Hello experts, could you outline for me path of development from the age of sail galleon to let's say IJN Yamato and then modern warships? My 10yo is into warships games and there's only so much I can tell him, things like explosive shells development, torpedoes etc
/u/jschooltiger's posts have explained well how warships from the age of sail worked. In the immediate aftermath of the introduction of the steam engine, things stayed pretty much the same; ships retained the same configuration, with masts, sails, and a heavy armament along the broadsides of the ship, but with an extra steam engine for manoeuvring in combat, or when the wind was low.
The first major change came following the Crimean War in 1854. During the war, the British and French had experimented with floating batteries protected by iron plates (small ships with no engines, and a heavy gun armament for bombarding forts). By this time, the Industrial Revolution had made the production of thick iron plates sufficiently cheap that it was actually affordable to armour a ship. The British and French took this experience from the Crimean War, and applied it to proper ocean-going ships to produce the first ironclads. The French got there first with the Gloire, laid down in 1858, with the British following soon after with Warrior, laid down 1859 (Warrior was the first ship built with an iron hull, making her technically an 'armourclad', as ironclad was originally only used to refer to ships with iron armour on a wooden hull). These were 'broadside ironclads', which followed the general hull layout of the older wooden ships, albeit with fewer guns and iron armour. The immediate successors to these ships followed the same pattern, but a few facts soon became apparent: to penetrate the armour these new ships are fitting you’re going to need big guns. These guns will be so heavy you can only carry a few of them. Meanwhile, if you’re carrying a full broadside of guns, you can’t fit thick enough armour to protect the ship against these new heavier guns. As a result, people start to move away from the traditional broadside armament, as you can't get all-round fire with just a few guns mounted in the broadside style.
There are two main schools for development of ironclads in the 1860s-1880s, driven by differing strategic and tactical needs. The European school needs ships that are capable of long sea journeys, to protect their colonial empires, while the American school is driven by the American Civil War, which was fought in coastal and riverine waters. The Europeans need ships with masts, as steam engines are not efficient enough for long voyages, and high freeboards (the distance between the waterline and the top of the hull) to stop the ship sinking in a storm, while the Americans can get away without either because they're only making short voyages in protected waters. Britain started things off with the ‘central-battery’ ironclad. This involved putting a few big guns on pivot mounts in the middle of the ship, with gunports facing all around. They also tried 'turret ships', with the guns inside a large rotating metal box. However, putting a big heavy box high in the ship made them unstable, especially on ships with masts - the RN would lose the turret ship HMS Captain to a storm in 1870, after she capsized. The French solved this problem by building 'barbette ships'. Here, the guns were on rotating turntables, which were surrounded by a ring of armour. These were lighter than turrets, largely because they didn't have overhead protection. The Americans, meanwhile, made two main contributions. The first was the 'casemate ironclad'. This was, at its simplest, a broadside ironclad with everything that made it a ship chopped off, leaving a large metal box full of guns above the waterline. The other was the 'monitor'. Named for the eponymous USS Monitor, they were very simple ships, with one or more turrets on top of a raft-like hull. They were very capable, but poor seaboats, as the freeboard was just a few inches. Monitor herself would be lost in a storm in December 1862.
The Royal Navy looked at the American monitors, and liked what it saw, but needed a more seaworthy ship to protect the Empire. To this end, they modified the design, adding an armoured platform above the main deck on which the turrets were placed, to produce the 'breastwork monitor'. This raised the freeboard sufficiently to make them capable of at least short ocean voyages. In 1871, steam technology had advanced sufficiently that the RN felt capable of producing a ship capable of crossing the Atlantic on steam alone; they naturally chose a breastwork monitor for this, producing HMS Devastation, one of the first ships recognisable as a modern battleship. With two main battery turrets, one forward and one aft, and a superstructure amidships, she would set out a plan that many ships would copy. A second ship was laid down to the same plans, but would be modified while under construction. The breastwork armour was extended out to the edge of the hull, giving her a true end-to-end armour belt. Again, this is a design choice that following ships will replicate.
In 1879, the RN is looking to design a new class of battleship; the turret ships still have issues with freeboard and stability, and cannot effectively be used in heavy seas. They merge the hull design and armament layout from Dreadnought, with the French idea of the barbette. A secondary battery of 6in guns is also added; this will allow these ships to destroy the unarmoured superstructures of opposing battleships with fire from the newly developed high-explosive shells. This produces the 'Admiral' class, named for British admirals. Highly effective and well regarded, they lay the blueprint for the next major class. This is when the term battleship truly starts to be used; earlier ships are just described by the type of ship they are - central-battery ironclad, coastal defence ship, etc. This is formalised in 1883. In 1888-9, the RN’s next major class of battleships, the Royal Sovereigns is under design. These use the general layout of the 'Admiral's - two barbettes for the main armament, with a high freeboard and 6in secondary armament - with the new quickfiring (a quickfiring gun has the charge contained in a brass case, allowing for rapid loading) 6in guns, which allow an even higher rate of fire against unarmoured bits. This is really the start of the ‘pre-dreadnought’ era, with most British ships being iterations on this general design. The Majestics of 1893 will introduce a gun shield to the barbette, which is what we now think of as a turret. The typical battleship now has two twin turrets containing 12in guns, and a secondary battery with 6in guns or similar. Over time, the size of the secondary battery creeps up; by 1902, the secondary battery now consists of 9.2in guns in British ships, while the 6in guns are in a tertiary battery for destroying torpedo boats.
I've written about sailing ships before quite a bit, if that's of some interest to your son:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/20x9kz/classes_of_vessels_during_the_age_of_sail/
I'm interested specifically in transition from sailing ships to the warships of more modern era
#/media/File:HMS_Monarch_(1868).jpg){kind=link}
#/media/File:HMS_Abyssinia_(1870)_Photo.jpg){kind=link}
#/media/File:CollingwoodNH61397.jpg){kind=link}
