Pre-dreadnought battleships are sea-going
battleships built between the mid- to late-1880s and 1905, before the launch of . Pre-dreadnoughts replaced the
ironclad battleships of the 1870s and 1880s. Built from steel, and protected by
hardened steel armour, pre-dreadnought battleships carried a
main battery of very heavy guns in
barbettes (open or with armored gunhouses) supported by one or more secondary batteries of lighter weapons. They were powered by coal-fuelled
triple-expansion steam engines.