A warship or combatant ship is a ship that is used for naval warfare . Usually they belong to the navy branch of the armed forces of a nation , though they have also been operated by individuals, cooperatives and corporations . As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are typically faster and more maneuverable than merchant ships . Unlike a merchant ship, which carries cargo, a warship typically carries only weapons, ammunition and supplies for its crew.
44-449: Three warships of the Royal Navy have been given the name HMS Barham in honour of Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham . A fourth was planned but never completed: HMS Barham (1811) was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line launched in 1811. She was reduced to a 50-gun ship in 1826, and was broken up in 1840. HMS Barham
88-481: A line of battle . The man-of-war now evolved into the ship of the line . In the 18th century, the frigate and sloop-of-war – too small to stand in the line of battle – evolved to escort convoy trade, scout for enemy ships and blockade enemy coasts. During the 19th century a revolution took place in the means of marine propulsion , naval armament and construction of warships . Marine steam engines were introduced, at first as an auxiliary force, in
132-545: A list of ships with the same or similar names. If an internal link for a specific ship led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended ship article, if one exists. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HMS_Barham&oldid=1161257341 " Categories : Set index articles on ships Royal Navy ship names Hidden categories: Use dmy dates from September 2017 Use British English from September 2017 Articles with short description Short description
176-461: A 47-or-49-metre (154 or 161 ft) hull with four MM-38 Exocet missiles, a 76 mm gun forward and 40 mm twin guns aft, these vessels have a top speed of 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph). Built until 1974, a total of 68 La Combattante IIs were launched. The design was immediately followed by the La Combattante III , and a great many other shipyards produced their own versions of
220-529: A corvette. Iran and North Korea have some of the largest numbers of FACs in operation today. North Korea alone operates more than 300, while Iran has been seen developing "swarm boats" to be used as harassing vessels in the heavily contested littoral waters of the Persian Gulf . To counter the threat, the US Navy has been developing an ASUW Littoral Defensive Anti Surface Warfare doctrine, along with vessels such as
264-456: A deck like a helicopter carrier for helicopters and V/STOL aircraft. Fast attack craft A fast attack craft ( FAC ), also referred to as a PTG or a PCG, is a small, fast, agile, offensive, often affordable warship armed with anti-ship missiles , gun or torpedoes . FACs are usually operated in close proximity to land as they lack both the seakeeping and all-round defensive capabilities to survive in blue water . The size of
308-472: A displacement hierarchy, and the size of all vessel types has grown beyond the definitions used earlier in the 20th century. Another key difference between older and modern vessels is that all modern warships are "soft", without the thick armor and bulging anti-torpedo protection of World War II and older designs. Most navies also include many types of support and auxiliary vessels , such as minesweepers , patrol boats and offshore patrol vessels . By 1982
352-653: A heavily armoured battleship and an ocean liner. Until the threat of piracy subsided in the 19th century, it was normal practice to arm larger merchant ships such as galleons . Warships have also often been used as troop carriers or supply ships, such as by the French Navy in the 18th century or the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Second World War. In war since the early 20th century, merchant ships were often armed and used as auxiliary warships , such as
396-473: A larger vessel which evolved into the modern destroyer . It could mount guns capable of destroying the torpedo boat before it was within range to use its own weapons. The idea was revived shortly before World War I with the craft using new gasoline engines. Italy and Great Britain were at the forefront of this design, with the coastal motor boat (CMB) and the motobarca armata silurante (MAS) (Italian: "torpedo armed motorboat"). The outstanding achievement of
440-446: A pioneer of modern-day amphibious assault ships . During some of her operations, she was known to have used at least four cover names, R1, GL, MT, and Ryujo Maru. An amphibious warfare ship is an amphibious vehicle warship employed to land and support ground forces, such as marines , on enemy territory during an amphibious assault. Specialized shipping can be divided into two types, most crudely described as ships and craft. In general,
