A drawing in The Sphere, showing the exact status of the fleet of dreadnought battleships belonging to Germany in 1911. The picture shows 8 in commission, 1 on trials, 3 completed and 4 on slips, a total of 16 compared to Britain's 25 at the time. There was a huge growth in the building of dreadnoughts (all-big-gun battleships) since the first built by Britain in 1905 - the trigger for a naval arms race among the major powers in the years leading up to World War I.