Inside Military Machines INSIDE BattleShips By Chris Oxlade THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK INSIDE BATTLESHIPS Thanks to the creative team: Senior Editor: Alice Peebles Fact Checking: Tom Jackson Illustrations: Mat Edwards and Victor Mclindon Picture Research: Nic Dean Design: www.collaborate.agency Original edition copyright 2017 by Hungry Tomato Ltd. Copyright © 2018 by Lerner Publishing Group, Inc. Hungry Tomato® is a trademark of Lerner Publishing Group All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of Lerner BATTLESHIPS Publishing Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review. Hungry Tomato® A division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc. 241 First Avenue North Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA For reading levels and more information, look up this title at www.lernerbooks.com. Main body text set in Avenir Next Condensed Medium 11/15. Typeface provided by Linotype AG. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Oxlade, Chris, author. Title: Inside battleships / Chris Oxlade. Description: Minneapolis : Hungry Tomato, [2017] | Series: Inside military machines | Includes index. | Audience: Grades 4–6. | Audience: Ages 8–12. Identifi ers: LCCN 2017014445 (print) | LCCN 2017012916 (ebook) | ISBN 9781512450026 (eb pdf) | ISBN 9781512432251 (lb : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Battleships—Juvenile literature. | Warships—Juvenile literature. Classifi cation: LCC V815 (print) | LCC V815 .O93 2017 (ebook) | DDC 623.825—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017012916 Manufactured in the United States of America 1-41780-23541-4/3/2017 INSIDE BATTLESHIPS An Iowa-class World War II battleship fires her guns in action. by Chris Oxlade Minneapolis USS Texas, a huge battleship that fought in both world wars Contents Battle Machines: Battleships 6 The First Warships 8 Ancient Sea Battles 10 Medieval Warships 12 Ships of the Line 14 Ironclads 16 Battleships 18 The Rise of Carriers 20 Modern Warships 22 Modern Aircraft Carriers 24 Inside a Warship 26 Timeline 28 Fact File 29 Glossary 30 Index 32 BATTLE MACHINES: BATTLESHIPS Warships are the weapons of a navy, which is a country’s military force at sea. These battle machines protect their own ships and attack enemy ships, aircraft, and forces ashore. Since their invention, there have been dozens of different types of warship. These days, the main types are frigates, destroyers, cruisers, and aircraft carriers—the largest of all modern battleships. USS Nimitz aircraft carrier 6 Battle of Trafalgar, 1805 Old and New The two pictures show how warships have changed over time. Above is British Vice Admiral Nelson’s ship HMS Victory with other ships of the line at the Battle of Trafalgar. These were wooden sailing ships armed with dozens of cannons. On the left is the steel supercarrier USS Nimitz. Its weapons are its devastating strike aircraft, so this enormous ship presents a whole new world of battleship technology. 7 THE FIRST WARSHIPS Nobody knows who invented the fi rst boat, but it was invented more than ten thousand years ago. Early boats were simple craft made of logs or bundles of reeds, but slowly boat builders learned to build bigger boats. They also invented new technologies such as sails and oars. As long as four thousand years ago, specialized warships were going into battle. Egyptian Warships There are pictures of sailing boats on the Nile River in Egypt, painted about 5,500 years ago, with hulls made from reed bundles. Similar boats, armed with soldiers, could have been the first battleships. The Egyptians soon developed strong, seaworthy merchant ships made of wood. Warships called galleys were based on these merchant ships, but galleys were longer, narrower, and faster. They carried archers and spearmen for attacking enemy craft. Triremes The most powerful warship of Ancient Greece was the trireme, a galley powered by three banks of oars on each side. These big ships had a strong keel along the length of the boat, with frames to support planking for the hull. The trireme became the main Greek fighting ship. Later ships had catapults on board for firing huge darts and stones at the enemy. 