Warship
For the British television series, see Warship (TV series). |
Diagrams of first and third rate warships, England, 1728 Cyclopaedia |
A
warship is a
ship that is built and primarily intended for
war. Warships are usually built in a completely different way than
merchant ships. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually both faster and more maneuverable than merchant ships. Unlike a merchant ship, a warship typically only carries weapons, ammunition and supplies for its own crew (rather than merchant cargo). Warships usually belong to a
navy, though they have sometimes been operated by individuals or companies.
In wartime, the distinction between warships and merchant ships is often blurred. In war, merchant ships are often armed and used as
auxiliary warships, such as the
Q-ships of
World War I and the armed merchant cruisers of
World War II. Until the
17th century it was common for merchant ships to be pressed into naval service and not unusual for more than half a
fleet to be composed of merchant ships. Until the threat of piracy subsided in the
19th century, it was normal practice to arm larger merchant ships such as
Galleons. Warships have also often been used as troop carriers or supply ships, such as by the
French Navy in the
18th century or the
Japanese Navy during World War II.
The age of galleys
In the time of
Ancient Persia,
Ancient Greece and the
Roman Empire, the most common type of warship was the
galley (such as
biremes,
triremes and
quinqueremes), a long, narrow vessel powered by banks of oarsmen and designed to ram and sink enemy vessels, or come alongside the enemy so its occupants could be attacked hand-to-hand. However with the development of catapults in the 4th century BC and the subsequent refinement of its technology enabled the first fleets of artillery equipped warships by the Hellenistic age. With the political unification of the Mediterranean Sea in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, naval artillery fell out of use. The
Battle of Actium was the last major sea battle with shipborne artillery until the early modern age.
Throughout
late antiquity and the
Middle Ages until the
16th century,
naval warfare relied on the ship itself, used as a ram, the swords of the crew, and various missiles such as bows and arrows and bolts from heavy
crossbows fixed on a ship's bulwarks. Naval warfare primarily involved ramming and boarding actions, so warships did not need to be particularly specialized.
The age of sail
Naval artillery was redeveloped in the
14th century, but
cannon did not become common at sea until the guns were capable of being reloaded quickly enough to be reused in the same battle. The size of a ship required to carry a large number of cannons made oar-based propulsion impossible, and warships came to rely primarily on sails. The sailing
man-of-war began to emerge during the
16th century.
By the middle of the
17th century, warships were carrying increasing numbers of cannon on their
broadsides and
tactics evolved to bring each ship's firepower to bear in a
line of battle. The man of war now evolved into the
ship of the line. In the
18th century, the
frigate and
sloop-of-war – too small to stand in the line of battle – evolved to
convoy trade, scout for enemy ships and
blockade enemy coasts.
Steel, steam and shellfire
During the
19th century a revolution took place in the means of propulsion, armament and construction of warships.
Steam engines were introduced, at first as an auxiliary force, in the second quarter of the 19th century. The
Crimean War gave a great stimulus to the development of guns. The introduction of explosive
shells soon led to the introduction of iron, and later steel,
armour for the sides and decks of larger warships. The first
ironclad warships, the French
Gloire and British
Warrior, made wooden vessels obsolete. Metal soon entirely replaced wood as the main material for warship construction.
 |
The French ironclad La Gloire under sail |
From the 1850s, the sailing ships of the line were replaced by
steam-powered
battleships, while the sailing
frigates were replaced by steam-powered
cruisers. The armament of warships also changed with the invention of the rotating barbettes and turrets, which allowed the guns to be aimed independently of the direction of the ship and allowed a smaller number of larger guns to be carried.
The final innovation during the 19th century was the development of the
torpedo and development of the
torpedo boat. Small, fast torpedo boats seemed to offer an alternative to building expensive fleets of battleships.
The Dreadnought era
|
The all-big-gun steam-turbine-driven battleship HMS Dreadnought |
Another revolution in warship design began shortly after the turn of the century, when Britain launched the all-big-gun battleship
Dreadnought in 1906. Powered by
steam turbines, she was bigger, faster and more heavily gunned than all existing battleships, which she immediately rendered obsolete. She was rapidly followed by similar ships in other countries.
Britain also developed the first
battlecruisers. Mounting the same heavy guns as the Dreadnoughts on an even larger hull, battlecruisers sacrificed armour protection for speed. Battlecruisers were faster and more powerful than all existing cruisers, which they made obsolete. But battlecruisers proved to be much more vulnerable than contemporary battleships.
