Canon 24cm modèle 1884-Neurdein-img 3123

The central battery ship, also known as a centre battery ship in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and as a casemate ship in European continental navies, was a development of the (high-

freeboard In sailing and boating, a vessel's freeboard is the distance from the waterline to the upper deck level, measured at the lowest point of sheer where water can enter the boat or ship. In commercial vessels, the latter criterion measured relativ ...

)

broadside ironclad An ironclad is a steam-propelled warship protected by iron or steel armor plates, constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. Th ...

of the 1860s, given a substantial boost due to the inspiration gained from the Battle of Hampton Roads, the first battle between ironclads fought in 1862 during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

. One of the participants was the

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

casemate ironclad The casemate ironclad was a type of iron or iron-armored gunboat briefly used in the American Civil War by both the Confederate States Navy and the Union Navy. Unlike a monitor-type ironclad which carried its armament encased in a separate a ...

, essentially a central battery ship herself, albeit a low-freeboard one. The central battery ships had their main guns concentrated in the middle of the ship in an armoured citadel. The concentration of armament amidships meant the ship could be shorter and handier than a broadside type like previous warships. In this manner the design could maximize the thickness of armour in a limited area while still carrying a significant broadside. These ships meant the end of the armoured frigates with their full-length gun decks. In the UK, the man behind the design was the newly appointed Chief Constructor of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

Edward James Reed Sir Edward James Reed, KCB, FRS (20 September 1830 – 30 November 1906) was a British naval architect, author, politician, and railroad magnate. He was the Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy from 1863 until 1870. He was a Liberal politicia ...

. The previous Royal Navy ironclad designs, represented by , had proven to be seaworthy, fast under power and sail, but their armour could be easily penetrated by more modern guns. The first central battery ship was of 1865. Great Britain built a total of 18 central battery ships before turrets became common on high-freeboard ships in the 1880s. The second British central battery ship, , served as model for the Austrian navy, starting with their first design (6,100 tons) designed by

Josef von Romako Josef Ritter von Romako (1828 – 5 June 1882) was an Austro-Hungarian naval architect in the 19th century. He was responsible for designing most of the ironclad warships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, from the first vessels of the in the earl ...

and launched in 1871. The Austrian —not to be confused with German —was built along a similar design, although the hull had been converted from a wooden ship, and it was slightly smaller (5,800 tons). The Austrian central battery design was pushed further with (7,100 tons) and (5,900 tons), which had double-decked casemates; after studying the Battle of Lissa, Romako designed these so more guns could shoot forward. Three older broadside ironclads of the ''Kaiser Max'' class (3600 tons: ''Kaiser Max'', ''Don Juan D'Austria'' and ''Prinz Eugen'') were also officially "converted" to casemate design, although they were mostly built from scratch. The largest design yet was , later renamed to ''Mars'' when the new

dreadnought battleship The dreadnought (alternatively spelled dreadnaught) was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her ...

was commissioned. The Austrian records distinguish between the category of older broadside ironclads and the newer designs using the words ''Panzerfregatten'' (armoured frigates) and respectively ''Casemattschiffe'' (casemate ships). The

Imperial Russian Navy The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from ...

had built one central battery ironclad, '' Kniaz Pozharsky'' (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: Князь Пожарский), in 1864. It carried eight Obukhov 9-inch (229 mm) breech-loading guns, and was the first Russian armoured ship to venture out to the Pacific. The German navy had two large casemate ships (about 8800 tons) of the built in UK shipyards. The first ironclad of the Greek navy, (1867), was also built in the UK; at 1700 tons, it was a minimalist casemate design having only two large 9in guns, and two small 20-pounders. The Italians had three casemate ships built, , converted from broadside during construction, and the two s. Chile also bought two from the United Kingdom: ''Blanco Encalada'' and ''Almirante Cochrane''. The disadvantage of the centre-battery was that, while more flexible than the broadside, each gun still had a relatively restricted field of fire and few guns could fire directly ahead. The centre-battery ships were soon succeeded by turreted warships. Central battery ironclad at anchor, ca

Notes

References

* Brown, David K., RCNC. ''Warrior to Dreadnought: Warship Design 1860–1905'', London: Chatham, 1997 (reprinted 2003) * * {{Warship types of the 19th & 20th centuries Warships

See also

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References