This week we will look at classes of ship. Today is the big boy on the block, the battleship. These are also referred to as battlewagons. Battleships might be thought of as strictly a 20th century ship, but they actually date back to the 1700’s. The term battleship is actually a shortened form of line-of-battle-ship. This of course is due to warships fighting in lines.

The sailing battleship consisted of 120 smooth bore cannon. These were built totally of wood and had no iron plating. The large number of guns on a battleship meant it would more than likely destroy and other ship in battle with only a few broadsides. The first major change to the classes design came in the form of steam power. Steam power first was introduced on smaller ship, but in 1850 the French introduced the 90 gun Le Napoleon. She was the first true all steam powered battleship.

Over the following years battleships were built with iron cladding and then steel. They carried fewer and fewer guns, but deadlier exploding shells. Some navies mounted guns in turrets like those of the USS Monitor while others mounted them in barbettes. Soon sails were totally gone and the pre-dreadnaught style battle ship appeared. The term battleship was officially adopted by the Royal Navy in 1892.

During the 1890’s Britain began to flex its Naval muscles and reassert its long held place as ruler of the seas. The US, Germany, France, Japan, and even Russia began to build more and larger battleship threatening Britain’s place in the world order. The main weapon during this time was the 12” gun. Theses were intended to be fired at other battleships and the smaller armament was meant to be used against smaller craft.
In 1906 every battleship in the world became obsolete with the Launching of HMS

Dreadnaught. Once again a race was on the build larger all gun ships loaded with heavy armor. The arms race indirectly has been considered a partial reason for World War I, but that’s not being debated here. After the war was over the main countries met to restrict battleships. Both the US and Japan scrapped plans for larger ships during the late 20’s and early 30’s.

After Germany pulled out of the treaties all countries once again began to build larger and larger battleships. It was still felt Naval battle would be a slug fest between the giants of the sea. It was felt aircraft would only provide scouting and minor attacking role. Battle between capital ships did take place during the war, but no battle ship was sunk due to this combat. Battleships were wither sank by aircraft, submarines, or by their crews. World War II started with a battleship and ended with a battleship, but this was purely symbolic.

As nations drifted off to building carriers and better aircraft the battleship was sent into mothballs. The last shots in anger from a battleship came during the 1990 Persian Gulf War, soon after the final ships were sent off to rest. Today they stand as reminders to their glorious past.