Naval ram
Encyclopedia
Bow (ship)
The bow is a nautical term that refers to the forward part of the hull of a ship or boat, the point that is most forward when the vessel is underway. Both of the adjectives fore and forward mean towards the bow...
of the ship to form an armoured beak, usually between six and twelve feet (2–4 m) in length. This would be driven into the hull of an enemy ship in order to puncture the hull and sink, or at least disable, that ship.
Ancient rams
The ram was a naval weapon in the GreekAncient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
/Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
antiquity and was used in such naval battles as Salamis
Battle of Salamis
The Battle of Salamis was fought between an Alliance of Greek city-states and the Persian Empire in September 480 BCE, in the straits between the mainland and Salamis, an island in the Saronic Gulf near Athens...
and Actium
Battle of Actium
The Battle of Actium was the decisive confrontation of the Final War of the Roman Republic. It was fought between the forces of Octavian and the combined forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII. The battle took place on 2 September 31 BC, on the Ionian Sea near the city of Actium, at the Roman...
. Naval warfare in the Mediterranean rarely used sails, and the use of naval rams specifically required oarsmen over sails in order to maneuver with accuracy and speed, and particularly to reverse the movement of a ramming ship to disentangle it from its sinking victim, lest it be pulled down when its victim sank. The Athenians were especially known for their diekplus and periplus tactics that disabled enemy ships with speed and ramming techniques.
Naval rams were first recorded in use at the battle of Alalia
Battle of Alalia
The naval Battle of Alalia took place between 540 BC and 535 BC off the coast of Corsica between Greeks and the allied Etruscans and Carthaginians...
in 535 BC. There is evidence available to suggest that it existed much earlier, probably even before the 8th century BC. They appear first on stylized images found on Greek pottery and jewelry and on Assyrian reliefs and paintings. The naval ram most likely evolved from cutwaters, structures designed to support the keel-stem joint and allow for greater speed and dynamism in the water.
Many other historical vessels were used as rams, such as the Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
n Turtle ship
Turtle ship
The Turtle ship, also known as Geobukseon or Kobukson , was a type of large warship belonging to the Panokseon class in Korea that was used intermittently by the Royal Korean Navy during the Joseon Dynasty from the early 15th century up until the 19th century.The first references to older, first...
.
The Athlit Ram
The Athlit ram, found in 1980 off of the coast of Israel near Atlit, is the only known surviving ancient naval ram. Carbon 14 dating of timber remnants date it to between 530 BC and 270 BC.Rams were thought to be one of the main weapons of war galleys after c. 700 BC, and the Athlit ram's construction implies advanced technology that was developed over a long period of time. Heavy timbers were shaped and attached to the hull, and then the bronze ram was created to fit around the timbers for added strength. The evidence for this lies in the remnants of timbers found inside the Athlit ram when it was discovered. The blunt edge of the ram and the patterned protrusion was intended to break open the seams of the target ship while at the same time dispersing the force of impact impact on the attacking ship to prevent the ram from twisting off and damaging the attacking ship. It was also less likely to get stuck in the hull of its target.
The Athlit ram consists of a single bronze casting weighing 465 kilograms (1,025.1 lb). It is 226 centimetres (89 in) long with a maximum width of 76 centimetres (29.9 in) and a maximum height of 96 centimetres (37.8 in). The bronze that makes up the shell is a high quality alloy containing 9.78% tin with traces of lead and other elements. The shell was cast as a single piece to fit the timbers it protects perfectly. The casting of an object as large as the Athlit ram was a complicated operation at the time, and would have been a considerable expense in the construction of a war galley.
