Charge 7
Master Gunner
As an artilleryman I have long had a fascination with the big gun ships of old though the aircraft carrier and the guided missle cruiser have long supplanted them. Perhaps it's because we have so few Navy folks here but I was still surprised to find no topics about ships in a search here so here goes.
Name some great ships from around the world and feel free to expound upon their merits and even if your nation is not now a great maritime power include some ships from your nation as well. For example, Austria hasn't had a navy since WWI owing to the fact that the redrawing of its borders made it a landlocked nation. Please refrain from naming submarines in your lists. As that was such a completely different means of naval warfare than surface ships I prefer to keep them seperate. If there's enough demand, I will make a seperate thread for subs.
Here are my choices:
The Mary Rose - This was among the first ships ever to be able to fire a broadside. She was the model for England's emergence as a great naval power.
USS Constitution - "Old Ironsides" has a place in most Americans' hearts. Though not the only big frigate she epitomized the birth of the US as a naval power. This concept of design heralded the later concept of the battlecruiser. Big guns and a fast ship - able to kill most ships and outrun those she couldn't.
HMS Warrior - The first practical steel hulled warship. She set the stage for a major revolution in naval warfare.
USS Monitor - Followed up the advancement of HMS Warrior with the next key ingredient in evolution of naval warfare with the revolving turreted gun.
HMS Furious - She had the distinction of mounting the first real carrier-based air strike when, on 19 July 1918, seven of her Sopwith Camels destroyed two Zeppelins and their sheds at Tondern.
USS Enterprise (CV-6) - The most decorated warship of WWII. 20 battlestars and the only carrier to have fought virtually all of the war. She entered World War II on the morning of December 7, 1941, when her scout planes encountered the Japanese squadrons attacking Pearl Harbor. Not until May 14, 1945, when a Kamikaze attack off Kyushu, Japan, left a gaping hole in her flight deck, was she forced to leave the war. She should have been preserved as a national memorial.
Name some great ships from around the world and feel free to expound upon their merits and even if your nation is not now a great maritime power include some ships from your nation as well. For example, Austria hasn't had a navy since WWI owing to the fact that the redrawing of its borders made it a landlocked nation. Please refrain from naming submarines in your lists. As that was such a completely different means of naval warfare than surface ships I prefer to keep them seperate. If there's enough demand, I will make a seperate thread for subs.
Here are my choices:
The Mary Rose - This was among the first ships ever to be able to fire a broadside. She was the model for England's emergence as a great naval power.
USS Constitution - "Old Ironsides" has a place in most Americans' hearts. Though not the only big frigate she epitomized the birth of the US as a naval power. This concept of design heralded the later concept of the battlecruiser. Big guns and a fast ship - able to kill most ships and outrun those she couldn't.
HMS Warrior - The first practical steel hulled warship. She set the stage for a major revolution in naval warfare.
USS Monitor - Followed up the advancement of HMS Warrior with the next key ingredient in evolution of naval warfare with the revolving turreted gun.
HMS Furious - She had the distinction of mounting the first real carrier-based air strike when, on 19 July 1918, seven of her Sopwith Camels destroyed two Zeppelins and their sheds at Tondern.
USS Enterprise (CV-6) - The most decorated warship of WWII. 20 battlestars and the only carrier to have fought virtually all of the war. She entered World War II on the morning of December 7, 1941, when her scout planes encountered the Japanese squadrons attacking Pearl Harbor. Not until May 14, 1945, when a Kamikaze attack off Kyushu, Japan, left a gaping hole in her flight deck, was she forced to leave the war. She should have been preserved as a national memorial.