Imperial Japanese Navy armoured cruiser Asama, Wellington, New Zealand, 1920s.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_cruiser_Asama

German predreadnought battleships: SMS Hessen taken from SMS Elsass.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Elsass
Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Hessen

Courbet-class French battleship Jean Bart, early 1925.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_battleship_Jean_Bart_(1911)

Italian predreadnought battleship Sicilia.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_battleship_Sicilia

Argentine Navy battleship Moreno, Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York City, October 1914.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARA_Moreno

Battleship HMS Monarch, Newcastle upon Tyne, November 6th 1911.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Monarch_(1911)

Battleship USS Colorado, New York City, circa 1932.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Colorado_(BB-45)

Imperial Russian Navy predreadnought battleship Oryol (Orel), Krondstadt harbour, 1904.

Oryol was the only modern Russian battleship to survive the Battle of Tsushima.
Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Oryol

Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Yamashiro, trial launch of a naval aircraft from B turret, 1921-1922.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Yamashiro

German light cruiser SMS Bremen in 1907.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Bremen

French cruiser Dupuy de Lôme, the first armoured cruiser, Brest arsenal drydock, early 1890s.

The French navy suffered major defeats at the hands of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic wars and subsequently looked for ways to remedy its inferiority. It was thought initially that steam power and iron-plated ships could equalize the field through 'quality over quantity' but the British naval industry soon built ships with those same qualities and at a much faster rate, so this proved to be a blind alley. During the latter decades of the 19th century, officers of the so-called Jeune Ecole devised a strategy called Guerre de Course, according to which the best way to defeat Great Britain was to destroy its merchant fleet and isolate the British Isles from trade and from the resources of its colonies. As a result, France began to build a series of powerful commerce raiders, fast enough to evade the battleships of the time but with strong enough armament and armour to overcome cruisers and smaller vessels.

Dupuy de Lôme was the first of this new breed of warship, the armoured cruiser.


Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_cruiser_Dupuy_de_Lôme

Italian battleship Andrea Doria in dry dock, Taranto, 1954.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_battleship_Andrea_Doria_(1913)

Argentine battleship Rivadavia, New York, August 6th 1913.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARA_Rivadavia

Dido-class light cruiser HMS Argonaut arriving in Malta, 1944.

She is missing her upper forward (Q) turret that was removed at the Tyne shipyard in January-February 1944 to lessen top weight (see reference below).
Class details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dido_class_cruiser
Ship service history: http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-06CL-Argonaut.htm

Birdseye view of the battleship USS Missouri in Norfolk, 1951.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Missouri_(BB-63)

Ships of the Imperial Russian Navy Far East Fleet (First Pacific Squadron) anchored at Port Arthur before the Russo-Japanese War.

War details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_War

Imperial Japanese Navy armoured cruiser Yakumo.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_cruiser_Yakumo

German heavy cruiser/pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee, Spithead, May 1937.

Also at the Grand Naval Review for the coronation of King George VI.
Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_cruiser_Admiral_Graf_Spee

French battlecruiser/fast battleship Dunkerque, Spithead, May 1937.

At the Grand Naval Review for the coronation of King George VI.
Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_battleship_Dunkerque

Italian light cruiser Alberto da Giussano, 1930s.

A very fast ship with a nominal maximum speed of 37 knots, she reportedly reached 42 knots during testing but was limited to 33 knots under full load, and and this at the cost of very limited protection (which was corrected somewhat in later ships of the class). On her catapult, you can see a CANT 25AR scout seaplane.
Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_cruiser_Alberto_da_Giussano
Plane details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANT_25

Battleship HMS Royal Oak departing the Grand Harbour, Valetta, Malta, circa 1937.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Royal_Oak_(08)

Nuclear-powered guided-missile cruiser USS Long Beach.

Long Beach was the world's first nuclear-powered surface warship. As designed, she was also the first warship destined to have an armament consisting solely of guided missiles, however two 5"/38cal turrets were added amidships in 1962-1963 for shore bombardment and/or antiaircraft closer-range defense (these guns had very limited arcs of fire due to their position on the vessel). Two Phalanx close-in weapon systems can be seen and the superstructure lacks the so-called billboard radars, so the photo must postdate Long Beach's 1980-1983 conversion.
Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Long_Beach_(CGN-9)

German predreadnought battleship SMS Weissenburg.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Weissenburg

Full-scale replica of the Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Nagato built from the original plans for the 1970 movie Tora! Tora! Tora!

