Battleship

in modern warfare, a heavy, armor-plated warship. The history of the battleship may be traced step by step from the old two or three-decked wooden galley propelled by benches of oarsmen. The Greeks and the Romans protected the sides of their galleys with heavy hides. The Normans and Saracens used blankets of heavy, thick felt for the purpose. Protective plates of lead were used as early as the middle of the twelfth century. Richard the Lion Hearted captured a ship of this description from the Saracens in 1191. In 1585 the citizens of Antwerp constructed a large, flat bottomed ironclad, with a view to raising the siege of their city. They built the walls of their ship of thick timbers and plated it with iron. In high hopes, they christened it "The End of the War." When they sailed forth, however, to break through the lines of the enemy, it ran aground and fell an easy capture. In derision the name was changed to "Wasted Money." As early as 1600, the Japanese clad their fighting ships with plates of iron and copper. As early as the eighteenth century, the English hung curtains of rope over the sides of their fighting ships.

Ironclads were used to some extent during the Crimean War. The use of the armor-plated ship in modern warfare, however, dates, with American writers, at least, from the famous conflict of the Monitor and the Merrimac in 1862. The modern warship contains almost no wood at all. Frame, floor, and walls are built of steel. To be considered a battleship of the first grade, a craft must carry heavy guns, be protected with thick armor, and have a reasonable degree of speed.

One of the large battleships afloat is the Dreadnought of the United Kingdom. The length is 460 feet; height, keel to truck, 150 feet; draught, 26 feet, 9 inches; beam amidships, 78 feet; displacement, 19,000 tons; power, 17,000 horse; speed, 20 knots. The Dreadnought carries eight 12-inch guns; ten 9-inch guns; ten 5-inch guns; 2 torpedo tubes and 36 other field, machine and small caliber guns. It is alone capable of resisting any 12-inch gun at a distance of 3,500 yards or more. A single discharge of the main battery throws 6,200 pounds of metal. It cost $7,500,000. The Connecticut, a large battleship in the American navy, cost $6,000,000. It is somewhat smaller than the Dreadnought and carries fewer guns, but it is more active. To such a ship the entire Spanish Armada would be about as formidable as so many flies. In comparison, the entire 130 or more ships of that famous flotilla would be mere wooden skiffs, carrying popguns.

See Armor Plate; Navy; Monitor; Steamship