Part I Part II Part III Part IV Yavuz Sultan Selim had an active war career. The Russian Navy has historically been crippled by exceptionally bad geography, and war with Turkey helped exacerbate the problem. The Black Sea fleet could not move through the Dardanelles and play any larger role in the war while the […]
Category: battleships
The commissioning of Dreadnought set the navies of the world to zero, or close enough. The reasons for this remain unclear. Dreadnought represented no great technical revolution; she was simply larger
The Treaty of Versailles drastically limited the size of the postwar Kriegsmarine. Germany would not be allowed any dreadnought battleships. The Germans could keep pre-dreadnought vessels of 10000 ton
USS New York (BB-34) was the ninth dreadnought battleship built for the US Navy. Commissioned in April of 1914, New York displaced 27000 tons, could make 21 knots, and carried 10 14″ guns in five twin turrets. The latter made New York one of the most powerful ships in the world at the time, as […]
The service of the French Navy in World War II was undistinguished. As inevitability of German victory in May 1940 became apparent, the French Navy decided to move as many ships as possible first to G
The first USS Louisiana (BB-19) was a vessel of no great note. Commissioned in 1906, Louisiana was one of the last pre-dreadnought battleships. The completion of the British Dreadnought in 1907 render
Winston Churchill was rather fond of Oliver Cromwell. While he was First Sea Lord, Churchill repeatedly tried to recognize Cromwell by naming a battleship in his honor. Churchill settled on one of the Queen Elizabeth class, a squadron of powerful new fast battleships that would be commissioned in 1915. King George V didn’t like the […]
Naming a battleship is more complicated that it might seem. A dreadnought battleship was more than just a weapon; it represented national power in its purest and most visible form. Names, therefore, c
The battleship building fever that gripped the world in the wake of Mahan’s Influence of Sea Power Upon History extended to small navies as well as large. Of course, small navies couldn’t
New feature, serving three purposes. One, it enables my battleship obsession. Two, it serves as long term preparation for a project on the spread of Mahanianism across the international system. Third, it gives me something to do with the blog on otherwise slow Sunday mornings. Mutsu was the second and last vessel of the Nagato […]
Part I Part II Part III On August 10, Goeben faced Turkish shore batteries on one side and British battlecruisers on the other. Admiral Souchon feared that he would be forced to fight the cruisers, th