The word naval, from the Latin nave, "ship," originally had no intrinsic military connotation; a naval architect, for example, is still simply a designer of ships without reference to their types or uses. Nevertheless, in modern English, a naval vessel denotes a warship or, at the least, a noncombatant naval support vessel operated by uniformed personnel. This distinction, which excludes privately owned warships while encompassing unarmed vessels operating under governmentally sanctioned military authority, is a relatively recent one. In the period before the rise of the modern \Tnavy\t, the term naval vessel was roughly synonymous with warship. GALLEYS The earliest recorded specialized warships (as opposed to vessels used both for commerce and raiding) were Phoenician and Greek vessels of the 7th century BC. Like all warships for nearly 2,000 years, they used oars for maneuvering in combat and sails for cruising. These vessels were biremes, \Lgalley\ls that had two banks of oarsmen and a ram at the bow to sink enemy ships by penetrating their hulls at the waterline. A galley in general is a long, slender vessel propelled by oars. By the 5th century BC the bireme had evolved into the trireme, literally a "three-er," a more specialized warship. Technical details of the trireme are a matter of debate. Some authorities have contended that the oarsmen rowed on a single level in groups of three. More likely, the oarsmen's benches were staggered and overlapped on three levels. Hellenic and Roman triremes, probably much like their predecessors, were followed by larger galleys: quinqueremes--"five-ers"--and galleys whose names suggest 15, 20, and even 40 banks. Presaging early modern practice, these vessels were probably rowed on a single level with large oars pulled by several oarsmen each, the number of banks indicating the number of oarsmen per oar or per bank. Little is known about warships of the Dark Ages. The Byzantines apparently used specialized horse transports in support of expeditionary forces. Byzantine war galleys lacked an underwater ram; they achieved several notable victories with \TGreek fire\t, an incendiary substance of unknown composition that ignited upon contact with seawater and was normally projected onto enemy ships by hand-operated pumps. The warships of Alfred the Great of England (reigned AD 871-899) were undoubtedly similar to the longships of his enemies, the Vikings; longships were low, open boats with high bows and sterns and a row of oars down each side. Like all ships of Northern Europe for nearly five centuries, they were clinker built--that is, constructed of overlapping planks--and had a single, large square sail (see \Tshipbuilding\t). Highly seaworthy, a necessity in rough northern waters, they were limited in warfare, however, and could fight at sea only by running alongside to grapple and board. By 1250, Mediterranean naval warfare was dominated by galleys on which the oarsmen sat two to a bench on the same level. By the 1400s, these vessels had evolved into triremes. By the late 1500s, the trireme was superseded by larger galleys on which four or more oarsmen per bench pulled a single large oar. The first cannon appeared about 1200; by 1450 many war galleys mounted a large, fixed cannon that fired over the bow. Such centerline bow guns were soon adopted universally, often flanked by several smaller guns. SAILING WARSHIPS The first true warship in the full sense of the word--a deep-water vessel capable of carrying and effectively using a battery of heavy artillery--was the \Tgalleon\t. The galleon's hull form was derived in part from northern descendants of the Viking longship and in part from the war galley. The full-rigged fighting ships of the Golden Age of Sail--from about 1650 through the Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815)--were straightforward developments of the galleon, with streamlined rigging and lower, stronger hulls to carry a greater weight of artillery. Broadside armament dictated line-ahead, follow-the-leader tactics, and ships that were capable of facing the enemy line of battle were termed ships of the line. By the 1760s the standard ship of the line was a '74, made to carry 74 guns, though it might carry more or less. In addition to employment in the line of battle, ships of the line were used for convoy duties and to blockade enemy ports. Faster, smaller vessels--particularly \Lfrigate\ls, ship-rigged vessels of from 24 to 50 guns with a single covered gundeck--were designed for greater range. England, in particular, employed specialized troop and horse transports and bombardment vessels, turning amphibious operations into an art. MODERN