warship, any ship built or armed for naval combat. The
forerunners of the modern warship were the men-of-war of the 18th
and early 19th cent., such as the ship of the line, frigate,
corvette, sloop of war (see sloop), brig, and cutter. With the
advent of steel construction and steam propulsion in the latter
half of the 19th cent., warships evolved into their modern form.
The key naval vessels used in modern warfare are the aircraft
carrier and the submarine; other modern warships include the
battleship, cruiser, destroyer, gunboat, and torpedo boat.ship of
the linefrigatecorvettesloopbrigcutteraircraft carrier submarine
battleshipcruiserdestroyergunboat torpedo boat See Jane's Fighting
Ships (pub. annually since 1897).
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torpedo, in naval warfare, a self-propelled submarine
projectile loaded with explosives, used for the destruction of
enemy ships. Although there were attempts at subsurface warfare in
the 16th and 17th cent., the modern torpedo had its origin in the
efforts of David Bushnell, who, during the American Revolution,
experimented with a submarine for attaching underwater explosives
to British ships. His attempts failed, but later Robert Fulton
experimented with similar ideas. In the 19th cent. torpedoes
developed at first as stationary mines placed in the water; these
were used extensively by the Russians in the Crimean War and by the
Confederacy in the U.S. Civil War. The first truly self-propelled
torpedo was designed and built at Fiume in 1866 by Robert
Whitehead, an Englishman. It was driven by a small reciprocating
engine run by compressed air; a hydrostatic valve and pendulum
balance, connected to a horizontal rudder, controlled the depth at
which it ran. Directional accuracy was achieved in 1885 when John
Adams Howell developed the gyroscope to control the vertical
rudder. Torpedoes were used by Japan in the Russo-Japanese War and
were widely employed in World War I. The torpedoes used in World
War II were usually 20 to 24 ft (6.17.3 m) long, carrying up to 600
lb (272 kg) of explosives at a speed of 50 knots for more than
10,000 yd (9,144 m). The type of torpedo used in World War II has
been largely superseded by the homing torpedo. In contrast to the
older type, which traveled in a straight line on a preset course,
the homing torpedo automatically changes its course to seek out its
target. Most homing torpedoes are activated by sounds coming from
the target (e.g., propeller or machinery noises), and they follow
the sounds until making contact with the target. A homing torpedo
runs through three phases: the enabling run, which takes it to the
vicinity of the target; the search pattern, in which it maneuvers
to find the target; and the homing, in which it pursues the target.
The modern torpedo is generally propelled by an electric motor, but
some of the newer, faster, high-diving torpedoes, designed for
effectiveness against nuclear submarines, have
solid-propellant-driven turbines. Some also may be equipped with
nuclear warheads. Torpedoes can be fired from shore stations,
surface vessels, and aircraft, as well as from submarines.submarine
See Bureau of Naval Personnel, Principles of Naval Ordnance and
Gunnery (1959); R. Fulton, Torpedo War and Submarine Explosions
(1810, repr. 1971).
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submarine, naval craft capable of operating for an extended
period of time underwater. Submarines are almost always warships,
although a few are used for scientific or business purposes (see
also submersible). submersible Development of the Modern Submarine
The first submarine used in combat (1776) was invented in 1773 by
David Bushnell, an American. This vessel was a small, egg-shaped
craft constructed of wood and operated by one man who turned a
propeller. The vessel was submerged by admitting water, and it was
surfaced by forcing out the water with a hand pump. Many of
Bushnell's principles were later used by Robert Fulton for the
construction of his Nautilus, a submarine successfully operated
(18001801) on the Seine River and at Le Havre. On one occasion the
inventor remained submerged for 6 hr, receiving air through a tube
that extended to the surface. Later Fulton devised and used a
spherical tank of compressed air to replenish the air in the
submarine. This device, horizontal rudders, the screw to keep water
out during submerged operation, and other features of Fulton's
submersible vessel made it a forerunner of the modern submarine. In
the U.S. Civil War the Confederates used several submersible craft,
all named David, fitted with a mine at the end of a spar that
protruded from the bow. In 1864 one of these craft destroyed a
Union vessel in Charleston harbor but was itself lost with its
crew. The development of the modern submarine in the United States
was advanced considerably by the work of John Holland and Simon
Lake. One of Holland's submarines was propelled on the surface by a
gasoline engine and by electric motors powered by storage batteries
when submerged. The craft was 54 ft (16 m) long and had a top speed
of 6 knots and a crew of six. In 1900 it became the U.S. Navy's
first submarine. Holland's efforts were especially important in the
development of submergence by water ballast and of horizontal
rudders for diving. Lake's Argonaut, built in 1897, became the
first submarine to navigate extensively in the open sea when it
made (1898) a trip through heavy storms from Norfolk, Va., to New
York City. However, the Argonaut was not accepted by the U.S. Navy,
and it was not until several European governments had made use of
Lake's talents that the U.S. government employed him.
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aircraft carrier, ship designed to carry aircraft and to permit
takeoff and landing of planes. The carrier's distinctive features
are a flat upper deck (flight deck) that functions as a takeoff and
landing field, and a main deck (hangar deck) beneath the flight
deck for storing and servicing the aircraft. The aircraft carrier
emerged after World War I as an experimentally modified cruiser.
The first aircraft carrier built (1925) from the keel up as an
aircraft carrier for the U.S. navy was the U.S.S. Saratoga. The
aircraft carrier remained an experimental and untested war vessel
until World War II, when the Japanese destroyed or drove out of the
East Asian waters the British, Dutch, and U.S. navies with
carrier-borne aircraft. By 1942 the aircraft carrier had replaced
the battleship as the major unit in a modern fleet, and in World
War II it was indispensable in naval operations against a sea- or
land-based enemy. The battle of the Coral Sea (1942) was fought by
naval aircraft, and the two opposing fleets never came within
gunshot range of each other. After World War II aircraft carriers
were enlarged and improved by the British and U.S. navies and
became the nucleus of the standard naval combat formation. With the
introduction of nuclear-powered carriers in the 1960s, extremely
lengthy voyages became possible because such carriers do not need
regular refueling. See N. Polmar, Aircraft Carriers (1969); G. L.
Pawlowski, Flat-Tops and Fledglings (1971); C. G. Reynolds, The
Fast Carriers (1978).