779 --> 00:16:01.220 German high seas fleet. But the arms race wasn't 00:16:01.220 --> 00:16:03.399 isolated to Europe either. It spread all the 00:16:03.399 --> 00:16:06.259 way to South America. There's a fierce, incredibly 00:16:06.259 --> 00:16:10.000 expensive rivalry between Brazil, Argentina and 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:12.320 Chile. Which is a lesser known part of the history, 00:16:12.379 --> 00:16:15.580 but so important. Yeah, these nations were pouring 00:16:15.580 --> 00:16:18.740 their economies into European shipyards. Brazil 00:16:18.740 --> 00:16:21.159 ordered a dreadnought called the Minas Gerais, 00:16:21.500 --> 00:16:24.080 which, upon completion, briefly held the title 00:16:24.080 --> 00:16:26.519 of having the heaviest broadside in the entire 00:16:26.519 --> 00:16:29.960 world. These countries were taking on staggering 00:16:29.960 --> 00:16:32.980 debt just to possess these floating symbols of 00:16:32.980 --> 00:16:37.070 prestige. This global scramble for dreadnoughts 00:16:37.070 --> 00:16:39.370 created some remarkable historical butterfly 00:16:39.370 --> 00:16:42.669 effects. Nations were so desperate for the political 00:16:42.669 --> 00:16:45.230 leverage a dreadnought provided that it began 00:16:45.230 --> 00:16:48.009 to dictate their international alliances. There 00:16:48.009 --> 00:16:50.009 is a detail in the source material regarding 00:16:50.009 --> 00:16:52.029 the Ottoman Empire that perfectly illustrates 00:16:52.029 --> 00:16:55.090 this chaos. The Ottoman government wanted to 00:16:55.090 --> 00:16:57.750 join the Dreadnought Club, so they ordered two 00:16:57.750 --> 00:17:00.350 to be built in British shipyards. And one of 00:17:00.350 --> 00:17:02.090 those, they actually purchased from Brazil when 00:17:02.090 --> 00:17:03.830 the Brazilian government could no longer afford 00:17:03.830 --> 00:17:05.589 the payments. Right. Citizens of the Ottoman 00:17:05.589 --> 00:17:08.269 Empire literally crowdfunded these ships. We 00:17:08.269 --> 00:17:10.710 are talking about everyday people donating their 00:17:10.710 --> 00:17:13.109 daily wages, treating the purchase as a matter 00:17:13.109 --> 00:17:15.309 of immense national pride. It was a huge deal 00:17:15.309 --> 00:17:17.859 for the public. But right as World War One breaks 00:17:17.859 --> 00:17:19.799 out, the ships are finished, they are sitting 00:17:19.799 --> 00:17:22.220 in the UK, and the British government simply 00:17:22.220 --> 00:17:24.859 seizes both of them for the Royal Navy. The Ottoman 00:17:24.859 --> 00:17:28.000 public was justifiably outraged. I mean, they 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:31.079 had personally paid for those warships. Germany, 00:17:31.440 --> 00:17:34.400 recognizing a rare diplomatic opportunity, immediately 00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:36.859 stepped into the void. There happened to be two 00:17:36.859 --> 00:17:39.059 German warships currently trapped in the Mediterranean 00:17:39.059 --> 00:17:41.740 by British forces, and Germany simply gave them 00:17:41.740 --> 00:17:44.220 to the Ottoman government. Just a strategic gift 00:17:44.220 --> 00:17:46.380 to capitalize on the resentment toward Britain. 