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Navy General Board

Home of Naval History and News

Welcome to the home page of the Navy General Board website! This is your portal to all things navy, whether it be current events or historical topics. You can find a wide range of news stories or historical articles on the website. You can also connect with fellow readers on the website forum.

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History Articles

Navy General Board was created to help share all aspects of naval history from throughout the ages. Here you will find our collection of history articles. It has come a long way and has something for everyone. Take your time and browse them all!

The Q-ship hero – William Sanders, VC

The story of William Sanders (1883-1917) remains one of the most intriguing personal sea experiences of the First World War. His career, though brief, can best be described as outstanding: in quick succession he won first the Victoria Cross and then the Distinguished...

Sea Miner: A Civil War Rocket Torpedo

An article by Author Chuck Veit The torpedo launched perfectly, and ran “hot, straight, and normal” towards its target, its solidfuel pushing it along at over 130 mph. It took but a second and a half to cover the hundredyards—well within the six hundred yard range...

The largest class of battleships ever built: the Majestics. Part 1.

Britain's Majestic class of the 1890s was the largest class of battleships ever built. In many ways the nine-strong class symbolised the age. The names selected for them were redolent of the period, particularly the neo-classical revival that had become a British...

The origins of the Washington Treaty of 1922

It is a century since the world’s leading powers negotiated the ‘Washington Treaty’. This agreement of 6 February 1922 – called the ‘Five Power Treaty’ at the time[1] – required signatories to scrap numerous ships, including some as yet unfinished, dictated strict...

Did Admiral Sir John Fisher try to launch a battlecruiser revolution?

by Matthew Wright There is no question that Admiral Sir John Fisher, Britain's First Sea Lord from 1904 to 1910 and the effective head of the Admiralty, was instrumental in driving a sea-change in the nature of heavy warships. What has puzzled historians, though, is...

Why HMS New Zealand’s debt wasn’t cancelled until 1944-45

One of the many myths about the battlecruiser HMS New Zealand – the ship built as a gift from New Zealand to Britain in 1909 - is that she was unaffordable for a small Dominion of just under a million people. In the previous article I showed that this was simply not...

The Fastest Warships of World War 2

Do you have the need for speed? The warships in this article certainly do! We have previously done articles about the largest cruisers and the biggest battleships. For this article we are breaking the fastest warships of World War 2 based on class. We will examine the...

How the battlecruiser HMS New Zealand was paid for

One of the many mythologies surrounding the battlecruiser HMS New Zealand – the gift that the New Zealand government made to Britain in April 1909 – is that she was unaffordable. According to legend, New Zealand was too small to afford her, had no money and the ship...

Coal Torpedo : Secret Weapon of the Confederacy

Throughout the entirety of the American Civil War, the Confederate Navy was hopelessly outmatched by the Union Navy. Union warships enacted a blockade of the Confederate coast that placed a stranglehold on Confederate trade. Though they attempted to counter the might...

The other HMS Hood – Britain’s last turret ship

Mention HMS Hood and just one ship usually springs to mind. However, there was another HMS Hood, a battleship laid down for the Royal Navy in August 1889, which survived long enough to be given one last - and decisively final - role a few months after the outbreak of...

K Class vs. U.D.1

If you were to be asked what was large, metallic, mechanical and steam powered I would imagine your most likely answer would be that of a steam engine or train. But bizarrely in the late 18th century the "Old Man of Europe" the Ottoman Empire commissioned the British...

HMS Agincourt – The Gin Palace

HMS Agincourt, the one ship class dreadnought, was affectionately known amongst her crew as 'The Gin Palace', in a reference to her luxurious fittings and as a corruption of her name, 'A-Gin-Court', pink gin then being a popular drink amongst Royal Navy officers. She...

Myths about the Montana Class Super Battleships

A stretched Iowa with an extra turret. A ship designed to kill the Yamato class. Many myths surround the Montana class, the immensely powerful super battleships of the United States Navy. Designed to be larger and more powerful than any previous dreadnought, these...

HMS Vanguard: Britain’s Last and Greatest Battleship

Britain’s last, largest and fastest battleship, HMS Vanguard, was commissioned in May 1946.[1] She was technically the best battleship the British ever built, but was completed too late for the Second World War, never tested in combat, and entered service at a time of...

The First Soviet Nuclear Submarines

With the USA leading the way in submarines the Soviet Union had to catch up

News and Current Events

A relatively new addition to the Navy General Board website. While we remain focused on sharing history, we also want to examine naval current events that are occuring across the world. This section is still new, but more articles are coming. 

The Navy’s FFG(X) Program : Foreign and Domestic Options

The Navy has all but admitted that the Littoral Combat Ships are a flop. Therefore, they have started looking at potential ships to fulfill requirements for a new frigate design known as the FFG(X) Program. Make makes things interesting is that this time the US Navy...

Canada’s Next Generation Submarine

My own opinion and hypothesis on what class of submarine could become Canada’s next generation submarine

China’s Newest Warship : The Type 55 Destroyer

At a time when the United States Navy is struggling to determine the future of its Navy, China has been quietly building up its naval forces. The People’s Liberation Army Navy has risen to be the second largest navy in the world by tonnage. It’s not just quantity that...

Why China’s Island Bases are Not a Big Deal

Over the past few years, the media has made a big deal of the artificial island bases that China has built in the South China Sea. Several of these islands are well fortified, featuring harbors, airstrips, and formidable land-based weaponry. Some in the media have...

Want to go a little bit further than simply reading an aritcle? Interesting in writing your own and sharing it with Navy General Board? Check out our about us page for information on becoming a guest writer for the Navy General Board website! We are looking for both historical pieces and current events happening with navies across the World. 

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