A gunboat is literally a boat carrying one or more guns. The term is rather broad, and the usual connotation has changed over the years. Jump to: navigation, search Lobster boat A boat is a watercraft, usually smaller than most ships. ... Jump to: navigation, search A gun is a mechanical device that fires projectiles at high velocity, using a propellant such as gun powder or compressed air. ...

In the age of sail, a gunboat was usually a small undecked vessel carrying a single smoothbore cannon in the bow. A gunboat could carry one or two masts or be oar-powered only, but the single-masted version of about 50 ft length was most typical. Some types of gunboats carried two cannons, or else mounted a number of swivel guns on the railings. The age of sail is the period in which international trade and naval warfare were both dominated by sailing ships. ... Smoothbore refers to a firearm which does not have a rifled barrel. ... A small cast-iron cannon on a carriage A cannon is any large tubular firearm designed to fire a heavy projectile over a considerable distance. ... The Swivel Gun is a mounted ships cannon, able to turn and pivot. ...

The advantages of this type of gunboat were that since it only carried a single cannon, that cannon could be quite heavy - for instance a 32-pounder, and that the boat could be maneuvered in shallow or restricted waters, where the sailing was quite difficult for larger ships. A single broadside from a frigate would demolish a gunboat, but a frigate facing a half-dozen gunboats in an estuary would likely be seriously damaged before it could manage to sink all of them. Gunboats were also easy and quick to build; the combatants in the 1776 Battle of Valcour Island on New York's Lake Champlain were mostly gunboats built on the spot. A broadside is the side of a ship; the battery of cannon on one side of a warship; or their simultaneous (or near simultaneous) fire in naval warfare. ... Sailing frigates were 4th, 5th, or 6th-rated ships in the rating system of the Royal Navy. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the year 1776. ... The Battle of Valcour Island, 11 October 1776, also known as Battle of Valcour Bay, was a naval engagement fought on Lake Champlain in a narrow strait between the New York mainland and Valcour Island. ... Jump to: navigation, search State nickname: The Empire State Other U.S. States Capital Albany Largest city New York City Governor George Pataki (R) Senators Charles Schumer (D) Hillary Rodham Clinton (D) Official languages None (English is de facto) Area 141,205 km² or 54,556 square miles (27th)  - Land... Landsat photo Lake Champlain, named for the French explorer Samuel de Champlain, who encountered it 1609, is a large lake in North America, mostly within the borders of the United States (states of Vermont and New York) but partially situated across the US-Canada border in Quebec. ...

All navies of the sailing era kept a number of gunboats on hand. Gunboats were a key part of the French plans to invade Britain in 1804, and were heavily used by Denmark. Between 1803 and 1812, the US Navy had a policy of basing the naval forces on coastal gunboats, and experimented with a variety of designs, but they were nearly useless in the War of 1812, and went back to being special-purpose vessels. 1803 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1812 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for naval operations. ... Jump to: navigation, search The War of 1812 was a conflict fought on land in North America and at sea around the world between the United States and United Kingdom from 1812 to 1815. ...

Union ironclad gunboats assault the Confederates at Fort Donelson, February, 1862.

The term experienced a revival in the American Civil War, and was commonly used for armed sidewheel steamers, which frequently mounted a dozen guns or more, sometimes of rather large caliber. Jump to: navigation, search Image File history File links Download high resolution version (803x520, 378 KB)Union ironclad gunboats assault the Confederates at Fort Donelson, February, 1862. ... Jump to: navigation, search Image File history File links Download high resolution version (803x520, 378 KB)Union ironclad gunboats assault the Confederates at Fort Donelson, February, 1862. ... Jump to: navigation, search The American Civil War (1861–1865) was fought in North America within the United States of America, between twenty-three mostly northern states of the Union and the Confederate States of America, a coalition of eleven southern states that declared their independence and claimed the right...

In the later 19th century and early 20th century, "gunboat" was the common name for smaller armed vessels, often called "patrol gunboats". In the US Navy, these boats had the hull classification symbol "PG"; they usually displaced under 2,000 tons, were about 200 ft long, drafted 10-15 feet and sometimes much less, and mounted several guns of caliber up to 5-6 inches. An important characteristic of these was the ability to operate in rivers, enabling them to reach inland targets in a way not otherwise possible before the development of aircraft. In this period, gunboats were used by the naval powers for police actions in colonies or weaker countries, for example in China. It is this category of gunboat that inspired the term "gunboat diplomacy". Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... The United States Navy uses hull classification symbols (sometimes called hull codes) to identify the types of its ships. ... Jump to: navigation, search An aircraft is any machine capable of atmospheric flight. ... In international politics, gunboat diplomacy refers to the pursuit of foreign policy objectives with the aid of conspicuous displays of military power —implying or constituting a direct threat of warfare, should terms not be aggreable to the superior force. ...

Post-World War II, the terms "motor gunboat" came to be used for smaller vessels, with displacements in the 500-ton range. US river gunboats in the Vietnam War became known as the "Brownwater Navy". Jump to: navigation, search The Vietnam War or Second Indochina War was a conflict between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN, or North Vietnam), allied with the National Liberation Front (NLF, or Viet Cong) against the Republic of Vietnam (RVN, or South Vietnam), and its allies—notably the United States... Brownwater Navy is a term in American naval speech referring to actions in near shore and riverine enviroments. ...

Reference

• Chapter 4, "The Gunboat Navy", of Howard Chapelle, The History of the American Sailing Navy (Norton, 1949)