The ram can be separated into three parts, the driving center, the bottom plate, and the cowl. The driving center is 30 centimetres (11.8 in) long and 76 centimetres (29.9 in) wide. This is the area of the ram that makes contact with enemy vessels in battle. The front wall of the head of the ram has the thickest layer of casting at 6.8 centimetres (2.7 in) for extra protection during battle. The surface of the ram was decorated with several symbols. On each side, an eagle head, a helmet, and an eight point star. These symbols are similar in dimension, but contain many inconsistencies with each other, suggesting that they were made from the same mold. The ram has a handle depicting a tri-form thunderbolt..It is attached with mortise and tenon
Mortise and tenon
The mortise and tenon joint has been used for thousands of years by woodworkers around the world to join pieces of wood, mainly when the adjoining pieces connect at an angle of 90°. In its basic form it is both simple and strong. Although there are many joint variations, the basic mortise and tenon...
joints and strengthened with 15 millimetre (0.590551181102362 in) oak pegs. The wale
Wale
A wale is a broad, thick plank around the outside of a wooden ship.The garboard is the wale next to the keel; the gunwale is the top such plank and covers the heads of the timbers between the main and fore drifts....
s and the ramming timber are designed to interlock for extra strength. The bottom of the ram features a mortise cut into the ramming timber to fit the most forward end of the keel which was formed into a 4 centimetres (1.6 in) thick and 10 centimetres (3.9 in) long tenon.
Steam rams
With the development of steam propulsion, the speed, power, and maneuverability it allowed again raised the idea of using the ship's hull, which could be clad in iron, as an offensive weapon. As early as 1840, the French admiral Nicolas-Hippolyte Labrousse proposed building a ram steamship, and by 1860, Dupuy de LômeHenri Dupuy de Lôme
Stanislas Charles Henri Dupuy de Lôme was a French naval architect. He was the son of a naval officer and was born in Ploemeur near Lorient, Brittany, in western France. He was educated at the École Polytechnique...
had designed an ironclad with a ram. The quick success of the CSS Virginias
CSS Virginia
CSS Virginia was the first steam-powered ironclad warship of the Confederate States Navy, built during the first year of the American Civil War; she was constructed as a casemate ironclad using the raised and cut down original lower hull and steam engines of the scuttled . Virginia was one of the...
ramming attack on the USS Cumberland
USS Cumberland (1842)
The first USS Cumberland was a 50-gun sailing frigate of the United States Navy. She was the first ship sunk by the ironclad CSS Virginia....
at the Battle of Hampton Roads
Battle of Hampton Roads
The Battle of Hampton Roads, often referred to as either the Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack or the Battle of Ironclads, was the most noted and arguably most important naval battle of the American Civil War from the standpoint of the development of navies...
in 1862 attracted much attention and caused many navies to re-think the ram. The first coastal battleship, France's Taureau, was built in 1863 for the purpose of attacking warships at anchor or in narrow straits, and was armed with a ram. Many ironclad ships were designed specifically to ram opponents; in ships of this type, the armour belt
Belt armor
Belt armor is a layer of heavy metal armor plated on to or within outer hulls of warships, typically on battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers, and on aircraft carriers converted from those types of ships....
was prolonged to brace both sides of the ram to increase structural integrity. Several wooden steamships were purpose-built as rams, or converted from existing commercial vessels, such as the General Price, pictured to the right.
The theory behind the revival of the weapon derived from the fact that, in the period around 1860, armour
Armour
Armour or armor is protective covering used to prevent damage from being inflicted to an object, individual or a vehicle through use of direct contact weapons or projectiles, usually during combat, or from damage caused by a potentially dangerous environment or action...
held superiority over the ship-mounted cannon
Naval artillery
Naval artillery, or naval riflery, is artillery mounted on a warship for use in naval warfare. Naval artillery has historically been used to engage either other ships, or targets on land; in the latter role it is currently termed naval gunfire fire support...
. It was believed that an armoured warship could not be seriously damaged by the naval artillery in existence at the time, even at close range. In order to achieve a decisive result in a naval engagement, therefore, alternative methods of action were believed to be necessary. As it followed, from the same belief, that a ship armed with a ram could not be seriously damaged by the gunfire of its intended victim, the ram became, for a brief period, the main armament of many battleships. It was observed that the guns placed on the Taureau were there "with the sole function of preparing the way for the ram."