484-416: A ship class without redefinition. The destroyer is generally regarded as the dominant surface-combat vessel of most modern blue-water navies. However, the once distinct roles and appearances of cruisers , destroyers , frigates , and corvettes have blurred. Most vessels have come to be armed with a mix of anti-surface, anti-submarine and anti-aircraft weapons. Class designations no longer reliably indicate
SECTION 10
#1732851721142528-459: A smaller number of larger guns to be carried. The final innovation during the 19th century was the development of the torpedo and development of the torpedo boat . Small, fast torpedo boats seemed to offer an alternative to building expensive fleets of battleships. Pre-dreadnought battleships were sea-going battleships built between the mid- to late- 1880s and 1905, before the launch of HMS Dreadnought in 1906. The pre-dreadnought ships replaced
572-412: Is different from Wikidata All set index articles Warship In wartime, the distinction between warships and merchant ships is often blurred. Until the 17th century it was common for merchant ships to be pressed into naval service, and not unusual for more than half of a fleet to be composed of merchant ships—there was not a large difference in construction, unlike the difference between
616-585: The Q-ships of the First World War and the armed merchant cruisers of the Second World War . The main types of warships today are, in order of decreasing size: aircraft carriers – amphibious assault ships – cruisers – destroyers – frigates – corvettes – fast attack boats . A more extensive list follows: The first evidence of ships being used for warfare comes from Ancient Egypt , specifically
660-525: The Second World War Nazi Germany's fleet of U-boats (submarines) almost starved Britain into submission and inflicted huge losses on US coastal shipping. The success of submarines led to the development of new anti-submarine convoy escorts during the First and Second World Wars, such as the destroyer escort . Confusingly, many of these new types adopted the names of the smaller warships from
704-580: The Six-Day War . The two boats launched a total of four P-15 missiles, three of which struck the Eilat and sank her with the loss of 47 crew dead or missing and over 90 wounded. The Soviet FACs prompted a NATO response, which became more intense after the sinking of Eilat . The Germans and French worked together to produce a new FAC, resulting in the La Combattante type, first commissioned in 1968. Built on
748-570: The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) treaty negotiations had produced a legal definition of what was then generally accepted as a late-twentieth century warship. The UNCLOS definition was : "A warship means a ship belonging to the armed forces of a State bearing the external marks distinguishing such ships of its nationality, under the command of an officer duly commissioned by
792-443: The age of sail , such as corvette , sloop and frigate . A seaplane tender is a ship that supports the operation of seaplanes . Some of these vessels, known as seaplane carriers, could not only carry seaplanes but also provided all the facilities needed for their operation; these ships are regarded by some as the first aircraft carriers and appeared just before the First World War . A major shift in naval warfare occurred with
836-510: The capital ships from the menace of the torpedo boat. At this time, Britain also introduced the use of fuel oil to power steam warships, instead of coal. Oil produced twice as much power per unit weight as coal, and was much easier to handle. Tests were conducted by the Royal Navy in 1904 involving the torpedo-boat destroyer Spiteful , the first warship powered solely by fuel oil. These proved its superiority, and all warships procured for
880-420: The dreadnoughts on an even larger hull , battlecruisers sacrificed armour protection for speed. Battlecruisers were faster and more powerful than all existing cruisers, but much more vulnerable to shellfire than contemporary battleships. The torpedo-boat destroyer was developed at the same time as the dreadnoughts. Bigger, faster and more heavily gunned than the torpedo boat , the destroyer evolved to protect
924-542: The 4th century BC and the subsequent refinement of this technology enabled the first fleets of siege engine - equipped warships by the Hellenistic age . During late antiquity , ramming fell out of use and the galley tactics against other ships used during the Middle Ages until the late 16th century focused on boarding. Naval artillery was redeveloped in the 14th century, but cannon did not become common at sea until
SECTION 20
#1732851721142968-626: The La Combattante type, including the Israeli Sa'ar/ Reshef variants. Size has also increased, some designs reaching up to corvette size, 800 tonnes including a helicopter , giving them extended modes of operation. While the Israeli Sa'ar 4-class missile boats , for example, had a 58 metre hull and 415-ton displacement, the Sa'ar 5 is 85 metres in length and displaces 1,065 tons, and is officially rated as
