Armored Battleships of the Industrial Eurasian Empires

[Garr]

Did you know that the empires of Asia and Europe already had armored ships as early as 208?

The first armored battleships were invented in 208 by Huang Gai during the Battle of Red Cliffs.

These ships were called Louchuan: war galleys that were armed with catapults and using a combination of oars and sails for propulsion.

The Louchuan of Huang Gai were covered with a combination of cow hides and iron plates to protect against incendiary weapons.

Huang Gai is also the inventor of the fireship, the first weapon of mass destruction, which are ships filled with burning oil that bursts into a large uncontrollable flame when the ship's wooden hull, which becomes brittle because of the fire burning it down, cracks open when it hits an enemy ship and spills the burning oil into the water.


Below are images of the Chinese Empire's armored Louchuan:






Below is an image of the fire ship:




Sources:

https://lujuba.cc/en/457364.html
https://daydaynews.cc/en/history/160737.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_s...ra,_first_uses

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Eventually, Chinese Prince Li Gao invented the animal driven paddle wheel in 784, then by 1129, the Chinese navy had invented gunpowder bombs for warship trebuchets, and engineer Qin Shifu invented the 1st fully iron plated sail and animal-driven paddle wheel powered battleship in 1203.


Below are images of Chinese sail and animal-driven paddle wheel powered ironclad battleships:






Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tangdao
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_..._ship_Tang_era
https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2009/1...e-wheel-ships/

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The Japanese Empire also constructed its own armored ships called Sekibune that had thick square wooden shields on the sides of the deck and a wooden house with a wooden or ceramic tile roof that the crew could hide in to avoid getting hit by enemy projectiles.


Below are images of the arrow firing ships used by the Japanese Empire called Sekibune:






Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dan-no-ura
http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~vaucher...scovery/Ships/

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The Viking Empire constructed the first armored ships in Europe called Longships which had sides of its hulls covered in large metal discs that act as a shield from enemy projectiles.

The Vikings introduced the following other innovations to make their navy the most powerful in Europe at that time:

Tacking - the ability to sail into a headwind by moving an adjustable triangular sail back and forth to catch the wind and push it back, generating a propulsive force that moves the ship.

Sun Compass - a compass where heading is determined by the position of the shadow cast by the sun on a wooden cylinder placed in the center of a dial with lines on its edges enabling navigators to determine the degree of inclination to north, south, east, and west.


Below is an image of a Viking Longship:




Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longship
https://www.amazon.com/Design-Toscan.../dp/B001R6HYXW

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Eventually, a Viking named Eric Hakkonson, Earl of Lade, Governor of Norway and Earl of Northumbria, invented the 1st ironclad ship in Europe called the Iron Ram which used bands of iron to strengthen the ship's hull. It was used successfully in the naval Battle of Svolder in 1000 and was instrumental in the conquest of England by Viking Emperor Canute the Great.


Below is a painting depicting the battle of ironclad black ships in Svolder:




Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eir%C3...%C3%A1konarson
https://alchetron.com/Eric-Haakonsson

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The other European empires such as the Kingdom of England, the French Empire and the 1st German Reich in Western Europe, and the empires of Moravia, Bulgaria and Georgia in Eastern Europe also constructed armored ships referred to as armored galleys.

These ships had castles on their decks, with thick wooden panels as armor plating, to protect the crew from enemy projectiles and these castles have ports in their walls and parapets so that the crew could fire crossbows, hand cannons and short barreled cannons called mortars.

Some of these armored galleys were also armed with flamethrowers and its decks covered by thick wooden panels constructed to form a triangular shape in order to make it easier to deflect enemy projectiles.

By the 1100s, these European Empires constructed larger armored ships with larger deck castles called armored cogs.

And by the 1400s, these European Empires, which now include Portugal and Spain, constructed even larger armored ships with even larger deck castles called armored galleons, many of which were already covered in lead or iron plates and armed with long barreled cannons called howitzers.


Below is an image of an armored galley armed with a flamethrower:




Below is an image of an armored galley:




Below is an image of an armored cog:




Below are images of armored galleons:






Below is an image of the Santa Maria, one of 3 armored black galleons used by Christopher Columbus in his expedition to the Americas:




Below is an image of Dorestad, one of Europe's industrial cities, filled with smoke from the blast furnaces and smokehouses:




Sources:

https://thelosttreasurechest.wordpre...-northern-cog/
http://morewordswork.blogspot.com/20...aftcastle.html
https://pixabay.com/photos/batavia-l...-dutch-855475/