The most powerful ship... ...in the WORLD.

Saphroneth

Banned
In Clarksonian vein, this is a look at what ships can be honestly said to be the most powerful ships in the world at a given time.

Three examples.

HMS Devastation was the most powerful ship in the world when launched, and for the next dozen years at least.

HMS Dreadnought was the most powerful ship in the world when launched, but quickly rendered obsolete.

And the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) was when built the world's only nuclear carrier and largest (super!)carrier, so was in fact the most powerful ship in the world.

Any others?
 

Redbeard

Banned
Certainly not the Iowas, they were fast and well armed battleships, but still battleships in an age of airpower, and not particularly well protected. Iowa would not be chanceless vs. Yamato (due to the 2700 lbs 16" shell) but is herself at least as vulnerable to Yamato's 18" shells. Heavier broadside weight and larger displacement is most likely to have Yamato overwhelm an Iowa. The superior radar of Iowa will only tell in very low visibility, but that would fit for any allied warship.

I would add HMS Warrior to the list though, she was something back in her days.

Or the 17th Century 3-decker Royal Sovereign?

Or the Longboat (Viking ship) for some centuries (8th to 11th Century)?
 
In Clarksonian vein, this is a look at what ships can be honestly said to be the most powerful ships in the world at a given time.

Three examples.

HMS Devastation was the most powerful ship in the world when launched, and for the next dozen years at least.

HMS Dreadnought was the most powerful ship in the world when launched, but quickly rendered obsolete.

And the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) was when built the world's only nuclear carrier and largest (super!)carrier, so was in fact the most powerful ship in the world.

Any others?

SSBNs are more powerful than CVNs. We're talking brute force (power) and obliterating large Nations with one salvo is power...
 

Saphroneth

Banned
Certainly not the Iowas, they were fast and well armed battleships, but still battleships in an age of airpower, and not particularly well protected. Iowa would not be chanceless vs. Yamato (due to the 2700 lbs 16" shell) but is herself at least as vulnerable to Yamato's 18" shells. Heavier broadside weight and larger displacement is most likely to have Yamato overwhelm an Iowa. The superior radar of Iowa will only tell in very low visibility, but that would fit for any allied warship.

I would add HMS Warrior to the list though, she was something back in her days.

Or the 17th Century 3-decker Royal Sovereign?

Or the Longboat (Viking ship) for some centuries (8th to 11th Century)?

The reason I mention Iowa's RADAR is that she can use it to radar-spot fall of shot, this is a huge advantage.
 
This is really a question for the Industrial Revolution Age, since during the Age of Sail, superiority was almost always more dependent on the quality of the crew and officers than on ship design.

Two further points: 1) there are some points in time when there is no one ship with a clear superiority over all others; 2) The nuclear age begins to change the comparability equation, with the advent of ships that are now strategic rather than tactical weapons in a way never conceivable before.

1859-1860 The French Navy launches the first ocean-going ironclad, the Gloire - it likely could have reduced any ship afloat to kindling.
1860-1862 HMS Warrior (followed by her sister ship, Black Prince). The profusion of American littoral ironclads did not take the title away, but certainly reduced the level of Warrior's superiority
1871-1888 HMS Devastation-class (2 ships)
1888-1906 HMS Advent of the Admiral-class commences a series of pre-dreadnought battleships with only marginal improvements over each other

1906-1909 HMS Dreadnought

1909-1914 With the advent of new British, German and American dreadnoughts, the picture becomes less clear until the super dreadnoughts arrive on the scene. At that point, the Queen Elizabeth class takes the lead, with its 24 knot speed and 15 inch guns - but I would argue that the Bayern class steals the title, marginally, the following year, since there was really only about a one knot difference under QE's war load, and the Bayerns had better protection and subdivisions, and of course fired better shells. It's a close call, however, especially when you factor in Royal Navy director firing.

After World War I, it's a muddle again. The general assumption seemed to be that HMS Hood - call it a battlecruiser, call it a fast battleship - was the queen of the seas.Certainly she was the biggest ship, and she was fast; but she also had her protection issues, as we know. Was she more than a match for a Colorado class or Nagato class (especially a reconstructed one)? Certainly her much greater speed would have been an advantage. I think it's a close call, and it's hard to say she's in a Devastation or Dreadnought class of peerlessness in the interwar years.

By World War II, it's even more muddled with the advent of mature aircraft carriers, though this was not clear at first. I agree with CombinedFleet's conclusion that the Iowa class was the best all-around battleship of World War II, and that they could have taken any other single battleship, even Yamato, in an even match - but of course none had much of a chance against a British, American or Japanese fleet carrier with a topnotch air group. All I'm prepared to say is that the Midway-class had the most powerful ships by war's end, though that has a lot to do with the planes they flew. Comparing carriers is often as much an exercise in comparing air groups as it is the ships themselves.

That's the situation until the late 1950's, when we see the advent of American supercarriers and ballistic missile submarines. Now you have a new kind of ship, the ballistic missile submarine, that is something new - it's not intended for attacking other ships, but attacking strategic national assets. How do you compare that to another warship? Certainly an SSBN *could* retarget its missiles to attack, say, a carrier group, but that wasn't their real mission. And of course carriers began taking on nuclear gravity bombs themselves, becoming part of the U.S. nuclear SIOP eventually. I give the edge to Ohio class boomers over the Soviet Typhoons and Boreis.

It's hard to distinguish too heavily between American supercarriers, especially since they were constantly getting upgrades; but perhaps fair to say that the Nimitz-class has been the preeminent naval combatant since 1977.
 
Not Iowa

In Iowa's time, carriers were far more powerful, so she doesn't get the prize. La Gloire deserves the title, briefly, until Warrior came along--Dreadnought also.
 
SSBNs are more powerful than CVNs. We're talking brute force (power) and obliterating large Nations with one salvo is power...

Thing is, though, SSBN's are not really meant to fight other warships, but to attack stationary strategic targets. It's hard to compare them in the way you'd compare traditional warship types. They're something entirely new and unprecedented.

An Ohio class boomer can eviscerate a great power in an afternoon, which is a terrifying kind of power we've never seen before in human history. But she's not really designed to take on other warships - but rather, to hide from them.
 
Certainly not the Iowas, they were fast and well armed battleships, but still battleships in an age of airpower, and not particularly well protected. Iowa would not be chanceless vs. Yamato (due to the 2700 lbs 16" shell) but is herself at least as vulnerable to Yamato's 18" shells. Heavier broadside weight and larger displacement is most likely to have Yamato overwhelm an Iowa. The superior radar of Iowa will only tell in very low visibility, but that would fit for any allied warship.

Except of course for the Battle of Samar, where the Americans had an accuracy edge even in good weather. Radars plus automatically controlled guns gives a pretty big accuracy advantage, and those 5'38" 's told against some much bigger ships.
 
Except of course for the Battle of Samar, where the Americans had an accuracy edge even in good weather. Radars plus automatically controlled guns gives a pretty big accuracy advantage, and those 5'38" 's told against some much bigger ships.

Radars are a huge advantage for American battleships, especially from 1943 onwards.
 
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