Battleship

The term battleship came into formal use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ironclad warship, now referred to by historians as pre-dreadnought battleships. A global arms race in battleship construction began in Europe in the 1890s and culminated at the decisive Battle of Tsushima in 1905. Few countries maintained battleships after World War WWII, with the last battleship being decommissioned at the end of the Cold War.

About Battleship in brief

The term battleship came into formal use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ironclad warship, now referred to by historians as pre-dreadnought battleships. A global arms race in battleship construction began in Europe in the 1890s and culminated at the decisive Battle of Tsushima in 1905, the outcome of which significantly influenced the design of HMS Dreadnought. Three major fleet actions between steel battleships took place: the long range gunnery duel at the Battle of the Yellow Sea in 1904 and the inconclusive Battle of Jutland in 1916. Both the Allied and Axis powers built battleships during World War II, though the increasing importance of the aircraft carrier meant that the battleship played a less important role than had been expected. The last battleships were struck from the U.S. Naval Vessel Register in the 2000s. Few countries maintained battleships after World War WWII, with the last battleship being decommissioned at the end of the Cold War. Many World War Two-era battleships remain in use today as museum ships. A ship of the line was the dominant warship of its age. It was a large, unarmored wooden sailing ship which mounted a battery of up to 120 smoothbore guns and carronades. The ship of a line developed gradually over centuries and, apart from growing in size, it changed little between the adoption of line of battle tactics in the early 17th century and the end of the sailing battleship’s heyday in the 1830s.

The first major change to the concept was the introduction of steam power as an auxiliary propulsion system in the first half of the 19th century, initially for small craft and later for frigates. The French Navy introduced steam power to the battle line with the 90-gun Napoléon in 1850—the first true steam-of-the-line battleship. The battle line was a conventional ship, armed with conventional engines, but her main battery was armed with smoothbores. The battleship was a symbol of naval dominance and national might, and was a major factor in both diplomacy and military strategy. Even in spite of their huge firepower and protection, battleships were increasingly vulnerable to much smaller and relatively inexpensive weapons: initially the torpedo and the naval mine, and later aircraft and the guided missile. There were few of the decisive fleet battles that battleship proponents expected, and used to justify the vast resources spent on building battlefleets. Four battleship were retained by the United States Navy until the end of the Cold War for fire support purposes and were last used in combat during the Gulf War in 1991. The Battle of Jutland was the last major battle in naval history fought primarily by battleships, and it was the only full-scale clash of dreadnoughts of the war. The battle of the Yellow Sea was the first battle of the First World War, and the Battle of Tsushima was the decisive battle of the First World War.

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Pre-dreadnought battleship Ironclad warship Dreadnought Fusō-class battleship