The Strangest Naval Guns and Warship Designs Ever Built Explained

From a gunboat aimed by turning its rudder to a railgun that drew its energy from the ship's electrical plant, strange naval guns always placed their heaviest demands on the hull that carried them. This military-history documentary examines 18 unusual naval guns and warship designs, from a British flat-iron gunboat ready for sea in 1868 to an American electromagnetic railgun program paused in 2021. We cover HMS Staunch, HMS Captain, the circular Novgorod, HMS Temeraire's disappearing guns, HMS Thunderer's double-loaded gun, HMS Inflexible's diagonal turrets, the torpedo ram HMS Polyphemus, the pneumatic dynamite cruiser USS Vesuvius, HMS Victoria, the tumblehome battleship Bouvet, USS Kearsarge's superposed turrets, the seven-turret HMS Agincourt, the monitor HMS General Wolfe, the submarine HMS M1, Yamato's 46-cm guns, the Mark 71 8-inch gun on USS Hull, the Zumwalt-class Advanced Gun System, and the US Navy electromagnetic railgun. Some ideas survived in altered form: the open barbette, the superfiring layout, the torpedo boat, and breech loading all grew out of flawed designs. Others were dead ends, including the circular hull, the pneumatic battery, and the gun-armed submarine. Captain, Victoria and Bouvet showed that firepower meant nothing once stability failed, while the Mark 71 and the Advanced Gun System worked but had no practical way to be used. The hull was never just a platform. It was the first part of the weapon. Which problem was harder to solve: a hull that could not stay upright, like Captain and Bouvet, or a gun the navy could not afford or deploy to use, like the Mark 71 and the Advanced Gun System? #MilitaryHistory #NavalHistory #Warships