Reference: http://www.daveswarbirds.com/tora/Japanese.htm

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Nagato

Imperial Russian Navy armoured cruiser Gromoboi during her 1901 visit to Australia.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_cruiser_Gromoboi

Austro-Hungarian predreadnought battleship SMS Babenberg.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Babenberg

French light cruiser Lamotte-Picquet in Taikoo dry dock, Hong Kong, April 2nd-3rd 1939.

To tighten up her rudder and examine some of her turbines. Afterwards she departed for Vietnam.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_cruiser_La_Motte-Picquet

Unfinished Italian battleship Littorio, Genoa, December 1938.

Ship details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_battleship_Littorio

Battlecruiser HMS Princess Royal.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Princess_Royal_(1911)

Light cruiser USS Duluth, May 17th 1947.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Duluth_(CL-87)

German light cruiser Karlsruhe circa 1930.

One of the photos on the Wikipedia page shows the exact same ship orientation & configuration, along with the same sea waves, but with a markedly different cloud pattern. Obviously the background was altered in one of those (probably the one I used for this blog, though it had a higher resolution), I'm guessing for use as a postcard.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_cruiser_Karlsruhe

Birdseye view of the Imperial Japanese Navy Mogami class light-heavy cruiser Suzuya.

This is while she had triple 155 mm (6.1-inch) turrets, up to 1939, and was thus a light cruiser. Later she was re-armed with with twin 203 mm (8-inch) guns, like her sister ships of the the Mogami class, and became a true heavy cruiser.
Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_cruiser_Suzuya_(1934)

Imperial Russian Navy predreadnought battleship Georgii Pobedonosets in Sevastopol, 1890.

She had an unusual arrangement for her main armament, with two forward turrets located on each side of the bridge and a single centrally-located turret aft. Unlike the other three, earlier, vessels in her class, which had compound armour made of iron and steel, Georgii Pobedonosets's armour consisted solely of steel.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Georgii_Pobedonosets

French central battery and barbette ironclad Le Redoutable in 1889.

She was the first warship in the world to be built mainly of steel rather than iron. You can see one of her 10.6" breech loaders in the aft barbette near her stern flag pole.


Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ironclad_Redoutable

Stern view of the battleship HMS Dreadnought in drydock.

 Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Dreadnought_(1906)

Giuseppe Garibaldi class Italian armoured cruiser Varese.

Class details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Garibaldi_class_cruiser

Armstrong 100-ton gun being lowered on board of the Italian transport ship Europa, United Kingdom, probably 1870s.

This was a 17.72" muzzle loader as seen on the Duilio & Dandolo Italian predreadnought battleships, the so-called 'monster gun' that defined a short-lived era of battleship construction.
Gun details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100-ton_gun

The USS Missouri arrives at Long Beach harbour, 1951.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Missouri_(BB-63)

German battlecruiser Gneisenau.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_battleship_Gneisenau

Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Mutsu.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Mutsu

Imperial Russian Navy predreadnought battleship Knyaz Suvorov, 1901-1904.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Knyaz_Suvorov

French predreadnought battleship Saint Louis, early 1900s.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_battleship_Saint_Louis

Battleship HMS Valiant in floating dock at Invergordon, late 1918 or 1919.

Quote from http://www.theinvergordonarchive.org/picture/number1462.asp:

"The gun tampions have a cockerel emblem confirming that she is H.M.S. Valiant. The flying-off platforms were fitted to the ‘B’ and ‘X’ turrets in 1918 so the date of this picture is either late 1918 or 1919."


Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Valiant_(1914)

Unidentified US battleship being very wet forward.

Italian battleships Conte di Cavour and Giulio Cesare, Napoli, 1938.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conte_di_Cavour_class_battleship
Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_battleship_Giulio_Cesare

Postcard featuring the German predreadnought battleship SMS Deutschland passing the Levensau High Bridge on the Kiel Canal.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Deutschland_(1904)

Imperial Japanese Navy heavy cruiser Ashigara prior to the Spithead Coronation Fleet Review, May 19th 1937.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_cruiser_Ashigara

French coast defense predreadnought battleship Jemmapes in Toulon.

Note the turtledeck/whaleback bow and the two single large guns.
Ship details: http://www.cityofart.net/bship/fr_jemmapes.html

Forward main guns on the Russian battleship Parizhskaya Kommuna (Paris Commune) circa 1940.

Ship details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Sevastopol_(1911)