Battle of Lissa (1866)
The Battle of Lissa took place on 20 July 1866 in the Adriatic Sea near the Dalmatian island of Lissa and was a decisive victory for an outnumbered Austrian Empire force over a superior Italian force...
and, to a lesser extent, at the Battle of Iquique
Battle of Iquique
The Battle of Iquique was a confrontation that occurred on May 21, 1879, during the naval stage of the War of the Pacific, a conflict between Chile and Peru and Bolivia. The battle took place off the, by then, Peruvian port of Iquique...
also led to many late nineteenth century naval designers equipping their warships with ram bows. This only really aggravated a number of incidents of ships being sunk by their squadron-mates in accidental collisions as ramming never featured as a viable battle tactic again. The fixation on ramming may also have inhibited the development of gunnery.
When it became clear, towards the end of the nineteenth century, that breech-loading cannon could hit, and hit effectively, enemy ships at several thousand yards range, the ineffectiveness of the ram became clear and ships ceased to be fitted with them.
No other ironclad was ever sunk by an enemy ship in time of war by the use of the ram, although the ram was regarded by all major navies for some thirty years as primary battleship armament. A number of ships were, however, rammed in peacetime by ships of their own navy. The most serious in terms of loss of life was the collision between HMS Victoria
HMS Victoria (1887)
HMS Victoria was the lead ship in her class of two battleships of the Royal Navy. On 22 June 1893, she collided with near Tripoli, Lebanon during manoeuvres and quickly sank, taking 358 crew with her, including the commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon...
and HMS Camperdown
HMS Camperdown (1885)
HMS Camperdown was an Admiral-class battleship of the Royal Navy, named after Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan of Camperdown.She was a full sister to , and was an improved version of the earlier and . In comparison to these earlier ships, she had an increased thickness of barbette armour, and a...
, which took place in the Mediterranean in 1893.
Twentieth Century
During both world wars, there were a number of occasions when surfaced submarines were rammed and sunk by surface ships. If successful, such an attack could cut the submarine in two, such as the 1914 sinking of theU-15Unterseeboot 15 (1912)
SM U-15 was one of the three Type U 13 gasoline-powered U-boats produced by the German Empire for the Kaiserliche Marine. On 9 August 1914, U-15 became the first U-boat loss to an enemy warship after it was rammed by British light cruiser HMS Birmingham.Constructed by Kaiserliche Werft Danzig, U-15...
by HMS Birmingham
HMS Birmingham (1913)
HMS Birmingham was lead ship of the Birmingham group of three ships of the "Town" class of light cruisers built by the Royal Navy. Her sister ships were and...
. The only battleship over submarine victory in history occurred during World War 1, when the battleship HMS Dreadnought
HMS Dreadnought (1906)
HMS Dreadnought was a battleship of the British Royal Navy that revolutionised naval power. Her entry into service in 1906 represented such a marked advance in naval technology that her name came to be associated with an entire generation of battleships, the "dreadnoughts", as well as the class of...
rammed and sank a German U-Boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
. However, U-boats were strongly built to resist water pressure at depth so the ramming ship could be badly damaged by the attack. This happened to , which floundered in 1918 after sinking the U-boat . In March 1943, the destroyer was badly damaged after ramming the U-444. She was sunk by another U-boat the next day as she sat helpless, without working engines.
Ramming attacks during the Second World War, included the ramming of the U-405 by the USS Borie
USS Borie (DD-215)
USS Borie was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War II. She was the first ship named for Ulysses S. Grant's Secretary of the Navy, Adolph E. Borie...
. The U-boat was not critically damaged and there followed a small-arms battle between the vessels as they were locked together and the U-boat was too close for the Borie to bring her main guns to bear. The submarine eventually sank but the Borie was too badly damaged by the ramming to be salvaged, so she was abandoned and deliberately sunk by Allied forces.
Other submarines sunk by ramming included the U-100 the U-224, the U-655, the Italian submarines Tembien and Cobalto, and the Royal Navy submarine HMS Cachalot
HMS Cachalot (N83)
HMS Cachalot was one of the six ship class of Grampus-class mine-laying submarine of the Royal Navy. She was built at Scotts, Greenock and launched 2 December 1937. She served in World War II in home waters and the Mediterranean...