00:17:46.819 --> 00:17:49.019 Exactly. And as a direct consequence of the British 00:17:49.019 --> 00:17:52.000 seizure and the subsequent German gift, the Ottoman 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:54.460 Empire was pushed to form an alliance with Germany 00:17:54.460 --> 00:17:57.119 and join the central powers in World War One. 00:17:57.140 --> 00:18:00.019 Wow. A major theater of a global conflict was 00:18:00.019 --> 00:18:02.359 fundamentally shaped by the sheer desire to own 00:18:02.359 --> 00:18:06.240 or the anger of losing a dreadnought. We're simply 00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:08.539 examining the historical actions detailed in 00:18:08.539 --> 00:18:10.680 the source material here, but it underscores 00:18:10.680 --> 00:18:13.940 just how intensely politically charged these 00:18:13.940 --> 00:18:16.539 pieces of technology were. That brings us to 00:18:16.539 --> 00:18:19.299 the ultimate, rather heartbreaking irony of the 00:18:19.299 --> 00:18:22.519 Dreadnought era. After all the billions spent, 00:18:22.819 --> 00:18:25.680 the domestic political crises, the strained economies, 00:18:26.119 --> 00:18:28.460 and the global arms races. It was essentially 00:18:28.460 --> 00:18:32.200 all dress and no party. Exactly. Nations push 00:18:32.200 --> 00:18:34.839 their economies to the brink, building fleets 00:18:34.839 --> 00:18:37.480 of these super weapons with the assumption that 00:18:37.480 --> 00:18:40.200 they would meet in glorious, decisive combat. 00:18:40.779 --> 00:18:43.700 But during World War I, there was only one major 00:18:43.700 --> 00:18:45.759 engagement where dreadnought fleets faced off 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:48.940 directly. The Battle of Jutland. Right. In 1916. 00:18:49.599 --> 00:18:52.279 And even that clash was strategically indecisive. 00:18:52.480 --> 00:18:54.380 Neither fleet managed to completely wipe out 00:18:54.380 --> 00:18:57.299 the other. So why did these spectacularly expensive 00:18:57.299 --> 00:18:59.890 fleets spend almost the entire duration of the 00:18:59.890 --> 00:19:02.289 war just sitting safely in port. Because the 00:19:02.289 --> 00:19:04.150 naval commanders were absolutely terrified of 00:19:04.150 --> 00:19:07.089 cheap asymmetric weapons. The Achilles heel of 00:19:07.089 --> 00:19:08.809 the dreadnought wasn't another dreadnought. It 00:19:08.809 --> 00:19:12.329 was the sea mine. And the submarine. Yeah. In 00:19:12.329 --> 00:19:16.269 1914, a brand new British super dreadnought, 00:19:16.569 --> 00:19:20.089 HMS Audacious, struck a single relatively cheap 00:19:20.089 --> 00:19:23.339 sea mine off the coast of Ireland and sank. Just 00:19:23.339 --> 00:19:26.119 like that. Millions of pounds and thousands of 00:19:26.119 --> 00:19:28.440 hours of advanced engineering gone because of 00:19:28.440 --> 00:19:30.819 an unseen explosive floating in the water. German 00:19:30.819 --> 00:19:33.259 U -boats, or submarines, proved they were highly 00:19:33.259 --> 00:19:35.700 capable of sneaking up and sinking these prize 00:19:35.700 --> 00:19:38.579 capital ships. The threat from below the surface 00:19:38.579 --> 00:19:41.420 was so severe that the German high seas fleet 00:19:41.420 --> 00:19:44.200 frequently refused to leave port and engage the 00:19:44.200 --> 00:19:46.599 enemy without U -boat assistance to thin the 00:19:46.599 --> 00:19:48.880 British ranks. And simultaneously, the British 00:19:48.880 --> 00:19:51.339 completely altered their patrol routes and naval 00:19:51.339 --> 00:19:54.000 tactics, steering clear of certain vital areas 00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:56.920 purely to avoid the submarine threat. The dreadnots 00:19:56.920 --> 00:19:59.319 were simply too expensive to lose, so they became 00:19:59.319 --> 00:20:02.099 too precious to actually use. Following World 00:20:02.099 --> 00:20:04.680 War One, the major global powers looked around 00:20:04.680 --> 00:20:07.119 at the financial devastation and realized they 00:20:07.119 --> 00:20:09.400 could not sustain another arms race, which leads 00:20:09.400 --> 00:20:12.400 directly