WARSHIPS

Bismarck was the first of two Bismarck-class battleships built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. Named after Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the ship was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in July 1936 and launched in February 1939. Work was completed in August 1940, when she was commissioned into the German fleet. Bismarck and her sister ship Tirpitz were the most advance ships of WWII and the largest battleships ever built by Germany, and two of the largest built by any European power.

Chen Yuen or Zhenyuan was a Chinese Peiyang Fleet turret ship of the 19th century. Her sister ship was the Dingyuan. Built with 14-inch (360 mm) thick armour and modern Krupp guns, they were superior to any in the Imperial Japanese Navy at the time. Zhenyuan was built by Stettiner Vulcan AG, in Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland). The hull was laid down in March 1882, she was launched on 28 November 1882 and started her sea trials in March 1884.

The Z30 Zerstörer  is part of the 1936A-class destroyers, or Narvik-class destroyers as they were known to the Allies, were a class of German destroyers of the Second World War. In common with other German destroyers launched after the start of World War II, the Narviks were unnamed, known only by their hull numbers - Z23 to Z39.

The Yamato is the largest Battleship ever constructed in the history of naval warfare, and together with the Bismarck they are probably the most famous of all. She was comissioned exactly 71 years ago, on Dec 16, 1941, just after the pacific war had commenced, and was sunk on April 7, 1945 by the americans on her final voyage to Okinawa. It is amazing that her name was NEVER publicized during this period and so her brief combat career came to pass without the general Japanese public ever knowing of her existence at all.

The Tachikaze-class destroyers' weapon systems include the Standard surface-to-air missile, anti-submarine rockets, the RGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missile, two Mark 15 20-mm Phalanx CIWS gun mounts, two torpedo mounts in a triple-tube configuration, and two 5-inch/54 caliber Mark 42 rapid-fire guns.

Originally planned to be the third Fusō-class battleship, experience gained in the construction of  that class revealed a number of design issues, including weak armament and protection, which forced a redesign and new classification. Ise was laid down at the Kawasaki Heavy Industries shipyard in Kobe on 1915/5/5, and even thought she suffer many upgrades she never saw combat as a battleship.

USCG Hamilton (WHEC-715) IS A U.S. Coast Guard high endurance cutter based out of San Diego, California. Launched December 18, 1965 at Avondale Shipyards near New Orleans, Louisiana and named for Alexander Hamilton the first United States Secretary of the Treasury and founder of the United States Revenue Cutter service. She was commissioned March 18, 1967

Myōkō 妙高 was the name-ship of the four-member Myōkō class of heavy cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The ships of this class displaced 13,300 tons, were 204 metres long, and were capable of 36 knots (67 km/h). They carried two floatplanes and their main armament was ten 8-inch (203mm) guns, the heaviest armament of any cruiser in the world at the time.