1012-725: The Royal Navy from 1912 were designed to burn fuel oil. During the lead-up to the Second World War , Germany and the United Kingdom once again emerged as the two dominant Atlantic sea powers. The German navy, under the Treaty of Versailles , was limited to only a few minor surface ships. But the clever use of deceptive terminology, such as Panzerschiffe deceived the British and French commands. They were surprised when ships such as Admiral Graf Spee , Scharnhorst , and Gneisenau raided Allied supply lines. The greatest threat however,
1056-655: The Royal Navy, the PT boats of the US Navy, and the E-boats ( Schnellboote ) of the Kriegsmarine . All types saw extensive use during World War II but were limited in effectiveness due to the increasing threat of aircraft; however, some successes were achieved in favourable conditions, as showcased by the crippling of the cruiser HMS Manchester (later scuttled), in the night of 13 August 1942, by Italian MS boats . After World War II,
1100-597: The attacks, as in the Battle of the Coral Sea . Modern warships are generally divided into seven main categories, which are: aircraft carriers , cruisers , destroyers , frigates , corvettes , submarines , and amphibious warfare ships . Battleships comprise an eighth category, but are not in current service with any navy in the world. Only the deactivated American Iowa -class battleships still exist as potential combatants, and battleships in general are unlikely to re-emerge as
1144-669: The class was the sinking of the Austro-Hungarian battleship SMS Szent István by MAS. 15 on 10 June 1918. The equivalent achievement for the CMBs was a lesser success; during the Russian Civil War CMBs attacked the Red Fleet at anchor at Kronstadt on 18 June 1919, sinking the cruiser Pamiat Azova for the loss of four craft. The design matured in the mid-1930s as the motor torpedo boats (MTBs) and motor gunboats (MGBs) of
1188-403: The first time, the aircraft carrier became the clear choice to serve as the main capital ship within a naval task force. World War II was the only war in history in which battles occurred between groups of carriers. World War II saw the first use of radar in combat. It brought the first naval battle in which the ships of both sides never engaged in direct combat, instead sending aircraft to make
1232-490: The government of the State and whose name appears in the appropriate service list or its equivalent, and manned by a crew which is under regular armed forces discipline." The first practical submarines were developed in the late 19th century, but it was only after the development of the torpedo that submarines became truly dangerous (and hence useful). By the end of the First World War submarines had proved their potential. During
1276-468: The guns were capable of being reloaded quickly enough to be reused in the same battle. The size of a ship required to carry a large number of cannons made oar-based propulsion impossible, and warships came to rely primarily on sails. The sailing man-of-war emerged during the 16th century. By the middle of the 17th century, warships were carrying increasing numbers of cannons on their broadsides and tactics evolved to bring each ship's firepower to bear in
1320-517: The introduction of the aircraft carrier . First at Taranto and then at Pearl Harbor , the aircraft carrier demonstrated its ability to strike decisively at enemy ships out of sight and range of surface vessels. By the end of the Second World War, the carrier had become the dominant warship. Shinshū Maru was a ship of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. She was the world's first purpose-built landing craft carrier ship, and
1364-551: The ironclad battleships of the 1870s and 1880s. Built from steel, protected by case-hardened steel armour, and powered by coal-fired triple-expansion steam engines, pre-dreadnought battleships carried a main battery of very heavy guns in fully-enclosed rotating turrets supported by one or more secondary batteries of lighter weapons. The role of corvettes , sloops and frigates were taken by new types of ships like destroyers , protected cruisers and armoured cruisers . Another revolution in capital warship design began shortly after
HMS Barham - Misplaced Pages Continue
1408-399: The main material for warship construction. From the 1850s, the sailing ships of the line were replaced by steam-powered battleships , while the sailing frigates were replaced by steam-powered cruisers . The armament of warships also changed with the invention of the rotating barbettes and turrets , which allowed the guns to be aimed independently of the direction of the ship and allowed
1452-738: The northern Nile River most likely to defend against Mediterranean peoples. The galley warship most likely originated in Crete an idea which was soon copied and popularized by the Phoenicians . In the time of Mesopotamia , Ancient Persia , Phoenicia , Ancient Greece and the Ancient Rome , warships were always galleys (such as biremes , triremes and quinqueremes ): long, narrow vessels powered by banks of oarsmen and designed to ram and sink enemy vessels, or to engage them bow -first and follow up with boarding parties. The development of catapults in
