<P> The suggestion that her building had been sped up by using guns and / or turrets originally designed for the Lord Nelson - class battleships which preceded her is not borne out as the guns and turrets were not ordered until July 1905 . It seems more likely that Dreadnought's turrets and guns merely received higher priority than those of the earlier ships . </P> <P> Dreadnought sailed for the Mediterranean Sea for extensive trials in December 1906 calling in at Arosa Bay, Gibraltar and Golfo d'Aranci before crossing the Atlantic to Port of Spain, Trinidad in January 1907, returning to Portsmouth on 23 March 1907 . During this cruise her engines and guns were given a thorough workout by Captain Reginald Bacon, Fisher's former Naval Assistant and a member of the Committee on Designs . His report stated, "No member of the Committee on Designs dared to hope that all the innovations introduced would have turned out as successfully as had been the case ." During this time she averaged 17 knots (31 km / h; 20 mph), slowed only by a damaged rudder, an unprecedented high - speed performance . This shakedown cruise revealed several issues that were dealt with in subsequent refits, notably the replacement of her steering engines and the addition of cooling machinery to reduce the temperature levels in her magazines (cordite degrades more quickly at high temperatures). The most important issue, which was never addressed in her lifetime, was that the placement of her foremast behind the forward funnel put the spotting top right in the plume of hot exhaust gases, much to the detriment of her fighting ability . </P> <P> The ship's construction cost £ 1,785,683, broken down as follows: hull £ 844,784, propelling and other machinery £ 319,585, hull fittings, gun mountings, and torpedo tubes £ 390,145, incidental charges £ 117,969, guns £ 113,200 . Other sources however state £ 1,783,883. and £ 1,672,483 . </P> <P> From 1907 to 1911, Dreadnought served as flagship of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet . In 1910, she attracted the attention of notorious hoaxer Horace de Vere Cole, who persuaded the Royal Navy to arrange for a party of Abyssinian royals to be given a tour of a ship . In reality, the "Abyssinian royals" were some of Cole's friends in blackface and disguise, including a young Virginia Woolf and her Bloomsbury Group friends; it became known as the Dreadnought hoax . Cole had picked Dreadnought because she was at that time the most prominent and visible symbol of Britain's naval might . She was replaced as flagship of the Home Fleet by HMS Neptune in March 1911 and was assigned to the 1st Division of the Home Fleet . She participated in King George V's Coronation Fleet Review in June 1911 . </P>

Britains launch of the dreadnought was an example of