Warships are designed for combat and have offensive capabilities and greater durability than other ships. They have evolved from cumbersome galleys to steam-powered vessels with explosive shells and rotating turrets. Modern warships include destroyers, cruisers, frigates, submarines, aircraft carriers, and amphibious assault ships.
A warship is any ship designed primarily with combat in mind, as distinguished from merchant ships, transport ships, and recreational ships. They generally have some degree of built-in offensive capability, and are also designed to take more damage than other ship classes. They may also be designed to be more maneuverable than merchant ships. During times of active warfare, merchant ships may be armed to function more like warships, to supplement an army, and defend themselves to safely transport goods. In general, a warship is part of a larger national Navy, although in some cases an individual or large commercial entity may own a warship or a group of warships for their own personal purposes.
In the distant past, the great fleets of Greece, Persia, and Rome consisted of groups of a galley-type warship. These ships were quite cumbersome and relied heavily on their own weight as a weapon, ramming other ships. The battles consisted of the ships moving into closed places, where the crews could attack each other with hand weapons. An exception to this was for a brief period in the Hellenistic era, lasting until about the 2nd century BCE. C., when catapults were used to attack from ship to ship. After they fell out of use, projectile attacks were not widely seen again until about the 16th century.
By the 16th century, the warship had evolved significantly. They were now sailing ships, much faster, much more manoeuvrable, and equipped with cannons that could be quickly reloaded and fired to devastate other ships and attack fortifications on land. By the mid-17th century, the warship had evolved to truly devastating proportions, with vast warships carrying dozens of cannons and massive sea battles taking place on a regular basis.
By the 19th century, things had changed once more. The warship now became a steam-powered vehicle, and instead of firing cannons, they began using explosive shells. With the explosion of shells the need for more advanced armor arose, leading to the introduction of metal armor. The warship had been converted to iron armor, and the guns were placed in rotating turrets, allowing a smaller number of guns to aim much more accurately without the ship having to be turned into a target.
In 1906, the British Navy launched the Dreadnought, a huge heavily armored, steam-powered warship equipped exclusively with large guns to attack other ships from great distances. This warship was largely impervious to earlier designs, with every other national navy releasing their own versions of the modern warship within a few years. At the same time, a faster, more maneuverable, but less armored type of warship called a battlecruiser was developed.
World War II also saw a great development of the warship. The submarine, which had really been developed during World War I, came to the fore in full prominence with the German U-Boat, which proved brutally effective in shutting down shipping lines. The aircraft carrier was also developed during this time, acting as a mobile launching ground for air strikes, allowing enemies to strike decisively and with the element of surprise.
In the modern era, there are seven main groups of warships: the destroyer, cruiser, frigate, corvette, submarine, aircraft carrier, and amphibious assault ship, as well as the now largely defunct battleship class. Most of the ships used by navies today are of the destroyer class, although these distinctions have increasingly blurred as the ships are loaded with weaponry intended for air, sea and land assault. As mines and torpedoes have also become less of an issue, armor has also been significantly reduced on the modern warship, leading to sleeker and less well-protected ships.
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