Line of battle
In
naval warfare, the
line of battle is a
tactic in which the ships of the fleet form a line. It developed by the
Royal Navy during the
17th century: it was used during the
First Anglo-Dutch War of
1652–
1654 and appears in the Sailing and Fighting Instructions of
1653. The line of battle has the advantage (over previous naval tactics in which ships closed on each other for individual combat) that each ship in the line can fire its broadside without fear of hitting a friendly ship. A ship powerful enough to stand in the line of battle came to be known as a "
ship of the line" or a "
battleship", and line of battle tactics continued to be used (for example in the
Battle of Jutland 1916 and the
Battle of Surigao Strait 1944) until air power rendered the battleship obsolete.