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[[Image:USSIowaBB61.jpg|right|300px|thumb|USS ''Iowa'' (BB-61)]]

[[Image:USSIowaBB61.jpg|right|300px|thumb|USS ''Iowa'' (BB-61)]]

'''Battleship''' is the name applied to very large, heavily-armoured warships bearing the largest guns afloat, and applied specifically to those ships built from the late 1800s through the mid-20th Century.  Once considered the capital ship by the countries that could afford to build and deploy them, the battleship saw its heyday during the [[First World War]]; its subsequent weakness to aerial attack during [[World War II]] rendered it essentially obsolete.  

'''Battleship''' is the name applied to very large, heavily armoured warships bearing the largest guns afloat, and applied specifically to those ships built from the late 1800s through the mid-20th Century.  Once considered the capital ship by the countries that could afford to build and deploy them, the battleship saw its heyday during the [[First World War]]; its subsequent weakness to aerial attack during [[World War II]] rendered it essentially obsolete.  

==Origins of the battleship==

==Origins of the battleship==

[[Image:Trafalgar1.JPG|right|200px|thumb|HMS ''Victory'', currently the only existing example of a ship of the line]]

[[Image:Trafalgar1.JPG|right|200px|thumb|HMS ''Victory'', currently the only existing example of a ship of the line]]

[[Image:Mon2.JPG|right|200px|thumb|the earliest use of a gun turret, onboard USS ''Monitor'' in 1862]]

[[Image:Mon2.JPG|right|200px|thumb|the earliest use of a gun turret, onboard USS ''Monitor'' in 1862]]

The ship of the line was the largest type of sailing warship, mounting a battery of between 80-120 guns on three decks.  Slow in comparrison to the smaller frigates, ships of the line were heavily-built to withstand the pounding given by the enemy in battle, while their large number of heavy guns would pound the enemy into submission.  Descended in turn from the "great ships" of the early 1600s, the ship of the line was a by-product of a naval maneuver known as the "line of battle", in which a single-file line of ships engaged the enemy abrest, with the most powerful and heavily-armed ships in the lead.  By 1794 the ship of the line was given the alternate title ''line of battle ship'', hence the origin of the word ''battleship''.

The ship of the line was the largest type of sailing warship, mounting a battery of between 80-120 guns on three decks.  Slow in comparrison to the smaller frigates, ships of the line were heavily built to withstand the pounding given by the enemy in battle, while their large number of heavy guns would pound the enemy into submission.  Descended in turn from the "great ships" of the early 1600s, the ship of the line was a by-product of a naval maneuver known as the "line of battle", in which a single-file line of ships engaged the enemy abrest, with the most powerful and heavily armed ships in the lead.  By 1794 the ship of the line was given the alternate title ''line of battle ship'', hence the origin of the word ''battleship''.

====Ironclads====

====Ironclads====