Battleships

For thousands of years, mankind has had a passion for exploration, power, and conquest. His wanderlust spurred him to discover what lay beyond the horizon. Thus, the first crude boats appeared some 40,000 years ago. Since man has also always had a need and a desire for weapons, the passions were joined in the concept of the warship.

From the first recorded naval battle of 1210 BC to the last naval battle of World War II, the warship has played an integral role in warfare – both offensively and defensively.

The first ships of war were crude affairs, constructed of wood and powered by oarsmen. The ship itself supplied the chief weapon. With sharp pointed prows they endeavored to ram enemy vessels in an effort to sink them. Later, early weapons like crossbows were affixed to the decks of warships, and sailors armed with swords and knives boarded nearby ships to assail their enemy.

Ultimately, the sail replaced the oars, making ships faster. Then steam power replaced the sail, making ships faster still. A ship’s protection started with an oak hull, went to oak covered with iron armor, and then to an all-steel hull. As weapons evolved, newer, more accurate, and more powerful armament were added to warships.

When was the first battleship built? The answer depends largely on your specific definition of “battleship.” The term “battleship” was first used widely in describing the war vessels that used the “line of battle” tactics, coined by English General at Sea Robert Blake in 1653. “Line of battle ship” was eventually shortened to “battleship.” Some naval historians consider the HMS Warrior, launched in 1861, to be the first true battleship. The term was not officially adopted by the Royal Navy until 1892, however. Still other historians point to the HMS Dreadnought, completed in 1906, as the first battleship.

Facts pertaining to the last battleships built are more objective. The last battleship built for the US Navy was the USS Missouri, launched on January 29, 1944.The last battleship built for the Royal Navy was the HMS Vanguard, launched on November 30, 1944.

The battleship saw her heyday in World War I. Huge, hulking battleships with fierce guns played a major role in deciding the war. As submarines and aircraft became more widely used by World War II, the once grandiose battleship began to take a back seat to planes and aircraft carriers. With the threat of nuclear weapons, the battleship became almost completely obsolete.

The last major naval battle in history was the Battle of Leyte Gulf. It took place October 23-26, 1944, between Allied forces and the Empire of Japan. The date of October 25, 1944, is often cited as “the last and most destructive day in the long history of fleets fighting at sea.” It involved 300 ships, 200,000 men, and 100,000 square miles of ocean.

The fates that befell the once-mighty warriors are as varied as the ships themselves. Some are on display in dry dock, some are floating ship museums, some were sold for scrap metal, and some lie in watery graves at the bottom of the sea.