alternate names for "battleship" (or "big gun ships")

Archibald

ACCESS: USAP
Senior Member
Joined
6 June 2006
Messages
12,740
Reaction score
15,746
As said in the tin.

In our timeline we got names such as
- ironclad
- dreadnought
- battleship
- pocket battleship
- battlecruiser
- armored cruiser
- heavy cruiser

English is not my native language so I need help. I'm looking for *new names* out of the above list / english words.


What *new* combinations could be done with words such as
- steel
- armored
- hardened
- cuirass (yes, it exists, as in french "cuirassé" = battleship)
- cruiser
- battle -something
- heavy

Or any word you can think of.
 
Digging that a little further...

Supercruisers
- 15 000 to 25 000 tons
- Gun calibers: larger than 8 inch, smaller than 13.5 inch

[/URL]

- Speed 30 kt
- not capital ships

Basically bridge the gap between OTL "heavy cruisers" and (surviving) "battlecruiser"

What kind of OTL ships would fit there ?
- Deutschland class, because 280 mm guns
- Alaska class
- Dutch 1047 design

Any other ?

228.6RML 9 inch 12 ton gun United Kingdom1860s - 1890s
2299"/35 (22.9 cm) Pattern 1877 Russian Empire1870s - World War I
234BL 9.2 inch gun Mk I - VII United Kingdom1880s - 1918
234BL 9.2 inch Mk VIII 40-caliber United Kingdom1890s - 1910s
234BL 9.2 inch Mk X 46-caliber United Kingdom1900s - World War I
234BL 9.2 inch Mk XI 50-caliber United KingdomWorld War I
240240mm/50 Modèle 1902 gun FranceWorld War I - World War II
24024 cm K L/35 German EmpireWorld War I - World War II
24024 cm SK L/40 German EmpireWorld War I - World War II
240Škoda 24 cm L/40 K97 Austria-HungaryWorld War I
200 – 250Paixhans guns France1841
25410"/31 caliber gun United States1890s - 1921
25410"/40 caliber gun Mark 3 United States1890 - 1921
254RML 10 inch 18 ton gun United Kingdom1868 - 1900s
254BL 10 inch Mk II - IV 32-caliber guns United Kingdom1885 - 1900s
254Cannone da 254/40 A Kingdom of Italy1893 - 1940s
254EOC 10 inch 40 caliber United Kingdom1893 - 1940s
25410 in/40 Type 41 naval gun Japan1899 - 1945
254EOC 10 inch /45 naval gun United Kingdom1904 - 1940s
254Vickers 10 inch /45 naval gun United Kingdom1904 - 1920s
254254mm 45 caliber Pattern 1891 Russian Empire1897 - 1930
254Gonzalez Hontoria de 25,4 cm mod 1870 Spain1870 – 1980s
254Bofors 254 mm kanon L/45 SwedenInter War - Cold War
274Canon de 274 modèle 1887/1893 FranceWorld War I - World War II
274Canon de 274 modèle 1893/1896 FranceWorld War I - World War II
280RML 11 inch 25 ton gun United Kingdom1870s - 1890s
280Gonzalez Hontoria de 28 cm mod 1883 Spain1883 – 1920s
283Bofors 283 mm kanon m/12 SwedenWorld War I - World War II
28328 cm MRK L/35 German EmpireWorld War I
28328 cm MRK L/40 German EmpireWorld War I
28328 cm SK L/40 gun German EmpireWorld War I - World War II
28328 cm SK L/50 gun German EmpireWorld War I - World War II
28328 cm SK C/28 naval gun Nazi GermanyWorld War II
28328 cm SK C/34 naval gun Nazi GermanyWorld War II
305RML 12 inch 25 ton gun United Kingdom1860s - 1870s
305RML 12 inch 35 ton gun United Kingdom1870s
305BL 12 inch naval gun Mk I - VII United Kingdom1880s - 1890s
305BL 12 inch naval gun Mk VIII United Kingdom1890s - 1910s
305BL 12 inch Mk X Vickers 45-caliber United KingdomWorld War I
305BL 12 inch Mk XI & XII Vickers 50-caliber United KingdomWorld War I
305BL inch Mk IX United KingdomWorld War I
305EOC 12 inch /45 United KingdomWorld War I
305305mm/45 Modèle 1887 gun France1890s - 1910s
305305mm/40 Modèle 1893 gun France1890s - 1910s
305305mm/45 Modèle 1906 gun FranceWorld War I
305Russian 12 inch 40 caliber naval gun Russian Empire1896 - World War I
305Obukhovskii 12"/52 Pattern 1907 gun Russian EmpireWorld War I
305305 mm /46 Model 1909 ItalyWorld War I - World War II
30530.5 cm SK L/50 gun German EmpireWorld War I
305Škoda 30.5 cm /45 K10 Austria-HungaryWorld War I
30512"/35 caliber gun United States1896-1920
30512"/40 caliber gun United StatesWorld War I
30512"/45 caliber Mark 5 gun United StatesWorld War I
30512 inch/50 caliber naval gun United States ArgentinaWorld War I - World War II - Cold War
30512"/50 caliber Mark 8 gun United StatesWorld War II - Cold War
317.5RML 12.5 inch 38 ton gun United Kingdom1875 - 1890s
320Gonzalez Hontoria de 32 cm mod 1883 Spain1883 – 1920s
320Cannone Navale da 320 ItalyWorld War II
 
Battlewagons were/are a common nickname for battleships and the like.
 