to the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty. 00:20:13.099 --> 00:20:15.500 The major naval powers convened and agreed to 00:20:15.500 --> 00:20:18.319 impose strict limits to stop the bleeding. They 00:20:18.319 --> 00:20:20.859 capped battleship displacement, which is essentially 00:20:20.859 --> 00:20:23.000 the total weight of the ship measured by how 00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:24.920 much water it pushes out of the way when it floats 00:20:24.920 --> 00:20:28.319 at thirty five thousand tons. They also limited 00:20:28.319 --> 00:20:32.019 maximum gun size to 16 inches. It created a mandatory 00:20:32.019 --> 00:20:34.980 building holiday. Most of those original world 00:20:34.980 --> 00:20:37.740 -changing dreadnoughts were unceremoniously scrapped 00:20:37.740 --> 00:20:40.680 and sold for parts. The surviving ships were 00:20:40.680 --> 00:20:43.619 reclassified under the new rules as treaty battleships. 00:20:44.140 --> 00:20:46.880 The era of limitless, unchecked naval expansion 00:20:46.880 --> 00:20:49.900 was officially over. So what does this all mean? 00:20:50.220 --> 00:20:52.799 When we unpacked the source material, the Dreadnought 00:20:52.799 --> 00:20:55.160 started as a brilliant technological leap. It 00:20:55.160 --> 00:20:57.339 solved the complex mathematics of long -range 00:20:57.339 --> 00:21:00.019 gunnery and completely redefined what was possible 00:21:00.019 --> 00:21:03.279 with speed and armor. But almost instantly, it 00:21:03.279 --> 00:21:05.559 transformed into a crippling geopolitical burden. 00:21:06.440 --> 00:21:08.660 Nations sacrificed their domestic stability for 00:21:08.660 --> 00:21:10.940 these ships, only to realize they were too afraid 00:21:10.940 --> 00:21:13.299 to actually put them in harm's way against cheaper, 00:21:13.660 --> 00:21:16.539 unseen threats. If we connect this historical 00:21:16.539 --> 00:21:18.880 arc to the bigger picture, it leaves us with 00:21:18.880 --> 00:21:20.880 an incredibly provocative thought to consider. 00:21:21.559 --> 00:21:23.819 The dreadnoughts were the absolute pinnacle of 00:21:23.819 --> 00:21:26.500 human engineering at the time. Floating fortresses 00:21:26.500 --> 00:21:29.299 of steel that consumed entire national budgets. 00:21:29.579 --> 00:21:32.680 Yet their absolute dominance was thoroughly undercut 00:21:32.680 --> 00:21:35.599 by a cheap, invisible threat, the submarine. 00:21:35.920 --> 00:21:38.680 It makes you wonder, as we look at the multi 00:21:38.680 --> 00:21:41.339 -billion -dollar military assets of today, like 00:21:41.339 --> 00:21:43.759 our sophisticated aircraft carriers or advanced 00:21:43.759 --> 00:21:46.539 stealth fighter jets, what cheap, overlooked, 00:21:46.660 --> 00:21:49.240 asymmetric technology is currently waiting in 00:21:49.240 --> 00:21:52.119 the wings? Like drones, maybe. Exactly. What 00:21:52.119 --> 00:21:54.539 low -cost innovation is out there right now, 00:21:54.779 --> 00:21:57.740 ready to turn today's floating fortresses into 00:21:57.740 --> 00:22:00.720 tomorrow's obsolete relics? That is exactly the 00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:02.900 kind of question this history forces us to ask. 00:22:03.099 --> 00:22:05.380 Thank you so much for joining us on this deep 00:22:05.380 --> 00:22:08.380 dive into the source material. We hope this exploration 00:22:08.380 --> 00:22:10.799 of disruptive technology gives you a new lens 00:22:10.799 --> 00:22:12.700 through which to view the advancements of today. 00:22:13.140 --> 00:22:14.960 Keep questioning the world around you and we'll 00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:15.619 catch you next time.