ERA The reign of the wooden sailing ship of the line was ended by technical and scientific advances, such as \Tsteam engine\t, shell-firing \Tcannon\t, and \Tarmor\t plate. By the 1840s, auxiliary steam power was common on warships. Shell guns--cannons firing an explosive projectile--enormously increased the destructive power of naval guns beginning in the 1820s. Rifled \Tartillery\t improved range, although at first accuracy was low because sights were crude. The initial response to these developments was armor, first used on an oceangoing warship in the French steam frigate Gloire in 1858. The first engagement between armored ships came in the U.S. Civil War between the Confederate ship Virginia (formerly the U.S.S. Merrimack) and the Union's turreted ironclad the Monitor (see \TMonitor and Merrimack\t). The rotating gun turret, an ingenious means of enabling a limited number of large cannons to direct their fire in a whole range of directions, was conceived independently and simultaneously in England and the United States and greatly affected warship design. In the 1870s, iron construction gained acceptance and masts and sails were gradually abandoned as steam power became more dependable and efficient. Electricity was used for lighting; for communications and control; and, in the first practical \Lsubmarine\ls, for propulsion. Secure breech-loading mechanisms and the development of nitrocellulose propellants suddenly and dramatically increased the range, power, and rate of fire of naval guns. Broadsides (cannons mounted in the side of the ship) gave way to a few powerful cannon mounted on rotating turrets; the area protected by armor was reduced and the armor thickened. Improved steam engines led to the design of swift \Lcruiser\ls, both armored and unarmored. A second wave of technological innovation was ushered in by the self-propelled \Ttorpedo\t in the 1880s. At a stroke, capital ships (large warships) were rendered vulnerable to small, swift, torpedo boats (see \TPT boat\t). The challenge of the torpedo boat was answered by quick-firing cannon, improved breechloaders firing shells of 15 cm (6 in) or smaller, and the torpedo-boat \Tdestroyer\t. The perfection of the internal-combustion engine led to the airplane and improved submarines, with far-reaching consequences. The operations of increasingly complex fleets called for large numbers of colliers (coal transport vessels) and then oil tankers, and for specialized submarine and seaplane tenders. Mine layers and mine sweepers appeared. BEGINNING OF 20TH CENTURY The symbol of naval warfare from the turn of the century until World War II was the dreadnought \Tbattleship\t, named for HMS \TDreadnought\t, the first of its kind, launched in 1906. This type of battleship, with a turret-mounted main battery consisting of a limited number of the largest guns that could be mounted and dispensing with secondary armament, dominated naval warfare until the submarine and the \Taircraft carrier\t reached maturity. Battleships grew steadily in size and power, and sophisticated fire-control systems with optical ranging and electrical control were adopted; battleships continued to look much like Dreadnought, however, until they were retired in the 1950s. In their period of dominance, battleship fleets were screened by squadrons of armored cruisers and unarmored destroyers. The cruisers of the two World Wars were essentially small, fast battleships with lighter armor and guns. Destroyers carried torpedos as well as guns and assumed an antisubmarine role equal in importance to their function of screening the main fleet. Aircraft carriers, used tentatively in World War I, became major capital ships in World War II, deploying powerful squadrons of dive bombers, torpedo bombers, and fighters (see \Taircraft, military\t). Carriers dominated fleet actions in the Pacific and were also important elsewhere. Today, carrier-centered task forces are a major component of the U.S. Navy. American nuclear-powered carriers are the largest and most powerful surface warships currently in use. The Soviet navy relies on smaller carriers of the Kiev class equipped for protection of their surface fleet. Submarines played a pivotal role in the Atlantic in World War I and in all oceans in World War II; antisubmarine warfare absorbed an increasingly large proportion of military resources. This trend is very much evident today and has been accelerated by the appearance of nuclear-powered submarines. Radar, sonar, and sophisticated electronic sensors became part of naval warfare, and smaller antisubmarine vessels such as frigates and corvettes were designed. Amphibious warfare, important from