8 Uniremes and Biremes The earliest warships built by the Ancient Greeks were galleys called uniremes. The main weapon was a ram sticking out from the bow. The ram was used to smash enemy ships before soldiers boarded to fight the enemy’s crew. Around 750 BCE, the Greeks developed the bireme, with two banks of oars for better speed. Trireme Rowers A typical trireme had three rows of twenty-five or more oars on each side, making at least one hundred fifty in total. The oarsmen sat on different levels inside the hull, sliding backward and forward on leather cushions as they rowed. The crews had to be well-trained to row fast and move their ships accurately in battle. Some navies experimented with massive galleys with a thousand or more rowers! Greek Trireme Length: 125 feet (38 meters) Width: 20 feet (6 m) Crew: 200 Oars: 170 Top speed: 8 miles (13 kilometers) per hour TIMELINE 1545 10,000 BCE Henry VIII’s warship By this time people were making the Mary Rose sinks journeys in simple boats. during battle. 1588 The Spanish Armada, a great fleet of Spanish galleons, is defeated by English ships. 1918 1805 World War I ends. British ships, led 1916 by HMS Victory, The British and German 750 BCE defeat a French and fleets meet at the Battle The Ancient Greeks develop Spanish fleet at the of Jutland, the only the bireme, a galley with Battle of Trafalgar. major naval battle of two sets of oars. World War I. 1670 1200 HMS Prince, a The stern rudder ship of Charles II 1860s 1914 is developed in of England, is In England, The Europe, having launched. previously been Robert battleship invented in China. 16th century Whitehead USS Texas Galleons, large fighting develops enters 7th century CE ships armed with the torpedo. service Greek fire, a weapon cannons, are developed. with the US that sprays burning oil Navy, as onto enemy ships, is 14th century World War I invented. Cannons are used on 1862 begins in Europe. ships for the first time. USS Monitor 480 BCE and CSS Virginia The Greek navy defeats take shots at 1906 the larger Persian navy each other at HMS at the Battle of Salamis. the Battle of Dreadnought, Hampton Roads, one of the first 3,500 BCE during the battleships, is Evidence for the first sailing American launched. ships comes from this time. Civil War. 28 FACT FILE • At Trafalgar in 1805, the French and Spanish lost 22 of their 33 ships. The British lost none. • There is evidence from 1939–1945 Ancient Greece of truly • HMS Victory, a ship at the Aircraft carriers giant triremes. One report Battle of Trafalgar, had a top and battleships describes a ship 426.5 speed of 10 miles (16 km) per play a major feet (130 m) long, with hour, which was very fast for a role in World hundreds of oars 59 feet ship of its size. War II. (18 m) long, operated by 4,000 rowers. • USS Monitor sank in a storm in 1862. Recently, parts of it have been raised from the seabed, including 2013 the rotating gun turret. The US Navy’s first • The Spanish Armada was defeated by the weather as much as stealth by English ships. Storms blew the Armada into the North Sea, and warship, more storms destroyed up to half the ships. the USS • The USS Zumwalt, a US Navy stealth ship, has a low radar Zumwalt, is signature, so it looks like a small fishing boat on a radar screen. launched. • Around 250 ships, 1972 with a total of 100,000 USS Nimitz, the crew onboard, took part US Navy’s first in the Battle of Jutland supercarrier, is in 1916, off the coast launched. of Denmark. This image shows a German cruiser sinking (right). 27 GLOSSARY bow: the front of a ship Confederate: one of the sides in the American Civil War. The other side was called the Union. CSS: Confederate States Ship, a ship fi ghting Early naval mine for the Confederate forces during the American Civil War frigate: the smallest but most common kind hull: the main body of a ship of modern warship ironclad: a warship with a wooden hull galleon: a large cargo and fi ghting ship of covered with iron plates for armor the fi fteenth century, powered by wind keel: a strong structure along the bottom of galley: an ancient type of warship, powered a ship, like a spine by many oars and a square sail merchant ship: any non-naval ship guided missile: a missile that is guided mine: an explosive device placed placed to its target by a laser or by detecting heat underwater that explodes when a ship hits it coming from a target missile: an object that is thrown or HMS: Her Majesty’s Ship, a ship of the launched as a weapon, especially a rocket British Royal Navy that explodes when it hits a target Spanish galleon 30 torpedo rudder: a fl ap at the back of a ship used to make the ship turn left or right steam turbine: a fan-like rotor that spins when steam fl ows through it stern: the back of a ship submersible: a small, often remote-controlled vessel that moves underwater torpedo: a weapon fi red from a ship or submarine that travels through the water to its target USS: United States Ship, a ship of the US Navy USS Cairo, one of the first American ironclad warships 31 INDEX aircraft carriers, 6, 20, 22, 24–26 galleons, 13–14 shells, 16–18 American Civil War, 16–17 galleys, 8–11 ships of the line, 7, 14–15, 17 Ancient Greek