Capital Ships

The Evolution from Line to Capital Ships

The continuation of this Naval History follows on from: "The Turret"

We have dwealt mainly upon that type of ship which the Elizabethans would have called "of the great sort," which the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries called "of the Line," and which we now call "capital."

But there were in transitional and modern times as well as in the old days; many others, which, no discussion of them all is possible here.

We will pause for a time at one of them, as we did earlier with the "Frigate," and give it something more than a passing glance. That favoured one will be the "Submarine," and the outstanding importance of the twentieth-century phenomenon must be our principle reason for selecting it from its fellows.

In this story of ship-evolution as in all various transitions, one thing led to another with the relentlessness of fate. To illustrate this, let us take three examples, one a simple and a very modern one, the second an older and more complex instance of this "cause and effect" process, and the third a very complex example of it.

First, the invention of the heavier-than-air flying machine, in its early stages, had nothing or little to do with ships. The aeroplane rose from, and returned to dry land. But it was not long before men saw that it could have a great future in sea-warfare as well.

Instantly, they set about adapting it for use afloat, but more important from our point of view-they set to work to adapt ships to house it, and decks from which to fly it. The result was a perfectly new type of sea-going vessel; the Aircraft Carrier.

The Turret

Cruisers and Battleships

Second, in all parts of our story there have been border-line cases-ships which were either just strong enough or not quite strong enought to "stand in the Line." In the eighteenth century these were the ships of between 60 to 50 guns, or, after Anson's reshuffle, the Fourth Rates.

For such as just failed to qualify for the "Line" there were still plenty of work to do. They could act as flagships to temporarily detached squadrons, or to those detailed to distant parts of the world on long, though minor missions; or they could act as supports, leaders or even "mother-ships" to squadrons of frigates.

These were the origins of the modern Cruisers. When Armour came, the more important frigates received the new protection and became Armoured Cruisers. Some of them were so heavily protected, that they sometimes reassumed their earlier role and appeared "in the Line;" but still with the status of border-line cases, because it was felt that the strength of the whole lay in its weakest link.

Others were less heavily armoured and became, Second-class Cruisers, or just plain Cruisers. The ones that were particularly fast, were not armoured, and became Light Cruisers. The general relationship, between battleship and cruiser was the battleship "stood in line"; the cruiser didn't.

The battleship as the name suggests was relatively strong, both in attack and defence, but largely it was relatively slow; while the cruiser's strength and power had been sacrificed for speed.

Early in the twentieth century, a determined effort was made to produce a ship, which retained the speed advantage of the Cruiser, but could also "stand in the line" and when not doing that, would be fast enough to catch an enemy cruiser, and be powerful enough to be able to destroy it.

Constructors of that day found that a combination of speed, heavy armament and heavy armour was beyond their powers; but they found that they could combine two of these, if they built a bigger ship. So there came into existence the Battle Cruiser, a very big ship with an armament nearly if not quite as heavy as that of a Battleship, and with a greater speed; but with a less heavy scheme of protection.

It was due to the advancement of technical knowledge and skill that enabled the most modern battleships, whilest retaining the powerful protection of the older ones, to catch up with the battle cruisers in the matter of speed as well.

The introduction of a Sea-Mine

Third, an ingenious man hit upon the idea of a sea-mine. He made some, and then he improved them. This instantly led to the introduction of a new type of ship whose function was solely to find and remove the new menace; the Mine-sweeper. Then another man conceived the notion of arranging for the mine to move about; in short, he invented the torpedo.

That instantly affected ships also. New types had to be evolved for launching the weapon. This launching process followed three distinct lines.

A. One might launch the torpedo from one of the older types of ship. Tubes for the purpose might be fitted to cruisers and battleships. They Were. But this particular development is not very important here, because it did not radically alter her design.

B. The small ships that were designed to project it, had to have such attributes as Speed, Elusiveness and Invisibility. The first development of the idea involved the building of a small, swift, unarmoured and except for the torpedo, an unarmed craft, which could be expected to exploit to the uttermost that oldest of military principles, Surprise; which would steal forth, at night for choice, upon their gigantic but unsuspecting foe and deal her a mortal blow-under the armoured belt.

They would be relying for their success almost entirely upon their speed, the elusivness gained by surprise, and the invisibility provided by darkness. Hence the Torpedo-boat had arrived.

The first British ship that could lay any serious claim to this name was the minute "Miranda" of 1871. There followed in 1877, the larger "Lightening," which carried a single "Whitehead," a torpedo moving by its own power. This ship, still very small, had the distinction of being rechristened later "T.B. No.1."

The true heirs of this type were the Motor Launch (M.L.) and Coastal Motor Boat (C.M.B.) of the 1914-18 war, and the Motor launch, the Motor Torpedo-Boat (M.T.B.), heir of the C.M.B., and the Motor Gunboat (M.G.B.) of World war II. There was little difference in the size of the 1877, T.B. No.1. which was 84 feet long and under 11 feet wide, and the then modern M.T.B. But there is an immence difference in speed, the maximum of the T.B. No.1. being just 19 knots.

The threat from small boats was real

Now we return to our "cause and effect" process. The men of 1877, on board the vast and expensive ship now threatened by the midget "Lightening" could not leave it at that. They must seek and find a reply.

It inevitably took the form of a somewhat larger, faster and more powerful vessel whose duty was to overtake and destroy the Torpedo-boat. Hence we now had the Torpedo-boat-Destroyer.

The first represetatives of this well-known breed in the British Navy were the "Daring" class of 1893, and they came to stay. It was found that they were very very handy craft to have about, and could be set to do a large number of duties over and above destroying Torpedo-boats.

The Destroyer had arrived and has been here ever since. She was a kind of maid-of-all-work, not only to the main Fleet, but to the whole Navy as well. And in particular, among a variety of other jobs, it was found very suitable to protect ships from, and to destroy, another kind of torpedo-carrier; the Submarine. Such duties were with Sloops, Corvettes and the modern Frigates.

Another minor path, left the main road of cause and effect at this point. A tendency to have one particular reliable destroyer to act as leader to a number of them, led to the Flotilla Leader, a somewhat super-destroyer which began, during the 1914-18 war, to increase in size and gunpower till it approximated to the Light-Cruiser.

C. Here we reach the third result of the desire to launch a torpedo-the Submarine; and most people will have no doubts that it has proven to be the most effective torpedo-launcher of them all.

For of the three "qualities" just mentioned it has two-Elusiveness, and above all, Invisibility. Instead of dashing over the surface of the sea, relying upon speed and the night in order to approach its victim, it quietly dives under it, and disapears from view altogether.

The Submarine looked like it was going to be a war-winning weapon all by itself, until we discovered in the nick of time that, though it could escape the eye of a man; it could not altogether baffle the ear of science.

The continuation of this Naval History will be called: "Submarines"

Capital Ships Submarines

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