The pre-dreadnought battleship is presented as a floating fortress built to fight many kinds of threat. Its heaviest guns resemble counter-battery artillery used at long range, while intermediate weapons make close approach punishing and deliver much of the practical damage. Lighter defensive guns and torpedoes add further layers against attackers that survive to short range. The analogy explains why these ships carried complicated mixed batteries even though that arrangement later proved inefficient for fleet gunnery and training.
Chapter · 35:40-37:29
The pre-dreadnought as a floating fortress
A fortress analogy explains why pre-dreadnought designers assigned different weapon tiers to long-range fire, close destruction, and self-defense.