The torpedo-boat
destroyer was developed at the same time as the Dreadnoughts. Bigger, faster and more heavily gunned than the
torpedo boat, the destroyer evolved to protect the
capital ships from the menace of the torpedo boat.
WW2
During the lead-up to the Second World War, Germany and Great Britain once again emerged as the two dominant
Atlantic sea powers. Germany, under the
Treaty of Versailles, had had its navy limited to only a few minor surface ships. But clever names, such as "pocket battleships" deceived the English and French commands. They were rudely surprised when ships such as the
Admiral Graf Spee,
Scharnhorst, and
Gneisenau constantly raided the Allied supply lines. The greatest threat though, was the introduction of the
Kriegsmarine's most lethal weapons, the
Bismarck and
Tirpitz. The Bismarck was sunk in a wild, short series of sea battles in the north Atlantic, while the Tirpitz caused a bit of a stir before being knocked out by the
RAF. The Royal Navy gained dominance of the European theatre by
1943.
Development of the submarine
The first practical
submarines were developed in the late 19th century, but it was only after the development of the
torpedo that submarines became truly dangerous (and hence useful). By the end of
World War I submarines had proved their potential. During
World War II the
German Navy's submarine fleet of
U-boats almost starved Britain into submission and inflicted huge
losses on US coastal shipping. The success of
submarines led to the development of new
anti-submarine convoy escorts during the First and Second World Wars, such as the
destroyer escort. Confusingly, many of these new types adopted the names of the smaller warships from the
age of sail, such as
corvette,
sloop and
frigate.
Development of the aircraft carrier
A major shift in naval warfare occurred with the introduction of the
aircraft carrier. First at
Taranto and then at
Pearl Harbor, the aircraft carrier demonstrated its ability to strike decisively at enemy ships out of sight and range of surface vessels. By the end of World War II, the carrier had become the dominant warship.
Modern warships
Modern warships are generally divided into six main categories, which are:
aircraft carriers,
cruisers,
destroyers,
frigates,
submarines and
amphibious assault ships.
Battleships encompass a seventh category, but are not in current service with any navy in the world. Only the deactivated American
Iowa-Class Battleship still exist as potential combatants, and battleships in general are unlikely to re-emerge as ship class without redefinition. The
Destroyer is generally regarded as the dominant surface-combat vessel of most modern blue water navies. However, it must be noted that the once distinct roles and appearances of
cruisers, destroyers and
frigates have blurred almost to the point being mere semantics. Most vessels have come to be armed with a mix of anti-surface, anti-submarine and anti-aircraft weapons. Class designations no longer reliably indicate a displacement hierarchy. The size of all vessel types have grown beyond the definitions used earlier in the 20th century.
Most
navies also include many types of support and auxiliary vessels, such as
minesweepers and
patrol boats.
*
Amphibious Assault Ship*
Aircraft carrier*
Battle cruiser - A ship with battleship level armament and crusier level armor; typically faster than a battle ship because of the reduction in weight.
*
Battleship - A large, heavily-armoured and heavily-gunned warship. A term which generally post-dates sailing warships.
*
Bireme - An ancient vessel, propelled by two banks of oars.
*
Capital ship*
Commerce raider*
Corvette*
Cruiser*
Cutter*
Destroyer*
Dreadnought - An early 20th-century class of battleship.
*
Fireship - A vessel of any sort, set on fire and sent into an anchorage with the aim of causing consternation and destruction. The idea is generally that of forcing an enemy fleet to put to sea in a confused, therefore vulnerable state.
*
Frigate*
Galleass - A sailing and rowing warship, equally well suited to sailing and rowing.
*
Galleon - A 16th-century sailing warship.
*
Galley - A warship propelled by oars with a sail for use in a favourable wind.
*
Ironclad - A wooden warship with external iron plating.
*
Longship - A Viking raiding ship.
*
Man of war - A sailing warship.
*
Minesweeper*
Minehunter*
Monitor - A small, heavily gunned warship with shallow draft designed for land bombardment.
*
Quinquereme - An ancient warship propelled by three banks of oars. On the upper row three rowers hold one oar, on the middle row - two rowers, and on the lower row - one man to an oar.
*
Ship of the line - A sailing warship capable of standing in the
line of battle.
*
Sloop*
Submarine*
Torpedo boat - A small, fast surface vessel designed for launching torpedoes.
*
Trireme - An ancient warship propelled by three banks of oars.
Warship was also the name of a British television drama series screened during the 1970s, set on board the (fictitious) naval ship HMS
Hero. The series starred Donald Burton, David Savile,
John Lee and Norman Eshley.
