Template:Infobox Ship Class/doc

Usage
This template is designed to contain information about a class of ships. It is a centralised version of the table that has been used for ship classes on Wikipedia for a long time now. It supports all the features previously used by Template:Infobox Class as well as those used in previous instances of Template:Infobox Ship Class. Although all previous parameters are supported by the template, for simplicities sake duplicated parameters from previous instances of this template are not included in the documentation.

The empty version of the table looks like this:

US and UK alternative spellings are available for the variables Ship draught and Ship armour. Simply alter the spelling of the variables to Ship draft, Ship armor respectively and the US spellings will come up rather than the UK spellings.

Fields
The usage of each row is as follows:


 * Image — a photo or any other image of the class in question using standard MediaWiki image markup, which should not be wider than 300 pixels (include an alternate text for those who can't see the image—the name of the ship at least). Do not use the thumb or frame parameters.
 * Caption — a caption to the image of the ship in question (if appropriate—e.g. if there's more than one ship in the picture, or if the occasion or activity is noteworthy). By default this is in small text and centralised
 * Class type — The type of ship - e.g. a Battleship.
 * Class name — the name of the class. If it is named after one of the ships in the class be sure to put the name in italics, e.g. Queen Elizabeth. Do not include the word "class", as the template automatically inserts this word where neccessary.
 * Builders</tt> — Any builders of the class.
 * Operators</tt> — operating navies or companies. You can use the navy template (e.g. to include the correct flag and an internal link. The result of the example would be
 * Class before</tt> - the preceding class, where applicable. Best to include this as an internal link.
 * Class after</tt> — the succeeding class, where applicable. Best to include this as an internal link.
 * Subclasses</tt> — any links to subclasses or distinct groups of ships usually included with the class. These may need to be internal links if the aforementioned have their own page.
 * First commissioned date</tt> — the date that the first ship in the class commissioned on.
 * Final decommission date</tt> — the date the ship last ship in the class was decommissioned on.
 * First in service date</tt> — the date that the first ship in the class entered service. For merchant ships or useful if commissioning dates are not known.
 * Final out of service date</tt> — the date that the last ship in the class left service. For merchant ships or useful if commissioning dates are not known.
 * Total ships in class</tt> — the total number of ships in the class that were built.
 * Total ships active</tt> — the total number of ships in the class that are currently active.
 * Total ships building</tt> — the total number of ships in the class that are currently building.
 * Total ships fitting out</tt> — the total number of ships in the class that are currently fitting out.
 * Total ships converted</tt> — the total number of ships in the class that were converted to other purposes.
 * Total ships stored</tt> — the total number of ships in the class that are currently stored, mothballed or in some other state of non-operation.
 * Total ships out of service</tt> — the total number of ships in the class that are currently out of service or laid up.
 * <tt>Total ships sunk</tt> — the total number of ships in the class that have been sunk. It may be pertinent to note here where ships have been sunk during wartime / in accidents and those that have been deliberately sunk for some purpose such as weapons tests, creating breakwaters etc.
 * <tt>Total ships scrapped</tt> — the total number of ships in the class that have been scrapped.
 * <tt>Total ships preserved</tt> — the total number of ships in the class that have been preserved.
 * <tt>Total ships unbuilt</tt> — the total number of ships in the class that were begun, but never completed or ordered.
 * <tt>Total ships planned</tt> — the total number of ships in the class that are planned but have not yet been ordered or begun.
 * <tt>Ship displacement</tt> — the displacement of the ship, preferably at least full load displacement for warships and deadweight tonnage for merchant vessels
 * <tt>Characteristics for</tt> — often different ships in the class have differing characteristics, and it is necessary to specify for which vessel the characteristics below are for, e.g. "for HMS Queen Elizabeth". This appears in brackets in the "General characteristics" header bar. It is also useful for stating from which source the specifications are from, e.g. "as per Janes"
 * <tt>Ship capacity</tt> — for merchant vessels only, the capacity in terms of tonnage.
 * <tt>Ship length</tt> — the length of the ship
 * <tt>Ship beam</tt> — the beam of the ship
 * <tt>Ship draught</tt> — the amount of water the ship draws
 * <tt>Ship propulsion</tt> — the propulsion method used for the ship including details, if appropriate and available, of engine-type, number of shafts and power
 * <tt>Ship speed</tt> — the speed the ship was capable of, noting the state in which this is achieved, where available.
 * <tt>Ship range</tt> — the range of the ship at a particular speed
 * <tt>Ship endurance</tt> — how long the ship can stay at sea, and if a diesel submarine its underwater endurance
 * <tt>Ship test depth</tt> — if the ship is a submarine, the depth to which it was tested during trials
 * <tt>Ship boats</tt> — details of the smaller craft such as landing craft that the ship carries
 * <tt>Ship complement</tt> — the number of officers and enlisted men serving on board the ship including a split into different organisations if appropriate and known, e.g. a carrier's crew and air group
 * <tt>Ship time to activate</tt> — if the ship is not in active service the time it takes to get the ship in active service from the moment the order to do so is given
 * <tt>Ship sensors</tt> — the sensors that the ship possess including radar and sonar
 * <tt>Ship electronic warfare</tt> — the electronic warfare and decoy equipment carried by a warship
 * <tt>Ship armament</tt> — the armament that a ship possess including guns, rockets, missiles and torpedoes and the launching systems for those weapons if appropriate
 * <tt>Ship armour</tt> — the amount of armour that the ship possess and where it is in the ship
 * <tt>Ship aircraft</tt> — the aircraft that the ship can support
 * <tt>Ship aircraft facilities</tt> — the facilities on board for aviation, e.g. hangar sizes, number of flight deck spots, numbers of catapults.
 * <tt>Class ships</tt> — ships in the class. For large classes, or where extended information on ship dates, events and constructors is supplied, it is usually more pertinent to include this in the body of the article and not to use this field.

To input information into the table simply insert it after the equals sign on each row as appropriate. It is possible to delete out blank rows, but this is only wise were this row will never be needed; e.g. removing "capacity" from warships, "test depth" from non-submarines etc.

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