Napoleonic times, gained renewed importance in World War II. Britain and the United States developed highly specialized vessels for amphibious warfare, notably the LST (landing ship tank) for putting armored vehicles ashore on unprepared beaches. Tracked amphibious-assault vehicles were developed, along with specialized ships to carry them. Vessels of these types, recently joined by the helicopter assault carrier, continue to play an important role in the world's major navies. Since World War II, naval forces have been profoundly affected by the appearance of nuclear weapons, nuclear propulsion, and guided missiles. The nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarine is now considered a capital ship in the navies of the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France. All of these navies also have nuclear-powered attack submarines. Ships of all types are now armed with guided antiship missiles whose range and power have rendered guns essentially obsolete as a means of engaging major naval units. Active, electronic defenses have replaced passive armor protection. Antiaircraft missiles have assumed the main burden of protecting individual ships from air attack, supplementing carrier-based interceptor aircraft--themselves armed with missiles--in the defense of carrier task forces. While enormously increasing the offensive potential of naval forces, nuclear weapons have also complicated the problem of fleet defense, calling into question the concept of massed task forces. The importance of electronics and guided missiles has combined with nuclear propulsion to break down the traditional categories of combatant vessels. Today's capital ships, heirs of the sailing ship of the line and the armored battleship, are the attack carrier--large aircraft carriers with offensively oriented aircraft--and the ballistic missile submarine, some of which carry as many as several dozen intercontinental nuclear missiles. In a class by themselves are nuclear-powered attack submarines armed with sophisticated guided torpedos, antiship missiles, and antisubmarine missiles. Today the classification of surface warships is increasingly arbitrary, with emphasis on the ship's armament and electronic equipment rather than on the ship itself as in the past. Warship types overlap in size and function. Cruisers, destroyers, frigates, and corvettes (in order of size) all share many of the same antisubmarine and antiaircraft duties. The picture has been further complicated by the appearance of helicopters, vertical takeoff and landing fighters, and, especially in the Soviet service, cruiser-carrier hybrids, which carry a powerful missile armament in addition to their aircraft. Fast missile boats, which evolved from PT boats, are in general service worldwide, often in the form of \Thydrofoil\t and air-cushion (surface effect) vessels (see \Tair-cushion vehicle\t). Vessels engaged in mine warfare retain their importance. The increasingly sophisticated logistic demands of naval operations have also brought about a proliferation of support vessels, both in types and in numbers. Oil \Ltanker\ls are still vital to fleets, as are munitions ships and replenishment vessels of all kinds. Fleet tugs, oceanographic survey ships, floating docks, and submarine tenders are only a few examples of essentially noncombatant but nevertheless vital naval vessels. John Guilmartin Bibliography: Baker, A.D., III, Japanese Naval Vessels of World War II (1987); Beach, E.L., The U.S. Navy: 200 Years (1986); Bradford, James C., ed., Command under Sail (1985) and Captains of the Old Steam Navy (1986); Breyer, Siegfried, Battleships and Battlecruisers (1973); Brown, Eric, Wings of the Navy (1987); Chapelle, Howard I., The History of the American Sailing Navy (1949); Chesneau, R., Aircraft Carriers of the World (1984); Colledge, J.J., The Ships of the Royal Navy, rev. ed. (1988); Friedman, N., The Postwar Naval Revolution (1986); Guilmartin, John, Gunpowder and Galleys (1974); Hansen, H.J., Ships of the German Fleet, 1848-1945 (1974; repr. 1988); Hoyt, E.P., U-Boats (1987); Jane's Fighting Ships (annual); Kirk, J., and Klein, A., Ships of the U.S. Navy (1987); Moore, J.E., and Compton-Hall, R., Submarine Warfare Today and Tomorrow (1987); Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of the United States Naval Operations in World War II, 15 vols. (1947-1962); Polmar, N., ed., Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, 14th ed. (1987); Preston, Anthony, An Illustrated History of the Navies of World War II (1976); Roberts, John, ed., Warship (1984); Thomas, D., A Companion to the Royal Navy (1987); Young, Filson, With the Battlecruisers (1986).