1496-455: The same weapons as its larger counterpart, can pose a serious threat to even the largest of capital ships. Their major disadvantages are poor seagoing qualities, cramped quarters and poor defence against aerial threats. As early as the mid-19th century, the Jeune École 's poussiere navale theory called for a great number of small, agile vessels to break up invading fleets of larger vessels. The idea
1540-465: The second quarter of the 19th century. The Crimean War gave a great stimulus to the development of guns. The introduction of explosive shells soon led to the introduction of iron , and later steel , naval armour for the sides and decks of larger warships. The first ironclad warships, the French Gloire and British Warrior , made wooden vessels obsolete. Metal soon entirely replaced wood as
1584-470: The ships carry the troops from the port of embarkation to the drop point for the assault and the craft carry the troops from the ship to the shore. Amphibious assaults taking place over short distances can also involve the shore-to-shore technique, where landing craft go directly from the port of embarkation to the assault point. Amphibious assault ships have a well deck with landing craft which can carry tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles and also have
1628-420: The start of the 20th century, when Britain launched the Royal Navy 's all-big-gun battleship Dreadnought in 1906. Powered by steam turbines , it was bigger, faster and more heavily gunned than any existing battleships , which it immediately rendered obsolete. It was rapidly followed by similar ships in other countries. The Royal Navy also developed the first battlecruisers . Mounting the same heavy guns as
1672-624: The torpedo tubes replaced by missile launchers. Again, small fast craft could attack and destroy a major warship. The idea was first tested by the Soviet Union which, in August 1957, produced the Komar class which mounted two P-15 Termit missiles on a 25-metre (82 ft) hull with a top speed of around 40 knots (74 km/h; 46 mph). Endurance was limited to 1,000 nautical miles (1,900 km; 1,200 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) and
1716-563: The use of this kind of craft steadily declined in the United States and Britain, despite the introduction of safer diesel engines to replace the highly flammable gasoline ones, although the Soviet Union still had large numbers of MGBs and MTBs in service. With the development of the anti-ship missile , FACs were reborn in the Soviet Union as " missile boats " or "missile cutters". The first few missile boats were originally torpedo boats, with
1760-432: The vessel also limits the fuel, stores and water supplies. Their displacements are usually under 700 tons, and they can reach speeds of 25+ knots or 46+ kph. A fast attack craft's main advantage over other warship types is its affordability. Many FACs can be deployed at a relatively low cost, allowing a navy which is at a disadvantage to effectively defend itself against a larger adversary. A small boat, when equipped with
1804-455: The vessels had supplies for only five days at sea. 110 Komar-class vessels were produced, while over 400 examples were built of the following Osa class with a significant portion of the total being sold to pro-Soviet nations. The first combat use of missile boats was an attack by two Egyptian Soviet-built Komar-class boats on the Israeli destroyer Eilat on 20 October 1967, several months after
HMS Barham - Misplaced Pages Continue
1848-425: Was first put into action in the 1870s with the steam-powered torpedo boats , which were produced in large numbers by both the Royal Navy and the French Navy . These new vessels proved especially susceptible to rough seas and to have limited utility in scouting due to their short endurance and low bridges. The potential threat was entirely extinguished with the introduction of the torpedo boat destroyer (TBD) in 1893,
1892-552: Was the introduction of the Kriegsmarine 's largest vessels, Bismarck and Tirpitz . Bismarck was heavily damaged and sunk/scuttled after a series of sea battles in the north Atlantic in 1941, while Tirpitz was destroyed by the Royal Air Force in 1944. The British Royal Navy gained dominance of the European theatre by 1943. The Second World War brought massive changes in the design and role of several types of warships. For
1936-425: Was to have been a wooden screw frigate. She was ordered in 1860 but was later cancelled. HMS Barham (1889) was a third-class cruiser launched in 1889 and scrapped in 1914. HMS Barham (04) was a Queen Elizabeth -class battleship launched in 1914 and sunk by a U-boat in 1941. [REDACTED] [REDACTED] List of ships with the same or similar names This article includes
#141858