Navy facts for kids

USS Lassen of the United States Navy

The navian is the part of a country's military that fights on water using boats. People in the navy are called navians. The navy is mostly made up of warships. It may also have its own air force and soldiers. It may have special boats that can go underwater, called submarines, or another kind of special boat that is meant to carry airplanes, called aircraft carriers.

History

Originally, Naval war was fought by ramming other ships and then jumping onto them to fight the crew. In Ancient Greece and Rome, the ships were usually powered by oars. During the Middle Ages, the cannon was invented. These could be shot at other ships from a great distance. Warships around this time also began to use sails instead of oars for power. In the middle 19th century, ships began to be plated in armor for protection. Steam engines allowed them move while carrying the armor, and better ones soon made them much faster. These early warships, called ironclads, are thought to have begun the type of Naval warfare used today. Ships soon became much larger.

Related pages

• Royal Navy
• United States Navy
• Royal Australian Navy
• Royal New Zealand Navy

Images for kids

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  The Spanish Armada fighting the English navy at the Battle of Gravelines in 1588

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  British and Danish navies in the line of battle at the Battle of Copenhagen (1801)

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  A flotilla from the Indian Navy's Western Fleet escorts the aircraft carriers INS Viraat and INS Vikramaditya through the Arabian Sea in 2014.

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  Fourth Style wall painting with naumachia (triremes), a detail from a panel from the portico of the Temple of Isis in Pompeii, Naples National Archaeological Museum.

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  Two Javanese jongs, one is a 6-masted ship viewed from aft, the other is a 7-masted ship.

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  HMS Invincible sails towards the Falkland Islands during the Falklands War of 1982. The Falklands War was the largest naval conflict since World War II.

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  US Navy officers aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln monitor defense systems during maritime security operations. Navies may conduct military operations other than war.

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  Ship's bell of ORP Iskra II - Polish Navy school tall ship

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  Typhoon-class submarines are the largest submarines ever built.

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  INS Shivalik is a stealth frigate of the Indian Navy

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  Royal Canadian Navy's Orca-class patrol vessel

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  Soviet PT-76 light amphibious tank moves down the ramp of an Aist-class hovercraft.

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  Ships of the multinational fleet Combined Task Force 150

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  Indonesian Navy officers

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  Chinese sailors, 2009

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  Newly commissioned officers celebrate their new positions by throwing their midshipmen covers into the air as part of a U.S. Naval Academy graduation and commissioning ceremony.

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  From left to right: President P. E. Svinhufvud and Commander Einar Schwank of the Finnish Navy at the Crichton-Vulcan shipyard in Turku, Finland, in 1931

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  Jaubert commandos of the French Navy demonstrating a mock, seaborne assault on the support vessel Alcyon.

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  Spanish Navy Marines

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  A Sea Harrier on the flight deck of an Indian Navy aircraft carrier in 2007.

See also

In Spanish: Armada para niños