[Rebelbase]

"President Theodore Roosevelt sent four cruisers to bring it back to the U.S., and these ships were escorted up the Chesapeake Bay by seven battleships."

Weren't they called dreadnoughts back then?

[the OlLine Rebel]

Dreadnought was the British term, driven by the name of the first such. So yes and no, as the term battleship already existed, but the Dreadnought was a big change in approach. Eventually the more general term won out again as the “new” approach became the norm.