Replies

Destroyer: would have 3", 4" or 5" guns and no armor, very fast 30-35+ knots)

Cruiser: 6" or 8" guns, very light armor 1" to 2" to 4" thick - sometimes a bit more. Max speed might be 30 knots. US light anti-air cruisers Atlanta class had continual engine and propeller problems trying to get over 33 knots.... Designed to kill any destroyers or convoys or group of escorts they find, and fast enough to get away from heavier armed ships. Independent scouts, theoretically, though only the Germans used them this way in WWI and WWII.

Battle cruiser: heavier armor, but only in places (6-8" thick most areas, even less on the decks, The Hood, for example, was sunk by one shell that penetrated her decks.) 12" 14" guns. Speed "might" be 25-28 knots. Fast enough to run away from battleships, but also fast enough to catch any convoys they find. Most got sunk trying to fight aircraft or heavier-armed ships they had to attack despite having little armor.

Pocket battleships: As slow as regular battleships, as heavily armored as regular battleships, but smaller, often with smaller guns; 12" or 14" for example. Not as fast as battle cruisers. Less stores, crew, fuel. "A battleship, but small enough you could put it in your pocket."

Battleship: From mid-1890 until 1945: Biggest guns starting at 12" in 1900, growing up to 15" (British) 16" (US) and 18" (Japan) before WWII. Armor was heavy enough to completely stop the same size shell it could fire: 16" to 20" thick, going all the way around and over the entire middle of the ship. Speed was about 18" in 1900, going up to 22-25 knots in the 1920's, then finally 28-30 knots in early 30, then up to 35 knots finally in the last 4 US battleships that were designed to stay up with the carriers: Iowa, Missouri, New Jersey, Kentucky (not finished)

Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri and Wisconsin (BB 61, 62, 63 and 64). Then the Illinois, BB 65, (25 percent completed, cancelled in August, 1945) and then Kentucky, BB 66, (suspended February 1947 after 72 percent complete).
The bow section of the Kentucky was removed and fitted on the Wisconsin after the Wisconsin's collision in 1956.
Following the Iowa Class was to be the Montana Class, to include Montana, Ohio, Maine, New Hampshire and Louisiana (BB 67, 68, 69, 70 and 71). Their design had 12 sixteen inch guns, but were never built.