| Name |
Description |
#books |
| Aircraft carrier |
An aircraft carrier is a warship with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft that serves as a seagoing airbase. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet. | 5 |
| Ammunition ship |
An auxiliary ship specially configured to carry ammunition, usually for Navy ships and aircraft. They have cargo handling systems, designed with extreme safety in mind. | 2 |
| Anti-aircraft cruiser |
A modified cruiser containing high-angle guns with fire-control equipment to provide larger warships with protection against high-altitude bombers. | 2 |
| Armed Boarding Steamers |
A merchant ship taken over by the Royal Navy for the purpose of enforcing wartime blockades by intercepting and boarding foreign vessels. | 1 |
| Armed Merchant Cruiser |
A merchant ship converted for use as an auxiliary cruiser for patrol and escort services. They proved of limited value as their hulls were not armoured and they some used a lot of fuel so many were later converted to troopships. | 3 |
| Barque |
TBD. | 1 |
| Battlecruiser |
The battlecruiser was a large capital ship similar in size and cost to a battleship, and typically carried the same kind of heavy guns, but generally carried less armour and were faster. Their original aim was to hunt down slower, older armoured cruisers. | 5 |
| Battleship |
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the battleship was the most powerful type of warship. | 7 |
| Brigantine |
A two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast, a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail. | 1 |
| Brig |
TBD. | 1 |
| Caïque |
A traditional small wooden trading vessel or fishing boat, brightly painted and rigged for sail usually found among the waters of the Ionian or Aegean Sea. | 2 |
| Capital Ship |
The most important warships of a navy which are traditionally much larger than other naval vessels and generally a primary ship in a naval fleet. In WW1 and WW2, typically they were battleships and battlecruisers, but during WW2 the Aircraft Carrier became the main capital ship. | 6 |
| Carley Float |
A form of invertible life-raft designed by American inventor Horace Carley supplied mainly to warships, seeing widespread use in both World Wars until superseded by more modern inflatable designs. | 2 |
| Coastal trading vessel |
A shallow-hulled ship used for trade between locations of the same island or continent that can get through reefs in shallow ports. Also known as coasters. | 1 |
| Convoy rescue ship |
A small ship accompanying some WW2 Atlantic convoys to rescue survivors from ships that had been attacked. They normally included a small operating room for a naval doctor and sick bay staff. | 3 |
| Corvette |
A small warship, traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper warship. The class above the corvette is that of the frigate and modern types of ship below a corvette are coastal patrol craft and fast attack craft. The modern corvette appeared during WW2 as an easily built patrol and convoy escort vessel. | 5 |
| Cruiser Submarine |
A very large submarine designed to remain at sea for extended periods in areas distant from the base that were successful during WW1. Smaller submarines were used during WW2 as they were less vulnerable to damage from merchant ships artillery, were faster to dive and offered a smaller sonar echo surface. | 1 |
| Cruiser |
The cruiser can be placed on a scale of warship size, smaller than a battleship but larger than a destroyer. In 1922, the Washington Naval Treaty placed a formal limit on cruisers, which were defined as warships of up to 10,000 tons displacement carrying guns no larger than 8 inches in calibre which shaped cruisers up until the end of World War II. | 10 |
| Cutter |
A small watercraft designed for speed rather than for capacity. In modern usage, a cutter can be either a small- or medium-sized vessel whose occupants exercise official authority. Examples are the cutters of the UK Border Force. | 1 |
| Danlayer |
TBD. | 1 |
| Depot Ship |
An auxiliary ship used as a mobile or fixed base for submarines, destroyers, minesweepers, fast attack craft, landing craft, or other small ships with limited space for support services. | 3 |
| Destroyer |
A destroyer is a fast maneuverable long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller powerful short-range attackers. | 11 |
| Dinghy |
A type of small boat, often carried or towed for use as a ship’s boat by a larger vessel. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor. | 9 |
| Escort Carrier |
A smaller and slower type of aircraft carrier used in WW2 that carried fewer planes and were less well armed and armoured, but were cheaper and could be built quickly. In the Battle of the Atlantic, they were used to protect convoys against U-boats and later formed part of independent hunter-killer groups that sought out submarines. | 1 |
| Escort Destroyer |
A type of naval destroyer designed with less speed and a longer range to be used to escort convoys of merchant marine ships. | 5 |
| Fighter Catapult Ship |
A warship enhanced with a powerful catapult that could launch a single fighter aircraft. They were created early in WW2 to provide air cover at sea to accompany convoys before Escort carriers were available. Some merchant ships were similarly equipped and known as Catapult Aircraft Merchantmen (CAM). | 1 |
| Flagship |
A vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, typically the lead ship in a fleet/squadron of vessels with a flag officer entitled to fly a distinguishing flag. | 2 |
| Fleet Carrier |
An faster and better armed aircraft carrier designed to operate with the main fleet of a nation’s navy. The term was developed during WW2, to distinguish it from the escort carrier and other lesser carrier types. | 1 |
| Flotilla |
A formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet. A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same class of warship, such as frigates, destroyers, torpedo boats, submarines, gunboats, or minesweepers. For larger ship formations the term squadron is used. | 4 |
| Frigate |
A term readopted during WW2 by the Royal Navy to describe an anti-submarine escort vessel that was larger than a corvette and smaller than a destroyer; anti-submarine escorts had previously been classified as sloops. It possessed less offensive firepower and speed than a destroyer, but such qualities were not required for anti-submarine warfare. | 3 |
| Gunboat |
A naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. | 9 |
| Heavy Cruiser |
