Navistory Italy – Regia Marina – Regina Elena, Roma, Vittorio Emmanuele, Napoli The world’s fastest battleships The last Italian pre-dreadnought battleships were by far the best, and even precursors of a new type of battleship, the Dreadnought. The minister of the navy in 1899, Giovanni Bettolo asked Vittorio Cuniberti, the chief shipbuilding engineer, to prepare the … Read more
Type 03, the Chinese “Whiskey” Chinese PLAN (1956-63) – 21(+5) boats The famous NATO codename was given to the most important serie of submarines post WW2. They were an integral part of the USSR defence policy and represented a mass of 215 modern submarines integrating many of the innovations bring by the fabled German Type … Read more
Tegetthoff class battleships (1911) Tegetthoff, Viribus Unitis, Prinz Eugen, Szent Istvan (1911) First Dreadnoughts and last Austro-Hungarian battleships: SMS Tegetthoff at anchor The Tegetthof was also by far the most impressive and the most famous battleship class of the small Austro-Hungarian Navy. In 1908, the Admiralty was aware of its backwardness on foreign navies, all … Read more
Imperial Russia (1895-1921) – About 150 ships Overview of Russian light ships development As in many other navies, Russia started the development of torpedo-boats as a sub-echelon, a type of ship which went after gunboats. The first Russian torpedo-boat was built at Baltic Works as eary as 1877. In the 1880s series of two to … Read more
Spanish Armada Between the great war and civil war After the crushing defeats of 1898 in the hands of the US Navy and the loss of the remnants of the Spanish Empire, the Armada was plunged into disarray. The seven years that followed the battle have seen Spain slowly recuperating of the neglect and speculation … Read more
United Kingdom (1914) – Seaplane Carrier History’s first purpose-built seaplane carrier HMS Ark Royal is a famous name, as it went back to Elizabethan times (1587) but was used only with this ship and became even more famous in the interwar as the most modern, purpose-built British aircraft carrier. But back in WW1, she was … Read more
USA (1891) Protected cruisers: Montgomery, Detroit, Marblehead. The Montgomery class were ordered in 1888 and commissioned in 1893-94. Of questionable military value, they were slow, lightly armed and protected, to the point it was said the Congress only authorized a class of “glorified patrol gunboats”. Therefore they were barely engaged in the war against Spain … Read more
Turkish Ottoman Navy vs Royal Navy The end of the Ottoman fleet Before the Autro-Hungarian Navy was condemned to inaction a few monthes afterwards in june with the sinking of the Szent Istvan, the fate of the Turkish Ottoman fleet was decided in January 1918, not by the Russians, but by the British Navy. As … Read more
WW1 German Commerce Raiders Germany, 15 ships (1914-18) The surface raiders: The German Imperial Navy actions during WW1 were four-fold: The main navy (Hochseeflotte) protecting the homeland but forced to a relative inaction because of the opposing Royal Navy, the overseas squadrons (Souchon or Graf Spee’s Pacific squadron and other local forces) chased down by … Read more
Nihhon Kaigun – Imperial Japanese Navy Unebi, the mystery cruiser: In 1883, Japan was still reeling from the devastating Boshin war, but industrialisation and modernisation soared and hopes were high. Prior to prior to the First Sino-Japanese War however growing tensions with China made the general staff believed their small navy would be no match … Read more
