The battlecruiser was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. These were similar in displacement, armament and cost to battleships, but differed in form and balance of attributes. Battlecruisers typically had thinner armour and a somewhat lighter main gun battery than contemporary battleships, installed on a longer hull with much higher engine power in order to attain greater speeds. The first battlecruisers were designed in the United Kingdom, as a development of the armoured cruiser, at the same time as the dreadnought succeeded the pre-dreadnought battleship. The goal of the design was to outrun any ship with similar armament, and chase down any ship with lesser armament; they were intended to hunt down slower, older armoured cruisers and destroy them with heavy gunfire while avoiding combat with the more powerful but slower battleships. However, as more and more battlecruisers were built, they were increasingly used alongside the better-protected battleships.
A frigate is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied.
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes.
A heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203 mm (8 inches) in calibre, whose design parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930. Heavy cruisers were generally larger, more heavily-armed and more heavily-armoured than light cruisers while being smaller, faster, and more lightly-armed and armoured than battlecruisers and battleships. Heavy cruisers were assigned a variety of roles ranging from commerce raiding to serving as 'cruiser-killers,' i.e. hunting and destroying similarly-sized ships.
Protected cruisers, a type of cruising warship of the late 19th century, gained their description because an armoured deck offered protection for vital machine-spaces from fragments caused by shells exploding above them. Protected cruisers resembled armored cruisers which had in addition a belt of armour along the sides. By the early 20th century, with the advent of increasingly lighter yet stronger armour, even smaller vessels could afford some level of both belt and deck armour. In the place of protected cruisers, armoured cruisers would evolve into heavy cruisers and light cruisers, the latter especially taking-up many of roles originally envisaged for that of protected cruisers.
A monitor is a relatively small warship that is neither fast nor strongly armored but carries disproportionately large guns. They were used by some navies from the 1860s, during the First World War and with limited use in the Second World War.
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.
Ilmarinen was a Finnish Navy Panssarilaiva, Swedish Pansarskepp. The unit was constructed at the Crichton-Vulcan shipyard in Turku, Finland, and named after the mythological hero Ilmarinen from the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. Ilmarinen was the flagship of the Navy from 1 May 1933 until her sinking on 13 September 1941.
Pre-dreadnought battleships were sea-going battleships built from the mid- to late- 1880s to the early 1900s. Their designs were conceived before the appearance of HMS Dreadnought in 1906 and their classification as "pre-dreadnought" is retrospectively applied. In their day, they were simply known as "battleships" or else more rank-specific terms such as "first-class battleship" and so forth. The pre-dreadnought battleships were the pre-eminent warships of their time and replaced the ironclad battleships of the 1870s and 1880s.
The Sverige-class coastal defence ships were a class of coastal defence ships that, at the time of introduction, were the largest ships to serve in the Swedish Navy. Their design was completely new and was influenced by the ships of the time. Their armament consisted of four 283 mm (11 in)/45 cal. Bofors guns in two turrets and eight 152 mm (6 in) Bofors guns in one double and six single turrets. During the Second World War they were the backbone of the Swedish Navy.
HSwMS Drottning Victoria was a Sverige-class coastal defence ship (Pansarskepp) for the Royal Swedish Navy in the 1910s.
HSwMS Sverige was a Sverige-class coastal defence ship (Pansarskepp) commissioned by Sweden during the last year of the First World War. The ship cost approximately 12 million kronor, a sum raised entirely by public donations. The fundraising was done because of the Karl Staaff government's reluctance to spend money on a new battleship. In addition to its impressive cost, the ship also had a significant impact on the Swedish Navy and its capabilities.
HSwMS Gustaf V, in Swedish HM Pansarskepp Gustaf V was a Sverige-class coastal defence ship of the Swedish Navy. The vessel was the third and last ship in the Sverige class along with HSwMS Sverige and HSwMS Drottning Victoria. Gustaf V was launched on 15 September 1917 at Kockums in Malmö and delivered to the Navy on 9 January 1922. The design consisted of four 28 cm cannon and a secondary armament of eight 15.2 cm cannon. During the interwar period, the ship underwent several modernizations and was one of the most powerful vessels in the fleet during the Second World War. The ship was put in reserve in 1948, was decommissioned in 1957 and was later sold for scrapping in Karlskrona. However, the ship remained at Berga Academy of War as of 1968. Two of the ship's 15.2 cm guns are preserved in the battery at Häggmansberget in the defensive Kalix Line, around Kalix.
The Eidsvold class was a class of coastal defence ships, two of which were built for the Royal Norwegian Navy in 1899 by Armstrong Whitworth. The class consisted of two ships, HNoMS Eidsvold and HNoMS Norge. Locally they were referred to as panserskip.
The Tordenskjold class of coastal defence ships was ordered by Norway as part as the general rearmament in the time leading up to the events in 1905 - when Norway broke out of the union with Sweden - the two ships in the class remained the backbone of the Royal Norwegian Navy until they were considered 'unfit for war' in the mid-1930s.
HSwMS Oscar II was a coastal defence ship or Pansarskepp of the Swedish Navy. The vessel had a long career lasting over sixty years. A development of the preceding Äran-class coastal defence ship, the ship mounted a powerful armament on a small hull, which necessitated sacrificing speed and endurance. This design decision allowed Oscar II to match the firepower of contemporary armoured cruisers while still carrying the armour of a battleship. Protected by an armoured belt that had a maximum thickness of 150 mm (5.9 in), the ship was armed with a main battery of two 210 mm (8.3 in) Bofors guns mounted separately fore and aft. Maximum speed was 18 knots.
HSwMS Manligheten was a Äran-class coastal defence ship that served with the Swedish Navy. A development of Dristigheten, the Äran class mounted the same 21 cm (8 in) main guns, but differed in the layout of the secondary armament. The vessel was launched in 1903 and served on neutrality patrols in the First World War. During the two decades following the conflict, the ship undertook a number of international tours that called at ports in Britain, the Netherlands and Spain. Manligheten ran aground in 1930 and was freed by an ingenious manoeuvre by the destroyer Wachtmeister, which created waves by speeding past the stranded vessel. While serving in the Second World War, the vessel was damaged by a paravane in 1939 and modernised between 1940 and 1941. Decommissioned in 1950, Manligheten was broken up, although the ship's hull remaining in use as a pontoon until 1984.