A type of naval cruiser designed for long range and high speed, more powerful than the light cruisers but not as large and expensive as the battlecruiser so as to be built in sufficient numbers. Advances in naval technology and design meant that the heavy cruiser was overall a more powerful ship type than the armoured cruiser had been. | 1 |
| Hospital ship |
A ship designated for primary function as a floating medical treatment facility or hospital. Most are operated by the military forces. | 3 |
| Ketch |
A sailing craft with two masts. It is distinguished in that the forward of the two masts (the 'Mainmast') is larger than the after mast (the 'mizzen'). | 1 |
| Landing Craft |
A boat and seagoing vessel used to convey a landing force from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. | 3 |
| Lighter Barge |
A type of flat-bottomed barge used to transfer goods and passengers to and from moored ships. | 4 |
| Liner |
A passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. They may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes. | 5 |
| Merchant Aircraft-Carrier |
A limited aircraft carrier built on a British hull designed for bulk grain ships and oil tankers that was adapted by adding a flight deck to operate anti-submarine aircraft in support of Allied convoys during the Battle of the Atlantic. They continued to carry cargo. | 1 |
| Merchantman |
Any non-naval vessel, including tankers, freighters, or cargo ships, but not troopships. | 11 |
| Midget submarine |
A submarine under 150 tons that is typically operated by a crew of one or two with little or no on-board accommodation. Military types work with surface ships and other submarines as mother ships. | 2 |
| Minesweeper |
A small naval ship designed to engage in minesweeping. It are equipped with mechanical or electrical devices, known as 'sweeps', for disabling mines and is also designed to reduce the chances of it detonating mines itself with a reduced acoustic and magnetic signature. | 7 |
| Monitor |
A relatively small warship which is neither fast nor strongly armoured but carries disproportionately large guns. | 1 |
| Motor Launch |
A small military vessel in British navy service designed for harbour defence and submarine chasing or for armed high speed air-sea rescue. | 4 |
| Naval Convoy System |
A group of vehicles traveling together for mutual support and protection. A convoy is often organised with armed defensive support. The British adopted a convoy system for almost all merchant ships, the moment that WW2 was declared. | 4 |
| Naval Drifter |
TBD. | 2 |
| Naval fleet |
A large formation of warships, and the largest formation in any navy. A fleet at sea is the direct equivalent of an army on land and generally assigned to a particular ocean or sea. Most fleets are normally commanded by an admiral and divided into several squadrons. | 11 |
| Naval Squadron |
A significant group of warships which is considered too small to be designated a fleet and is typically a part of a fleet. | 3 |
| Naval Trawler |
A vessel built like a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes. Trawlers were suited for naval requirements because they were boats designed to work in all types of weather and had large clear decks. They could easily be converted to a mine sweeper for anti-submarine duties. | 7 |
| Paddle Streamer |
TBD. | 1 |
| Pocket Battleship |
A class of German cruiser which violated agreed maximum tonnage sizes for cruisers and included a heavy armament of six 11 in guns. The British began referring to the vessels as 'pocket battleships'. | 4 |
| Q-ship |
A heavily armed merchant ship with concealed weaponry, designed to lure submarines into making surface attacks. Also known as a Q-boat, decoy vessel, special service ship, or mystery ship. | 1 |
| R boat (Räumboote) |
A small naval vessel built as minesweepers for the German navy before and during WW2. In addition to its designed use as minesweepers, these boats were used for convoy escort, coastal patrol, minelaying and air-sea rescue. | 2 |
| Schnellboot/E-Boat |
A designation for the fast attack craft of the German Navy during WW2 which were heavily armed, with some capable of sustaining 43.5 knots and briefly accelerating to 48 knots. They were much sleeker than the Allied boats and a diesel engine with substantially longer range than the allies British Motor Torpedo Boats. | 5 |
| Schooner |
A type of sailing vessel with fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts, the foremast being shorter than the main and no taller than the mizzen if there is one. | 4 |
| Shipboard Lifeboat |
A small, rigid or inflatable boat carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard a ship. Inflatable lifeboats may be equipped with auto-inflation (carbon dioxide or nitrogen) canisters or mechanical pumps. | 7 |
| Sloop |
A warship between a corvette and a frigate in size. Such vessels were becoming obsolete by WW2. The Royal Navy used them for various roles during WW2, including escort duty and anti-submarine warfare, where they destroyed five German submarines. | 5 |
| Smack |
A traditional fishing boat used off the coast of Britain and the Atlantic coast of America for most of the 19th century and, in small numbers, up to the Second World War. | 2 |
| Submarine |
A watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. The term evolved as a shortened form of 'submarine boat' and commonly refers to a large, crewed, autonomous warship. | 11 |
| Tank Landing Craft |
A type of landing craft specialised to carry Tanks during an amphibious assault. | 2 |
| Torpedo Boat |
A relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. They were created to counter battleships and other large, slow and heavily armed ships by their speed and agility. Destroyers were originally conceived to counter this type of ship. | 4 |
| Torpedo Gunboat |
TBD. | 1 |
| Troopship |
A ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Typically standard troopships cannot land troops directly on shore, loading and unloading at a seaport or onto smaller vessels. | 4 |
| Tug |
A boat or ship that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or towing them. | 4 |
| U-boat |
An english translation of the German word U-Boot, a shortened version of Unterseeboot, meaning 'undersea boat'. It is a German term referring to any submarine vessel. | 11 |
| Vorpostenboot |
A German patrol boat which served during both World Wars and were used around coastal areas and in coastal operations for coastal patrol, ship escort, and naval combat. Also known as VP-Boats, flakships or outpost boats. | 3 |
| Whaler |
A whaler or whaling ship is a specialised ship, designed for whaling and the catching and/or processing of whales. During wartime they can be converted for military use. | 4 |
