Armaments & Innovations

The USS Nevada’s pre-modernization triple-gun turret beneath her super-firing dual-gun turret.

The U.S. Navy’s Three-Gun Turrets

The ultimate expression of the Navy’s three-gun turret design came in 1940 with the Iowa class.

Andrew K. Blackley

June 2025

The Battle of Lepanto, 7 October 1571, was the last great sea battle involving galleys and one of the first in which marines played a critical role.

By Sea, By Land: Making Marines

In the early days of naval warfare, there was no distinction between land-based and sea-based soldiers. Most naval battles were resolved by direct combat between the crews, either by firing ...

Philip K. Allan

March 2025

Antiaircraft guns firing on board the USS Wasp (CV-18) in December 1944. The USS Yorktown (CV-10) is in the background. Note the Mk 14 gyroscopic reflector sights visible on top of the guns.

Inside the Mk 14 Gyroscopic Gunsight

In the first decades of the 20th century, the emerging technology of naval aviation was seen as a revolution in naval warfare.

January 2025

The Battle of Mobile Bay included action by numerous Federal and Confederate ironclads equipped with shell-firing cannon. The Civil War demonstrated that the era of roundshot and wooden men-of-war was coming to a close.

From Shot to Shell: General Paixhans’ Revolutionary Artillery

The Pastry War, a brief conflict between France and Mexico, was so named because it was triggered by the ill-treatment of French citizens, one of them a pastry chef.

Philip K. Allan

December 2024

Thrust blocks are specialized bearings that transmit thrust from the propeller shaft to the ship’s hull. The large horseshoe thrust block comprises a set of Michell thrust pads, like those on the 1,000-ton cargo steamship SS Orchy in 1930. The single large gold-colored pad is a wooden model of one of the pads fitted to the battlecruiser HMS Hood.

The Kingsbury-Michell Thrust Bearing

Innovations in naval warfare are not only new weapon systems and sensors.

Andrew K. Blackley

September 2024

A construction model of a ship-of-the-line that shows many of Seppings’ innovations: Seppings blocks and shoring beneath, diagonal bracing in the upper level of the bow, and a rounded bow and stern.

The Father of Age-of-Sail Shipbuilding Innovation

Shipbuilding innovations evolved slowly in the 18th century. New naval architects started their careers apprenticed to shipwrights who used methods of construction unchanged for decades.

July 2024

Innovation in design soon made Hotchkiss and Driggs-Schroeder guns obsolete for first-line warships. The weapons were relegated to service with patrol boats and small craft. An example can be seen here at the bow of the tug USS Tacoma in 1898.

The Hotchkiss and Driggs-Schroeder Rapid-Firing Guns

It did not take long for the weaponeers to come up with a cost-effective solution to this gunboat threat: rapid-firing small-caliber guns with enough hitting power and range to cripple ...

June 2024