The history of the armored warship between 1860 and 1890 is very confusing, particularly due to the lack of consistent nomenclature. I've done what I can to simplify it, but this is going to be messy.¹

The first armored warships were built during the Crimean War at the behest of Napoleon III. He wanted ten floating batteries to attack the Russian defenses in the Crimea and the Baltic, but French industry could only produce five. The British built the other five, although only the French ships went into action before the end of the war, taking part in the Battle of Kinburn, where three of them destroyed a Russian fort in a matter of hours with minimal casualties to themselves. They were slow and hard to maneuver, but gave British and French designers experience that would be valuable when they embarked on proper seagoing ironclads.²

The French Ironclad Gloire

The first of these ships was the French ironclad Gloire, launched in 1859. She was wooden-hulled due to industrial limitations in France, and ultimately was a fairly conventional design.

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Two years ago today was my first day as a tour guide on the Iowa. I ended up tagging along on a tour for a gentleman who'd served aboard during the Korean war, and got to see some of the behind-the-scenes parts of the ship. We tried to find his berthing compartment, but had no luck due to the changes made in the 80s. It was a cool first day.

That evening was the San Pedro Boat Parade. This gave me my chance to climb inside the aft port 5" mount. They were going to fire it that evening, and I was younger and more flexible than the rest of the gun crew, so I was asked to elevate the guns. The pointer seat was pretty tight, even for me. I'm amazed they got 14 people in the mount in service.

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Decommissioning wasn't quite the end of the story for Iowa and her sisters. The Marines wanted to retain the vessels for fire support in a future war, while most of the rest of the Navy wanted to get rid of them to avoid paying for their ongoing maintenance, and various groups wanted to turn them into museums. In 1995, all four were struck from the Naval Vessel Register,³ opening the way for them to be donated as museums. Congress was not happy with this, and in the 1996 National Defense Authorization Act directed that two of the ships be retained by the Navy. Originally, New Jersey and Wisconsin were selected to be reinstated, but pressure from groups in the state of New Jersey lead Congress to mandate that Iowa and Wisconsin be maintained, and Iowa was placed back on the NVR in 1999.⁴

Iowa and Wisconsin at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, 1993

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While the first naval mines were contact mines and they are still the dominant type numerically, the main focus of mine warfare in recent decades has moved to influence mines, which are set off by means other than physical contact with a ship’s hull. Influence mines are traditionally laid on the bottom, although they can be moored if the water is too deep for bottom mines to be effective.

A German air-dropped magnetic mine

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After five very successful years in service during her third commission, tragedy struck Iowa. On April 19th, 1989, she was conducting gunnery drills as part of FLEETEX 3-89, a training exercise with the navies of Brazil and Venezuela. At 9:55, while the center gun of Turret II was being loaded with the first round, the powder exploded, killing 47 men. This exact cause is still somewhat controversial, and the Navy's handling of the investigation did not help. I should emphasize at this point that everything which follows is my own opinion, and I don't speak for anyone else on this.

Smoke billows from Turret II after the explosion

In the immediate aftermath, the crew of the Iowa responded heroically, fighting to save the ship in what was still a very dangerous situation. The anti-flash measures, most notably the scuttles isolating the powder flat from the turret proper,⁵ worked well, and a repeat of the fate of the battlecruisers at Jutland was avoided. But there was still the risk of heat soaking into the powder flats and igniting the powder, so the magazines were flooded. It took about 90 minutes to extinguish the fire, and several members of the crew were decorated for their actions during this battle. Read more...

When he offered to host me, I offered Said Achmiz the opportunity for me to pick a topic to write on. He selected Russian battleships, and I found a really good deal on a copy of Stephen McLaughlin's Russian & Soviet Battleships, the standard source on the subject, so settle in for a tale, that like most tales from Russian history, began with bright hopes, and subsequently fell apart.⁶

Petr Velikii, the first Russian battleship

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Probably the most underappreciated of naval weapons is the humble mine. Mine warfare is unglamorous, dangerous, and potentially decisive.

HMS Merlin

The first ship mined (as we understand the term today) was HMS Merlin, on June 9th, 1855. The ship, deployed to the Baltic as part of the Crimean War,⁷ suffered only minimal damage. The Russians had deployed primitive moored contact mines, tethered to the bottom, which detonated if a rod on the top was bumped by a passing ship. Interestingly, they were invented by Immanuel Nobel, father of Alfred Nobel. In response, the British initiated the first minesweeping operation a few days later, grappling the mines and hauling them up. Remote-controlled mines, detonated from shore, were also used, but proved less successful than the contact mines.

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For a quarter-century after being decommissioned, Iowa slept. In 1968, New Jersey was recommissioned for service off Vietnam, then decommissioned after a single tour because the North Vietnamese hated her too much and Washington wanted to send signals that they were interested in peace.⁸ In the 70s, several attempts were made to scrap the ship and her sisters, thwarted mainly by the efforts of the Marine Corps, who feared the loss of fire support capability these ships provided.⁹ These efforts began to gain support in the late 70s, and in 1980 a bill to release funds for a reactivation reached the Senate floor before being defeated thanks to the personal intervention of President Carter. Fortunately for Iowa, President Carter was himself defeated that November, and President Reagan announced that he would support the reactivation and modernization of all four Iowas.¹⁰

Iowa undergoing modernization at Pascagoula

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On September 20th, 1945, only a few days after the Japanese surrender, Iowa left Japanese waters, bound for Okinawa with 354 passengers, mostly liberated POWs. In Okinawa, she picked up another 562 passengers under the auspices of Operation Magic Carpet, the US effort to bring troops home as quickly as possible by packing them onto whatever ship was available. Most of the contingent from Okinawa were Seebees, who amused themselves by fighting one another. Iowa proceeded to Seattle, where she unloaded them and hosted over 10,000 visitors during the Fleet Week/Navy Day festivities.

Iowa and Maryland in Seattle for Navy Day 1945

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The attack on Pearl Harbor and the devastation of Battleship Row, are well-known. Less well-known is the later salvage of most of the battleships sunk that day, and their service around the globe, covering amphibious landings and providing fire support. However, five of them did get one moment of glory, fighting in the last battleship-on-battleship action in history.

Pennsylvania leading the US fleet near the Philippines

In October of 1944, the US launched its long-promised return to the Philippines, landing on the island of Leyte. This triggered the largest naval battle in history, the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The Japanese, who had planned for the ‘Decisive Battle’ between their battleships and those of the US for decades, designed their counterattack on the US landings around three main groups. Their carriers would come in from the north and draw off the US carriers covering the invasion, while two groups of battleships would sneak up on the invasion fleet from the east, passing through the Philippines and pincering the US transports from the north and south.

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