Warship

Warship, ship armed and employed for combat. Ships have been used in battle since antiquity, when cargo carriers became warships when necessary. The oar-and sail-powered galley ships of the Romans and Greeks, and the Viking long ships attacked enemy vessels by ramming them. By the 1500s ships were larger and heavier, and when armed became floating artillery depots. Spain had such a fleet—galleons built for their explorers' long expeditions; however, when England, with lighter galleons, destroyed the Spanish Armada, heavier-armed but more maneuverable warships (called capital ships) were built and ruled the seas for the next 200 years. In the early 1800s steam-powered warships with rotating gun turrets were invented and outfitted with explosive shells, which replaced cannonballs. But ironclad ships, the precursors of modern warships, proved able to withstand their attack, as was attested in the Civil War battle between the Monitor and the Merrimack (neither lost in battle). The English ship Dreadnought was the first truly modern battleship, and in the early 1900s designers improved battleship capabilities using it as a model. This type of massive battleship, as well as the submarine, were the most effective of the World War I warships. By the end of World War II there were great advances in the design and capabilities of combat ships. Aircraft carriers, destroyers, cruisers, frigates, amphibious ships, and minesweepers led the way into modern warfare. Advances in technology yielded further specialization, and with the advent of the Nautilus submarine, warships entered the nuclear age.