Sarge, What Is a Battleship? (Part One)

USS Midway (CV-41) conducting an underway replenishment with USS Iowa (BB-61).

Seventy-one percent of the Earth's surface is covered by water. While that does include lakes, rivers, streams, etc., most of that surface area is covered by the sea. As I've mentioned before, most of the world's commerce travels by water, in ships.

Since our species discovered that we could make things that float and that could carry us and our stuff over the waters, other people took it upon themselves to make their own things which could float and attempt to take the stuff being carried in other people's things which float.

So as not to have their stuff being carried on floating things stolen by people on other floating things, navies were created. They also started calling the floating things boats and ships. Basically boats and ships, though the names for "things which can float and carry people and their stuff" are as varied as there are grains of sand on the beach. Which, by the way, is where true sailors don't want to be. (A submarine is called a "boat," even though the freaking things are huge these days, just to annoy the SWOs out there, an aircraft carrier is also called a boat by the embarked air wing. Though they do tend to call it "the boat," implying that it is their home.)

Anyhoo.

As one might imagine, as things at sea heated up, with everybody trying to steal other people's stuff and establish control of the sea lanes, their own and that of others, navies were created. Now in the early days naval combat occurred in one of two ways: ships would intentionally run into other ships in order to punch a hole in the hull and, hopefully, sink them. The other way was essentially just land combat only conducted between two floating platforms, in other words two (or more) interlocked ships.

(Source)

Ships in olden times were pretty clunky. Lots of guys rowing (juvat, Tuna, Beans, and LUSH) with a few guys in charge (YHS) and lots of guys with bows, swords, and what not to attack the guys on the other ships. That first group were the sailors, the second group were what you might call marines. The sailors controlled the ship, the soldiers did the fighting. Bigger ships (with more soldiers) usually would get the better of smaller ships.

As time went by, cannon were invented. Naturally someone had the bright idea to put cannon on ships. Again, bigger ships with more cannon would get the better of smaller ships with fewer cannon.

Spanish galleon (left) firing its cannons at a Dutch warship (right).
Cornelis Verbeeck, ca. 1618/1620

But in the old days, before cannon, naval combat was pretty much a free for all, each individual ship would seek out an opponent to either ram (and hopefully sink) or (if necessary) grapple with in order for its soldiers to fight the other ship's soldiers and capture the enemy ship.

But with the advent of cannon, and probably the realization that a ship's size and the amount of cannon it could carry was limited by the technology of the day, one had to necessarily build more ships. While the Dutch and the Spanish navies both had their moment in the sun, and the French tried oh so very hard to match them, it was the British Royal Navy which dominated naval warfare in the 18th through the early 20th centuries.

Hold the Line
by Richard Grenville
HMS Temeraire, HMS Victory and HMS Neptune. Mid-morning on the 21st October 1805 and, in light wind,
Admiral Lord Nelson’s Fleet makes a slow approach towards the French/Spanish Lines.
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If you'll notice in that painting above, the guns are generally along the sides of the ship. One can pack more guns in that way and there is much more room to handle those guns, which were rather large, cumbersome (barrel close to nine feet long), and heavy (over 7,000 pounds). A gun crew could consist of 15 men, many of whom didn't load and fire the cannon but were involved in keeping the gun supplied and in moving the damned thing after firing. All within the confines of the ship's hull for the largest cannon.

French 36-pounder long gun

The best way to fight these ships (that is command and control them during battle) was to present the ship's broadside to the enemy, where the most cannon could be brought to bear. With multiple ships, it was best to form them in lines for battle. The heaviest, most powerful ships were therefore known as "line of battle ships."

In the early days of sail, the big line of battle ships were also known as "ships of the line" and/or "sail of the line." Can you see where this is going?

The Battle of Copenhagen, 2 April 1801Nicholas Pocock

The age of the wooden sailing ship, the ship of the line if you will, was eventually superseded by ironclad sailing ships and then the sails themselves went the way of the dodo. All to be replaced by a new line of battle ship, which evolved (you guessed it) into the "battleship." A warship designed to steam into harm's way and slug it out with an enemy.

But the new battleships went to war much like their ancestors, in long lines...

Battle of Manila Bay, 1 May 1898
Fred S. Cozzens.
The U.S. battle line turning while in action, with USS Olympia leading.

To piggy back on juvat's Monday post, and to honor his (and other Chanters) home state -

USS Texas, built in 1892, was the first pre-dreadnought battleship of the United States Navy.

What's that on the horizon, Sarge?

Why 'tis another battleship post!

Stay tuned.