ABSTRACT
Beginning in 1573 the Queen's shipwrights introduced a new design - known as 'race built' - that involved a reduction in the 'castles' fore and aft, sleeker lines, and a longer gundeck. These changes produced two important advantages. First, they effected a revolution in ship-platform design, for the castles had carried the majority of the anti-personnel weapons, while the longer gundecks permitted a significant increase in the weight of the broadside. Second, the sleeker lines gave the English warships a distinct edge over their competitors, allowing them to sail faster and manoeuvre better. The first of the faster 'all-big-gun battleships' of the Tudor navy was, by a curious coincidence, called Dreadnought, 700 tons displacement and 31 tons of ordnance, launched in 1573. The ability to carry heavy artillery equivalent to almost 4.5 per cent of total displacement was unprecedented.
