Battleships
Battleships.Descended from the wooden ship of the line in the age of sailing warships, the steel battleship in the U.S. Navy was usually distinguished from its foreign counterparts in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by its heavy gun armament, sturdy protection, and relatively slow speed. Although initially ordered by Congress for coastal defense in the 1890s, battleships soon took on the mission of control of the seas, which they held until eclipsed by aircraft carriers during World War II. Denounced for decades as obsolete, the battleship ultimately survived in the navy until 1995 by adapting to other roles.
U.S. battleships fell into three distinct subtypes: the twenty‐seven mixed‐battery ships (typically with four 12‐inch and eight 8‐inch guns, 18 knots speed), constructed between 1888 and 1908; the twenty‐two all‐big‐gun “dreadnoughts” (with armaments from eight...
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