ABSTRACT
In 1903 a romantic Italian naval engineer, Vitorio Cuniberti, had published an article in the edition of Jane's Fighting Ships projecting a vessel armed with twelve 12-inch rifles and "a very high speed—superior to that of any existing battleship afloat." After conducting a half-hearted preliminary test on the tactical-game board, the president of the Naval War College predictably sent the General Board an unfavorable report on the projected vessel. After the 1883 discontinuance of repair funds for wooden vessels and the subsequent decommissioning of most of those rotting veterans, many junior officers were forced ashore for periods of up to five years. In Europe the introduction of the dreadnought type compounded the tensions that surrounded the ugly naval race that had been brewing between Great Britain and Germany since the late 1890s. Besides, the Royal Navy's upstart rival across the North Sea was known to be laying down Teutonic equivalents of the Dreadnought.
