Battleships

A battleship is a large, heavily armored warship with a main battery consisting of the largest calibre of guns. Battleships are larger, better armed, and better armored than cruisers and destroyers. more...

Home
Action Figures
Beanies
Construction Toys & Kits
Diecast & Vehicles
Toys & Games
Creative Toys/ Activities
Educational Toys
Electronic Pets
Fast Food/ Cereal/ Sweets...
Games
Air Hockey
Board/ Traditional Games
Articulate
Avalon Hill
Backgammon
Balderdash
Battleships
Bingo
Blockbusters
Boggle
Buccaneer
Buckaroo
Carcassonne
Chess
Children's
Chinese Checkers
Cluedo/ Clue
Cranium
Dingbats
Diplomacy
Dominoes
Draughts/ Checkers
Escape From Colditz
Film/ TV
Game of Life
Go
Horror/ Monster
Hotel
Jenga
Kerplunk
Ludo
Mah Jong
Mastermind
Monopoly
Mousetrap
Operation
Othello
Other Board/ Traditional...
Pictionary
Quiz Games
Risk
Risqué
Rummikub
Scrabble
Snakes & Ladders
Solitaire
Space/ Sci-Fi
Sports
Stratego
Strategy
Totopoly
Trivial Pursuit
Twister
Vintage Games (Pre-1980)
Vintage Games 1950s
Vintage Games 1960s
Vintage Games 1970s
Vintage Games Pre-1950
War
Who Wants to Be a...
Card Games
Bridge
Cribbage
Other Card Games
Playing Cards
Poker
Rummy
Top Trumps
Crazy Bones
Dice/ Dice-Based Games
Drinking/ After Dinner Games
Electronic Games
Executive Toys/ Gadgets
Game Pieces/ Parts
Jokes & Pranks
Mighty Beanz
Murder Mystery
Other Games
Pocket Money Toys/ Games
Pogs
Travel Games
Jigsaws & Puzzles
Other Toys & Games
Outdoor Toys & Activities
Pre-School/ Young Children
Radio-Controlled Toys
Scalextric & Slot Car
Soft Toys/ Stuffed Animals
Steam
Toy Soldiers
Toys Model Kits
TV & Film Character Toys
Vintage/ Classic Toys
Wargames & Role-Playing

Battleship design continually evolved to incorporate and adapt technological advances to maintain an edge. The word battleship was coined around 1794 and is a shortened form of line-of-battle ship, the dominant warship in the Age of Sail. The term came into formal use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ironclad warship, whose design culminated in the 1890s with the generation of ships now known as pre-dreadnought battleships. In 1906, HMS Dreadnought heralded a revolution in battleship design, and for many years modern battleships were referred to as dreadnoughts.

Battleships were a potent symbol of naval dominance and national might, and for decades the battleship was a major factor in both diplomacy and military strategy. The global arms race in battleship construction in the early 20th century was one of the causes of World War I, which saw a clash of huge battle fleets at the Battle of Jutland. The Naval Treaties of the 1920s and 1930s limited the number of battleships but did not end the evolution of design. Both the Allies and the Axis Powers deployed battleships of old construction and new during World War II.

Nevertheless, some historians and naval theorists question the value of the dreadnought. Apart from Jutland, there were few great dreadnought clashes. Despite their great firepower and protection, dreadnoughts remained vulnerable to much smaller, cheaper ordnance and craft: initially the torpedo and the naval mine, and later aircraft and the guided missile. The growing range of engagement led to the battleship's replacement as the leading type of warship by the aircraft carrier during World War II; battleships were retained by the United States Navy into the Cold War only for fire support purposes. These last battleships were removed from the U.S. Naval Vessel Register in March 2006.

The ship of the line

A 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 ship of the line was a gradual evolution of a basic design that dates back to the 1400s, 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. From 1794, the alternative term 'line of battle ship' was contracted (informally at first) to 'battle ship' or 'battleship'.

Read more at Wikipedia.org