Talk:Spring 2015 Event/@comment-24702213-20150403010025/@comment-64.233.173.161-20150403045402

Capital ship originally referred to what we now call cruisers. A capital ship is simply a ship of the line (a term borrowed from the age of sail) that forms the "body" (capital) of the fleet when it deploys in combat formation. Before, during, and after the age of battleships cruisers occupied this position.

In WW2 armored and heavy cruisers, battleships and carriers were capital ships. Nowadays this mostly refers to CVs and 5000-ton-plus DDGs because of course the battleships and cruisers are gone from most navies.

In the tweet's case, they probably refer to BBs.