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Old 05-13-08, 03:55 PM   #1
AntEater
Grey Wolf
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Germany
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Dang, forgot Lissa
Problem with the 19th century stuff is that the classifications were rather murky. You could classify Huascar as a gunboat, but in terms of relative power she was (is) a battleship. Same for Lissa: officially, nearly all vessels taking parts were steam "sloops" or "frigates" while the only ship of the line was unarmoured wooden SMS Kaiser. The frigates and sloops were of course much more powerful and better armed, but somehow there was a reluctance to call ironclads "ships of the line" until about 1890 or so.

Sometimes I ask myself wether we have approached the same situation right now with modern fighter aircraft:
- everybody has them, but they're hardly used for their intended purpose (fighting each other)
- they capture the imagination of writers
- the premier power using them (Royal Navy with Ironclads, USAF/USN with modern fighters) is so dominant that their opponents mostly leave theirs unused even in wartime.
- the most advanced technology available is used to build and develop them
- they're terribly expensive
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