In these days when all big gun armaments are the rule, there is a tendency to overlook the fact that the _Dreadnought’s_ main armament was double that of previous ships, with only a comparatively small increase of displacement, and that no intermediate experience existed as to what might be expected. With a view to standing the shock of discharge, the _Dreadnought_ was built with very heavy scantlings and generally given an immensely strong hull. The armouring followed orthodox lines, except that a certain amount was applied internally under-water as a protection against torpedoes. In addition she was given solid bulkheads,[30] though this was no novelty except with the British Navy, as they had been introduced some years before in the battleship _Tsarevitch_ and the armoured cruiser _Bayan_, built for the Russians at La Seyne. Another novelty in the _Dreadnought_ was the adoption of a high forecastle, she being the first British battleship in which this appears. Another innovation was the placing of the officers’ quarters forward and putting the men aft, a system which, however, has since been abandoned in the most recent vessels. The greatest novelty of the _Dreadnought_, however, was the adoption of turbine machinery, and the form of her hull, with a 30ft. overhang aft, in order to adapt the ship to the new means of propulsion. The fitting of turbines to the new _Dreadnought_ was perhaps an even greater novelty than her armament, she being the first warship, other than small cruisers, to be so equipped. The introduction of turbines was regarded with a good deal of apprehension in certain quarters, especially when it became known that the three other big ships belonging to the same programme were also to be turbine propelled. The type selected for all was the Parsons with four shafts. The wing shafts of the _Dreadnought_ have each one high pressure ahead and one high pressure astern turbine. The amidship ones are fitted with three turbines each--one low pressure one ahead, and one low pressure astern, and one turbine for going astern. Each turbine has 39,600 blades. On her first trials the _Dreadnought_ exceeded her designed speed for short spurts by three-quarters of a knot, but on the eight hours’ run barely succeeded in making a mean of twenty-one knots. Shortly afterwards she fell a little below this, but at a later date picked up again, and on more than one occasion since she has easily made twenty-two knots or over. Such early difficulties as occurred were due to the fact that her engine-room complement were at first necessarily unfamiliar with working so large an installation. The total cost of the _Dreadnought_, which belongs to the 1905–06 programme, was £1,797,497, and save that her draught somewhat exceeded anticipations, the ship was a success in every way, proving a remarkably steady gun-platform.