ancient ships roman medieval renaissance enlightenment

To the industrial era

From antiquity to the XIXth century: The age of sail, from prehistoric boats to this day, through the bronze age, antique & Medieval era, Renaissance and Enlightment and naval battles, from Salamine to Tsushima.

Sail & steam Era

World War One

Triple entente and central empire fleets, ships types, and naval battles of the 1914-1918 period plus naval actions up to the Washington treaty defining naval matters in the interwar years.

WW1 Fleets

World War Two

Six years putting the world to the torch, with major belligerents clashing at the surface of the sea, under and above, shifting from battleships to aicraft carrier, but also interwar and civilian ships.

WW2 Fleets

The cold war

From 1947 to 1990 two superpowers entered a naval arms race. This saw the end of the colonial era and proxy wars. NATO vs Warsaw Pact and non-aligned navies.

Cold War

Naval Encyclopedia

The First Online Warship Museum What it is about ?

Naval Encyclopedia is the first online warship museum. Dedicated to the history of all ships of the industrial era, roughly since 1820 to this day. It is focusing on the 20th century through until the end of the cold war. It covers also the classical antiquity, medieval, renaissance and enlightenment eras.

Naval History is indeed very ancient, warships constantly evolving, just as tactics adapting to existing sources of power. Wind and human power first, and from the 19th century, steam power (and the rule of fossil fuels), up to the dominance of nuclear energy for the most valuable assets. There has been path of divergence and convergence also between civilian ships and their navy counterparts, like the famous Galleons of the 16-17th century that blended the role of cargo and warship. This survived well into the 20th century on civilian ships, first as a precaution (like fake ports) then as a tradition on mixed and tall ships.

Nowadays the most complex hand-built moving crafts ever designed by mankind, arguably, are nuclear submarines. Specialization and optimization helped global trade in the last XXth century, and especially the XXIth one frequently called “globalized”, based on the consumer society. The challenges world’s fleets are facing are huge, traducing like always the shifting weight of nations in geopolitics, in ever growing tensions born from dwindling resouces.

⚲ Search this site

⚒ Tech

Naval-related technology, and associated tactics & statistics

Naval Tech

⚔ Battles

Full history of naval battles, strategies, tactics, fleets and ships

Naval Battles

merchandisiding, plans, photos, illustrations

☘ Medias

Photos, blueprints and dedicated illustrations, also some merchandising to support this site !

All Posters

Recenty Published

27/01/2022

Helicopter Cruiser Vittorio Veneto (1967)

After the Doria class of 1962 were found too small, a much larger hybrid cruiser was developed, wich on the long run proved modular for upgrades, and served with the Marina Militare until 2003, as the last European cruiser in service.

24/01/2022

Volksmarine (Cold war East German Navy)

Warsaw Pact navies are often overlooked in the grand scheme of the cold war, easily shadowed by the ludicrous size reached by the Soviet Navy in the 1980s. Yet like Poland and Romania, East Germany had a large green water navy. The Volksmarine had no large missile destroyer or submarines, but frigates, corvettes and smaller ships, counting on a dynamic home industry to support its needs and defend the Baltic, and even export back to USSR. This post covers the history, organization, and ships classes of the Volksmarine until 1990. #volksmarine #WarsawPact #ColdWar

22/01/2022

Type 201 class Submarines

The Type 201 were the very first post-WW2 submarines built in Germany. After an authorization from NATO, the rebirth of the German silent service started with refloated (scuttled 1945) Type XXI and XXIII submarines, followed by a construction of derivatives, the U-1 to U-3 launched in 1961. Although innovative by combining eight torpedo tubes on a small tonnage, they were riddled with issues and had a only a few years of service, but led to the development of the very successful Type 205 in 1967, the start of a long and successful lineage.

When there are seven helmsmen out of eight sailors, the ship sinks.
Chinese proverb

Work like a captain, play like a pirate !
Jack Sparrow

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable
Seneca

Sighted Sub, Sank Same
Donald Francis Mason

The corsairs of some, are the pirate of others
Armand Robicheau

When the ship must sink, the rats are the first to leave it
Dostoyevski

At sea, I learned how little a person needs, not how much
Robin Lee Graham

Keep calm and sail away
Royal Navy's Meme

About Naval Encyclopedia

Naval Encyclopedia is the first online warship museum (1997), with 2507 pages for now, and counting. Dedicated to the history of all ships of the industrial era and 20th century, so 1820 to 1990, but also earlier times. The main difference for this early period is to study ships types through some famous examples. The latter is a work in progress since more than twenty years. This current version is #5. The previous one was made Wordpress, and is back to where it began, in static form. Next is the adjunction of a JSON search engine. And complete the encyclopedia ! The opaque links shows what's left, which is quite of intimidating. Clear white links are those done so far.

Now there is a single mega menu with spoilers on the column (on desktop) or page bottom (mobile) alllowing the reach of all pages and articles from anywhere. In short the new version of 2021 is:

☑ SNAPPY: Faster website all across the board due to its new structure
☑ SECURE: No database nor plugins, almost no attack surface left for hackers: Far more secure.
☑ PRETTIER: Although it's a matter of subjectivity, the new site is more identifiable now.
☑ MORE FEATURES: Using javascript, bootstrap features and a new, better search engine
☑ BETTER MENUS: Mega menu with spoilers in column (on desktop)/bottom (mobile) accessible anywhere.
☑ BETTER FOCUS: Era page now encompass Fleets, Classes, Battles, Tactics/strategy, and Biopics.
☀ MORE ANCIENT: Focus on the XIXth century and earlier naval warfare (1700s, 1850, 1870 and 1898 world's fleets).
⚒ FUTURE: 2021-22, development of the VR/3D section and a games section.
☘ PATREON: Also planned, less ads and a Patreon backers hidden section with many goodies.

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