Last edited:
heavywagon ? armoredwagon ?

"Super-cruiser"

"Large guns cruiser" doesn't sounds too bad... LGC ?

"Up-gunned cruiser"

"Very large cruiser"
 
The list you mention are names for different ship types:

- ironclad:
a wooden ship with the hull covered in iron plates, the first type of armored ship.

- dreadnought
named after HMS Dreadnought, these ships combine all-big-gun armament (as opposed to several gun sizes) and steam turbine propulsion.

- battleship
the general classification: the largest gun-armed warships

- pocket battleship
smaller version of a battleship: battleship-class guns on a smaller hull

- battlecruiser
a battleship that trades reduced armor for more speed

- armored cruiser
one class below the battleship, in both displacement and gun size

- heavy cruiser
A cruiser with less armor.

Some of these names were informal (dreadnoughts were named after the first ship that used this configuration), others were formal definitions used in treaties that specified how many ships of what size each country was allowed to build.
 
Super Dreadnoughts, though most of those were studies or otherwise remained unbuilt, including a number of Cold War era atomic powered designs. Some early battleships were also initially referred to as such, though. Sometimes written as Superdreadnought.
 
Last edited:
Missile Battleships, but that might be outside the boundary of this thread.
 
A couple of threads over in Naval Projects have reminded me of a concept that has never really taken off, the BBCV, sometimes referred to as a 'Battlecarrier'. Though along with a lot of other things there has been a resurgence of interest in the idea in recent years.
 
Today I imagine some tortured acronym would be used. 'Protected Expeditionary Combatant' - PEC or suchlike. There'll probably be an 'Advanced' added somewhere. It might be fun to speculate what the mission and design of a modern battleship-descendent might be. An SSGN might be the closest real world equivalent, but historically battleships often served diplomatic functions that subs can't be allowed to perform.

Some names have been used politically rather than for technical hair-splitting - the RN's Invincible class were called 'Through Deck Cruisers' because RN policy was not to have aircraft carriers and the politicians were frightened of the cost implications of anything with the A-word or C-word in it.
 
Today I imagine some tortured acronym would be used. 'Protected Expeditionary Combatant' - PEC or suchlike. There'll probably be an 'Advanced' added somewhere. It might be fun to speculate what the mission and design of a modern battleship-descendent might be. An SSGN might be the closest real world equivalent, but historically battleships often served diplomatic functions that subs can't be allowed to perform.

Some names have been used politically rather than for technical hair-splitting - the RN's Invincible class were called 'Through Deck Cruisers' because RN policy was not to have aircraft carriers and the politicians were frightened of the cost implications of anything with the A-word or C-word in it.
It would probably be the Arsenal Ships of the 1990s being the closest to continuing the battleship line. The SSGN were converted after Congress cancelled the funding of the arsenal ship.
 

Attachments

  • 1496693296-arsenal-72.jpg
    1496693296-arsenal-72.jpg
    77.7 KB · Views: 10
Very Large Surface Combatant for Shore Support VELASCSS (Velazquez ?)
 
Speaking of languages other then English, and terms which fall out of fashion or were seldom used in the first place, and become forgotten by now.

Russian terms are "броненосец" (bronenosets), which could be literally translated as "Armour Carrier",
and "линкор" (linkor), which is a short version of "линейный корабль" (lineyniy korabl) which literally means "ship of the line".

So, in this fashion of using word "armour", one could also have "Armourship" -
and GoogleBooks has some examples of "armour-ship" in 1860s books (and hyphen might be discarded later, as it happened with thousands of other English words)

They were also referring to ship's armour as "Armour-plate/plates", so "Armour-plate carrier" and eventually "plate carrier" could also be proposed.

Also "Armourclad" -

Russians attempt to make phrase "ship of the line" shorter and turn it into one word, and 1860s mentions of "line-of-battle ship" (which feels a lot like predecessor to battleship), leads me to "lineship",
and GB has some examples from 1910s-1920s
such as https://books.google.ru/books?id=dgctlZmn_UQC&q="lineship


Once some got turrets, another name was https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turret_ship, which was competing with another design called "Barbette ship", while preceding turretless concept inherited from wooden ships was called "Broadside ship".
 

Similar threads

Please donate to support the forum.

Back
Top Bottom