.
As ramming was the only weapon available to unarmed merchant ships, there were a number of occasions when they attempted to ram U-boats. In 1915 the attempted, but failed, to ram the SM U-33
SM U-33
SM U-33 was a German Type U 31 U-boat of the Kaiserliche Marine.-SS Brussels:On 28 March 1916, U-33 ordered the Great Eastern Railway's to stop...
. Her captain, Charles Fryatt
Charles Fryatt
Charles Algernon Fryatt was a British mariner who attempted to ram a German U-boat in 1915. His ship, the was captured by the Germans in 1916. When it became clear who he was, Fryatt was court-martialled and executed, although he was a civilian. There was international outrage following his...
, was captured by the Germans a year later. He was court-martialed and executed as they considered his act to be that of a franc-tireur. The French steamer Molière sank the U-boat SM UC-36
SM UC-36
SM UC-36 was a German Type UC II minelaying submarine or U-boat in the German Imperial Navy during World War I. The U-boat was ordered on 20 November 1915 and was launched on 5 June 1916...
in 1917. In May 1918 the SM UC-78
SM UC-78
SM UC-78 was a German Type UC II minelaying submarine or U-boat in the German Imperial Navy during World War I. The U-boat was ordered on 12 January 1916 and was launched on 8 December 1916...
was sunk by the steamer, Queen Alexandra and the rammed and sank the U-103.
During World War 2, the U-46 was struck by the British tanker, SS Ensis. The submarine survived the ramming but had to return to port for repair.
Torpedo ram
Torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval vessel designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs rammed enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes, and later designs launched self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. They were created to counter battleships and other large, slow and...
combining a ram with torpedo
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...
tubes. Incorporating design elements from the cruiser
Cruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...
and the monitor
Monitor (warship)
A monitor was a class of relatively small warship which was neither fast nor strongly armoured but carried disproportionately large guns. They were used by some navies from the 1860s until the end of World War II, and saw their final use by the United States Navy during the Vietnam War.The monitors...
, it was intended to provide a small and inexpensive weapon systems for coastal defence and other littoral combat.
Like monitors, torpedo rams operated with very little freeboard, sometimes with only inches of hull rising above the water, exposing only their funnels and turrets to enemy fire. In addition to the guns in their turrets, they were also equipped with torpedoes. Early designs incorporated a spar torpedo
Spar torpedo
A spar torpedo is a weapon consisting of a bomb placed at the end of a long pole, or spar, and attached to a boat. The weapon is used by running the end of the spar into the enemy ship. Spar torpedoes were often equipped with a barbed spear at the end, so it would stick to wooden hulls...
that could be extended from the bow and detonated by ramming a target. Later designs used tube-launched self-propelled torpedo
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...
es, but retained the concept of ramming, resulting in designs like HMS Polyphemus
HMS Polyphemus (1881)
The third HMS Polyphemus was a Royal Navy torpedo ram, serving from 1881 until 1903. A shallow-draft, fast, low-profile vessel, she was designed to penetrate enemy harbours at speed and sink anchored ships. Designed by Nathaniel Barnaby primarily as a protected torpedo boat, the ram was provided...
, which had five torpedo tubes, two each port and starboard and one mounted in the centre of her reinforced ram bow.
Civilian use
Naval rams have also been used on civilian vessels.The Seattle fireboat Duwamish, built in 1909, was designed to ram wooden vessels, as a last resort.
See also
- Ramming at sea warfare
- Rostral columnRostral columnA rostral column is a type of victory column, originating in ancient Greece and Rome where they were erected to commemorate a naval military victory. Traditionally, rostra — the prows or rams of captured ships — were mounted on the columns...
, commemorative columns adorned with rams - RostraRostraThe Rōstra was a large platform built in the city of Rome that stood during the republican and imperial periods. Speakers would stand on the rostra and face the north side of the comitium towards the senate house and deliver orations to those assembled in between...
, speaker's platforms adorned with rams