From 1794, the alternative term 'line of battle ship' was contracted (informally at first) to 'battle ship' or 'battleship'. The ship of the line was a gradual evolution of a basic design that dates back to the 15th century, 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. Napoléon (1850), the first steam battleshipĪ ship of the line was a large, unarmored wooden sailing ship on which was mounted a battery of up to 120 smoothbore guns and carronades. The last battleship was finally stricken from the U.S. Battleships were retained by the United States Navy into the Cold War for fire support purposes. The growing range of naval engagements led to the aircraft carrier replacing the battleship as the leading capital ship during World War II, with the last battleship to be launched being HMS Vanguard in 1944. Even with their enormous firepower and protection, battleships were increasingly vulnerable to much smaller, cheaper ordnance and craft: initially the torpedo and the naval mine, and later aircraft and the guided missile. In spite of the immense resources spent on battleships, there were few pitched battleship clashes. The value of the battleship has been questioned, even during the period of their prominence. Both the Allies and the Axis Powers deployed battleships during World War II. The Naval Treaties of the 1920s and 1930s limited the number of battleships, though technical innovation in battleship design continued. The launch of Dreadnought in 1906 commenced a new naval arms race which was widely considered to have been an indirect cause of World War I. This arms race culminated at the decisive Battle of Tsushima in 1905 the outcome of which significantly influenced the design of HMS Dreadnought. The global arms race in battleship construction began in Europe, following the 1890 publication of Alfred Thayer Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783.
Following battleship designs, influenced by HMS Dreadnought, were referred to as " dreadnoughts".īattleships were a symbol of naval dominance and national might, and for decades the battleship was a major factor in both diplomacy and military strategy. In 1906, the commissioning of HMS Dreadnought heralded a revolution in battleship design. The term came into formal use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ironclad warship, now referred to by historians as pre-dreadnought battleships.
The word battleship was coined around 1794 and is a contraction of the phrase line-of-battle ship, the dominant wooden warship during the Age of Sail. Some battleships remained in service during the Cold War and the last were decommissioned in the 1990s. During World War II, aircraft carriers overtook battleships in power. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the battleship was the most powerful type of warship, and a fleet of battleships was vital for any nation which desired to maintain command of the sea. The muzzle blast distorts the ocean surface.Ī battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. The firepower of a battleship demonstrated by USS Iowa (ca.
0 kommentar(er)
