The Ships in Battleship: Names and Sizes

By the Iron Tide team · Last reviewed October 9, 2026

A standard game of Battleship has five ships per player, covering 17 of the 100 squares on the grid. Here is each one, how big it is, and why the names on your box may not match your friend’s.

How many ships are in Battleship?

Each player gets five ships: one that is five squares long, one of four, two of three, and one of two. That adds up to 17 squares, so 83 of the 100 squares on your grid are open water.

Why the ship names differ between editions

The sizes have stayed the same for decades, but the names have not. Milton Bradley’s classic edition used the lineup most American players grew up with. Hasbro’s editions from the early 2000s onward renamed two of the pieces.

So “destroyer” can mean the two-square ship or a three-square ship depending on the box. This site uses the classic names: Carrier, Battleship, Cruiser, Submarine, Destroyer.

The grid

The Battleship grid is 10 squares by 10. Columns run A to J and rows run 1 to 10. A shot is called by letter and then number, such as “F6”. The board game gives each player two of these grids in a folding case: the lower one for ships and the upright one for tracking shots.

Pegs and pieces

Besides the ten plastic ships, the board game comes with red pegs for hits and white pegs for misses. Red pegs also go into the holes on top of your own ships when they are hit, which is how you know when one has sunk.

What ship sizes mean for strategy

• The two-square ship is the hardest to find and usually the last one standing. Plan your search around it.
• The five-square carrier is the easiest to find, because very few gaps on a partly searched board are long enough to hold it.
• Two ships share a length of three, so a sunk three-square ship does not tell you that all the three-square gaps are safe.

The strategy guide shows how to turn those facts into a search pattern.

Common questions