F307Z Fall 2024 Battleships

F307Z Battleships
Wednesdays, 9:00—11:00, Oct. 23—Nov. 13
Four sessions
Note time
Instructor: Buck Beasom
The Age of Battleships spanned less than 80 years. For much of that period, battleships were either not ready for prime time or they were well past their prime. Yet during that period, they were the symbol of both national pride and national humiliation and an enormous drain on their national treasuries. They provided a stage for heroes and scoundrels, the fools and the wise, and much more, while burgeoning modern states confronted the decaying monarchies on the seas. Men and ships were sacrificed on the most ill-starred objectives and through it all, barely a handful of engagements between battleships, cruisers or even destroyers produced a decisive result. This course follows the development of the battleship from the first ironclads to the giants of World War II. It traces the development of primitive steam engines, the slow but inevitable shift from pistons and coal to turbines and oil, the early triumphs and disasters of battle fleets, and the vast and far-flung engagements of the great dreadnoughts. And we will look at the big guns, with ranges so great their aim required an adjustment for the curvature of the Earth.
Buck Beasom’s career includes 40 years of professional experience as a VP finance and applications developer and 30 years teaching business and history courses. A long-time student of World War II, he has developed multi-media courses on the air war in Europe and in the Asia/Pacific Theater.