Battleship was — from the 15th century until the mid-20th century — the name given to the most heavily gun-armed, most heavily armored, most powerful and most effective class of warship, at any particular time. The name has therefore been applied to a wide range of quite different vessels, from wooden galleons, through sail battleships of the "Age of Sail" and coastal battleships of the early 20th Century, to the massive, modern Yamato class ships built by Japan during World War II. ...

Including:

• Battleship - Early battleships
• Battleship - Industrial Age
• Battleship - Explosive-shell naval guns
• Battleship - Ironclads
• Battleship - Turrets and rifled guns
• Battleship - Brown powder
• Battleship - Design experiments
• Battleship - All-big-guns
• Battleship - The Dreadnought era
• Battleship - The super dreadnought
• Battleship - World War I
• Battleship - World War II
• Battleship - Post World War II
• Battleship - Fictional appearances

Read more here: » Battleship: Encyclopedia - Battleship

The origin of the concept of the battleship can be found in the "great ships", such as galleons, which had existed in several European countries since around 1410. These large Western ships were themselves preceded by the great sailing junks of the Chinese Empire, described by various travelers to the East such as Marco Polo and Niccolò Da Conti, and used during the travels of Admiral Zheng He in the early 15th century, and by the various cogs and busses in the Baltic Sea region, and ...

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Battleship, Battleship - Early battleships, Battleship - Industrial Age, Battleship - Explosive-shell naval guns, Battleship - Ironclads, Battleship - Turrets and rifled guns, Battleship - Brown powder, Battleship - Design experiments, Battleship - All-big-guns, Battleship - The Dreadnought era, Battleship - The super dreadnought, Battleship - World War I, Battleship - World War II, Battleship - Post World War II, Battleship - Fictional appearances

Read more here: » Battleship: Encyclopedia II - Battleship - Early battleships

However, from the early 1840s onwards, several technological innovations started to revolutionize the conception of warships. Reliable steam power made warships much more maneuverable, and became the obvious choice against sail as soon as the issue of long-distance travel and re-coaling was solved. Naval guns with exploding shells, capable of penetrating wooden hulls and setting them on fire, were invented by the French Admiral Henri-Joseph Paixhans, and adopted from 1841 by the navies of France, England, Russia and the United States. Their ...

See also:

Battleship, Battleship - Early battleships, Battleship - Industrial Age, Battleship - Explosive-shell naval guns, Battleship - Ironclads, Battleship - Turrets and rifled guns, Battleship - Brown powder, Battleship - Design experiments, Battleship - All-big-guns, Battleship - The Dreadnought era, Battleship - The super dreadnought, Battleship - World War I, Battleship - World War II, Battleship - Post World War II, Battleship - Fictional appearances

Read more here: » Battleship: Encyclopedia II - Battleship - Industrial Age

The term "battleship" often makes an appearance in military-oriented science fiction, where they often occupy a role similar to their historical one. It should be noted that some writers have come to believe "battleship" is synonymous with "warship", and thus we see strange classifications like "light battleship" or "small battleship". Sometimes the futuristic battleships are large starships operating in outer space, rather than the open ocean. Like the aircraft carrier, conventional ocean-going battleships both fictional and real have also ...

See also:

Battleship, Battleship - Early battleships, Battleship - Industrial Age, Battleship - Explosive-shell naval guns, Battleship - Ironclads, Battleship - Turrets and rifled guns, Battleship - Brown powder, Battleship - Design experiments, Battleship - All-big-guns, Battleship - The Dreadnought era, Battleship - The super dreadnought, Battleship - World War I, Battleship - World War II, Battleship - Post World War II, Battleship - Fictional appearances

Read more here: » Battleship: Encyclopedia II - Battleship - Fictional appearances

After World War II, several navies retained battleships, but they were now outclassed by carriers. The Italian Giulio Cesare was taken by the Soviets as reparations and renamed Novorossiysk; it was sunk by a German mine in the Black Sea 29 October 1955. The two Doria class ships were scrapped in the late 1950s. The French Lorraine was scrapped in 1954, Richelieu in 1964 and Jean Bart in 1970. Britain's four surviving King George V class ships were scrapped around 1958, and Vanguard arou ...

See also:

Battleship, Battleship - Early battleships, Battleship - Industrial Age, Battleship - Explosive-shell naval guns, Battleship - Ironclads, Battleship - Turrets and rifled guns, Battleship - Brown powder, Battleship - Design experiments, Battleship - All-big-guns, Battleship - The Dreadnought era, Battleship - The super dreadnought, Battleship - World War I, Battleship - World War II, Battleship - Post World War II, Battleship - Fictional appearances

Read more here: » Battleship: Encyclopedia II - Battleship - Post World War II

A naval arms race had been ongoing between Germany and the United Kingdom since the 1890s. The building of Dreadnought actually helped Germany in this, as instead of having a lead of 15 or so ships of the latest type, Britain now had a lead of just one. Furthermore, Britain's policy of maintaining a navy larger than the world's second and third largest navies combined was becoming unsustainably expensive. All other battleship navies switched over in the next few years t ...

See also:

Battleship, Battleship - Early battleships, Battleship - Industrial Age, Battleship - Explosive-shell naval guns, Battleship - Ironclads, Battleship - Turrets and rifled guns, Battleship - Brown powder, Battleship - Design experiments, Battleship - All-big-guns, Battleship - The Dreadnought era, Battleship - The super dreadnought, Battleship - World War I, Battleship - World War II, Battleship - Post World War II, Battleship - Fictional appearances

Read more here: » Battleship: Encyclopedia II - Battleship - World War I

With advances in gun laying and aiming, engagement ranges had increased from 1000 yards or less to 6000 yards or more over the previous few years, in part as a consequence of the devastating, but short-ranged firepower of the recently invented torpedo. This had caused a move away from mixed calibre armament, as each calibre required a different aiming calibration, something which unnecessarily complicated gunnery techniques. At longer ranges, the higher maximum rate of fire of the smaller calibres was negated by the need to wait for shell sp ...

See also:

Battleship, Battleship - Early battleships, Battleship - Industrial Age, Battleship - Explosive-shell naval guns, Battleship - Ironclads, Battleship - Turrets and rifled guns, Battleship - Brown powder, Battleship - Design experiments, Battleship - All-big-guns, Battleship - The Dreadnought era, Battleship - The super dreadnought, Battleship - World War I, Battleship - World War II, Battleship - Post World War II, Battleship - Fictional appearances

Read more here: » Battleship: Encyclopedia II - Battleship - The Dreadnought era

With the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, the major navies of the world scaled back their battleship programs, with numerous ships on all sides scrapped or re-purposed. With extensions, that treaty lasted until 1936, when the major navies of the world began a new arms race. Famous ships like Bismarck, Prince of Wales and Yamato were all launched in the next few years. During the conflict naval warfare evolved quickly and battleships lost their position as the principal ships of the fleet. Most new-build World War II batt ...

See also:

Battleship, Battleship - Early battleships, Battleship - Industrial Age, Battleship - Explosive-shell naval guns, Battleship - Ironclads, Battleship - Turrets and rifled guns, Battleship - Brown powder, Battleship - Design experiments, Battleship - All-big-guns, Battleship - The Dreadnought era, Battleship - The super dreadnought, Battleship - World War I, Battleship - World War II, Battleship - Post World War II, Battleship - Fictional appearances

Read more here: » Battleship: Encyclopedia II - Battleship - World War II