Ram in 1866?!


Austrian triple-decker wooden battleship Kaiser

Eduard Nezbeda, ‘Die Seeschlacht von Lissa, 1866’. oil painting, 1911, private collection, Vienna. Portrayal of the Austrian triple-decker wooden battleship Kaiser (centre of picture) ramming the Italian ironclad Re di Portogallo. The Kaiser suffered substantial damage in the engagement, and the results can be seen in the post-battle photographs reproduced below. Reproduced in A.E. Sokol, Seemacht Österreich. Die Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine 1382-1918 {Austrian Seapower: The Imperial and Royal Navy 1382-1918}, F. Molden, Wien, 1972.

The ram, in retrospect, is one of the most curious features of the ironclad period. Yet the reasoning was quite respectable. For the first time since the heyday of the oared galley, a warship was controllable independently of the wind because it now had steam power, and its adversary being heavily clad with iron was vulnerable to being holed under water. Moreover, the alternative means of defeating an opponent – battering with gunfire – might well be ineffective against armour. Therefore – the ram. The theoretical attractions were enhanced in conditions of smooth water and confined areas. Most of the experience in the American Civil War showed that however good the theory, in practice it did not work very well.

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Post WWII Surface Warships II

Interestingly, perhaps the greatest changes in surface warship design came about because of Soviet developments in naval weaponry. Lacking the resources to build aircraft carriers during the Cold War’s early years, the Soviet Union focused on developing long-range antiship missiles (ASMs) as well as SAMs for its ships. Thus, the Soviets introduced the world’s first operational guided surface-launched antiship missile (SASM) into service aboard the destroyer Bedoviy in 1961. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) designated the ship as a Kilden-class DDG (guided missile destroyer). Its P-1 Strela Shchuka-A (NATO designation, SS-N-1 Scrubber) cruise missile with a nuclear warhead had …

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U-202

THE ORIGINAL DESIGN During the period in the late 1940s when the Cold War was at its highest tension with East Berlin under communist rule and the possible threat from China was growing larger NATO was formed. One of the consequences of the Korean War in 1954 was a treaty known as the Paris Accord, which ended the four-part occupation of Germany, which had been in place since the end of the Second World War. Germany was offered membership of the NATO Alliance and asked to form a frontier close to the Soviet borders of influence and as a result …

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USS Indiana (BB-1)

uss-bb-1-indiana-1891-battleship

USS BB-1 Indiana (1891)

The first class of U. S. Navy battleships were the Indianas (Indiana, Massachusetts, and Oregon, laid down beginning in 1891) and were specified by Congress to be “seagoing coast defense battleships,” presumably warships that could venture on the high seas but probably could not work their guns there. The Indianas displaced 10,200 tons and mounted two 13-inch main battery guns and four 8-inch secondary guns. Iowa (laid down in 1892) was an improved Indiana with a higher freeboard but only 12-inch guns to save weight, plus the same four 8-inch secondary battery. The contemporary Royal Sovereigns, by contrast, displaced 15,500 tons, mounted 13.5-inch guns, and, with refueling, could venture to any ocean. It was indeed fortunate that the first naval engagement of the new navy was against the feeble Spanish. The U. S. public was considered to be still anti-imperialist, so the Navy had to tread softly, calling for new battleships and cruisers-but nothing that could be interpreted as entangling the United States in major overseas ventures.

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CV Giuseppe Garibaldi

CV Giuseppe Garibaldi

The Italian aircraft carrier ITS Giuseppe Garibaldi (C 551) and the Turkish frigate TCG Gediz (F 495) steam through the Atlantic Ocean while participating in Majestic Eagle 2004. Majestic Eagle is a multinational exercise being conducted off the coast of Morocco. The exercise demonstrates the combined force capabilities and quick response times of the participating naval, air, undersea and surface warfare groups. Countries involved in the NATO led exercise include the United Kingdom, Morocco, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey. Truman’s participation in Majestic Eagle is part of her scheduled deployment supporting the Navy’s new fleet response plan (FRP) Summer Pulse 2004, the simultaneous deployment of seven carrier strike groups (CSGs), demonstrating the ability of the Navy to provide credible combat across the globe, in five theaters with other U.S., allied, and coalition military forces.

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