In the course of some actual academic research I happened upon Robert O’Connell’s Sacred Vessels: The Cult of the Battleship and the Rise of the U.S. Navy. Someone (I forget who) also reco
One hundred and nine years ago today, the pretext for an imperial war was laid as the USS Maine was obliterated by five tons of its own gunpowder. Two days later, Josph Pulitzer’s New York World
Part IPart II Part IIIPart IV Part VPart VI Part VII Yavuz remained flagship of the Turkish Navy until 1954, when she was placed in reserve. In the picture to the left, taken in 1946, Yavuz is center
State of the art battleship armament in the late 19th century involved a mix of large and small caliber weapons. It was believed thatthe higher fire rate of the smaller weapons would make up for their
USS Oklahoma and her sister, USS Nevada, were the first of the “standard type” US battleships. The intention behind the standard type design was to create a squadron of battleships that co
The first American battleship built on the West Coast was USS Oregon, commissioned in 1896. USS Virginia, USS Massachusetts, and USS New York were built in their nominal states. The first and only bat
Japan withdrew from the London Naval Treaty in 1936. The chief Japanese negotiator, Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, feared that concessions on the part of his negotiating team would lead directly to assassi
HMS Renown was to be the sixth “R” class battleship, but construction was suspended at the beginning of World War I in the expectation that the ship would not be ready by the end of the wa