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

06/12/2021

Erzherzog Friedrich class Steam Corvettes (1857)

These large steam ships, frigate size (1570 tons), were built in Venice and pressed into Austrian service. With her sister ship Dandolo, both were soon under Austro-Hungarian flag, both having a rich career, and the first participating in the battle of Lissa. They were in service practically until 1900.

04/12/2021

F4F wildcat (1940)

Rarely fighters in history had been so hard-pressed in desperate situations and proved up to the task than the Grumman Wildcat in 1942-43. When the F4F-3 was chosen for production after a long development going back to 1937, there was a fighter neither pretty nor supremely agile, but it was sturdy yet light and reliable. From 1941 to 1945 it became a staple of USN and Fleet Air arm naval fighters even though better models appeared in between.

02/12/2021

Portland class cruisers (1932)

Born as second-generation treaty cruiser, soon split into two separate types (the second, well revised, becoming the New Orleans), the Portlands were much improved Northamptons, with an amazing career. USS Portland participated in nearly all pacific battles, ending as one of the most decorated cruisers of WW2, while USS Indianapolis was a prestigious vessel which also became the flagship of the Vth fleet. But this overshadowed by her tragic end, the worst sea disaster of the US Navy to date.

He who controls the sea controls everything
(Themistocles)

A smooth sea never made a skilful Sailor
F.D. Roosevelt

Don't give up the ship!
Captain James Lawrence

Sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover
Mark Twain

There are three kinds of beings: the living, the dead and the sailors.
Anacharsis

Damn the torpedoes, Full speed ahead !
Adm. David. G. Farragut

We cannot control the wind, but we can direct the sail
Thomas S. Monson

When the sea is calm, every boat has a good captain
Swedish Proverb

About Naval Encyclopedia

Naval Encyclopedia is the first online warship museum (1997). Dedicated to the history of all ships of the industrial era and 20th cent., 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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