- A few civilians were invited to sponsor Royal Navy ships during the nineteenth century, and women became sponsors for the first time. In 1875, a religious element was returned to naval christenings by Princess Alexandra, wife of the Prince of Wales, when she introduced an Anglican choral service in the launching ceremony for battleship Alexandra.
- HMS Victoria was the lead ship in her class of two battleships of the Royal Navy.On 22 June 1893, she collided with HMS Camperdown near Tripoli, Lebanon, during manoeuvres and quickly sank, killing 358 crew members, including the commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon.
Introduction
The fleets of Europe in 1792 (selection)
![Battleship Battleship](/uploads/1/1/7/8/117883727/439518531.jpg)
Total vessels Total cannon Total crew
661 14,000 100,000
Total vessels Total cannon Total crew
291 12,000 78,000
Total vessels Total cannon Total crew
222 10,000 50,000
Total vessels Total cannon Total crew
803 9,000 21,000
Total vessels Total cannon Total crew
187 2,300 15,000
Investment
Recruitment
A man who entered the navy as a volunteer was given his shilling and two months pay in advance (using which he was supposed to provide himself with a hammock and some clothes). Becoming a sailor was also a way of avoiding debtors’ prison, since the Navy protected a man from his creditors provided that the debt was less than twenty pounds. On the other hand, it was not always clear whether a volunteer had not in fact been pressganged – often men captured by the pressgangs were given the chance to volunteer and thus receive their pay. Volunteers were much appreciated and usually made the best crewmen, as the expression ran ‘Better one volunteer than three pressed men’.
Royal Battleship Kit
Founded long before the Napoleonic wars, the Impress service came into high profile during the wars with Revolutionary France. The word impress was derived from the old French word ‘prest’, modern ‘prêt’ or loan/advance, in other words, each man ‘impressed’ received the loan of a ‘shilling’ (that is he paid the ‘King’s shilling’ to enlist) and became a ‘(im)prest man’. The service was present in every major port in the kingdom. The service’s offices were called ‘Rendezvous’ with a Regulating Officer in charge, and he hired local hard men as ‘gangers’. These thugs would thus roam the countryside attempting to ‘encourage’ men aged between 18 and 55 to join the navy. No-one was safe from the gang, and often the only escape route when captured was to bribe the gang or to join it. A preferred target for the pressgang was the merchant navy, so it was not infrequent to find special hiding places on merchant vessels. Also, the return of prisoners of war from France was also seen as the perfect moment to impress crewmen, such that very often the returning POWs were turned round and pressganged even before they set foot once more on home soil. The captains of merchant vessels frequently took pity on those they were repatriating and tried to let them land in places far from the ports and the pressgangs.
In 1795, prime minister William Pitt the Younger passed two bills through parliament, called the Quota acts. In conformity with these acts, every county was required to supply to the navy a quota of men, in proportion to the country population and the number of ports – for example, London was asked to provide 5,700 men, whilst Yorkshire, the largest county, was obliged to offer 1,081 hommes. Depite promises of rewards, very few county men came forward. As a result, small time criminals were given the choice of a prison sentence or service in the Navy. Given the exceedingly rough justice prevalent in 18th-century prisons, many preferred the call of the sea. One unfortunate result however of this policy was that the criminals brought with them typhus, also known as Gaol fever, onto previously healthy ships!
Modern dockyards for a growing navy
French difficulties
– the disappearance of the Brittany crewmen. Brittany sailors had formed the core of the French navy of the Ancien Régime. With the Revolution they left en masse. Of all the navy officers in 1790, only 25% remained in 1791, the rest emigrating, occasionally even serving in the enemy navies;
– poor state of repair of the French navy, lack of investment
– the catastrophic decision by the Revolutionary government to suppress the Corps d’artillerie de la marine – it was considered too elitist. At one fell swoop, the French navy was deprived of 5,400 specialist in marine artillery.
After 1801, there were slightly fewer then 70,000 French navy prisoners in British hands. The lack of manpower and investment weighed heavily!
1797 – the year of living dangerously
Driven by the terrible onboard conditions, the brutal punishments and increasingly infrequent pay, the sailors of the Royal Navy mutinied twice in 1797, once in April and then again in May, first at Spithead, off Portsmouth, and then at The Nore, a sand bank off the Kent coast in the Thames where the fleet usually anchored. In fact the Spithead mutiny was an industrial dispute. And it would appear that the government was largely sympathetic, given the speed of the reparations (the difficulties were resolved in less than two months by the passing of an act of parliament), the payment of pay arrears and the pardoning of all those involved in the mutiny. On the other hand, the mutineers at The Nore were blocking the Thames, England’s supply line. Pitt reacted harshly, sending in army and other vessels favourable to the government to force a surrender – cannons were lined up on the mainland aimed at the ships in mutiny. The prime minister was also particularly sensitive regarding the mutiny because of the perceived political overtones, given the large numbers of Irish involved. The ringleader, Richard Parker, was condemned to be hanged from the yardarm 1798 – in fact (as was often the case with those thus sentenced) he jumped into the sea and drowned. But above all, the mutinies of 1797 revealed a fundamental weakness in defence. The government reacted quickly and brutally, passing the Incitement to Mutiny Act (revoked only very recently), which made any act of disaffection in the armed forces an act of treason, and thus punishable by death.
In yet another attempt to invade Ireland, (he had made a previous try in 1796), General Hoche came up with another plan whereby an invasion would be led by the recently refitted French fleet based in from Brest together with the Batavian and Spanish fleets. The Spanish fleet was anchored at Cartagena (on the east coast of Spain), and on 5 February began the attempted linkup, passing Gibraltar and heading for Cadiz. Blown off course by strong east winds, the Spanish fleet ended up in the Atlantic, far from the port of destination but more importantly to the west of the British fleet (under Admiral Sir John Jervis) off the Cape Saint Vincent (Portugal). Commodore Nelson on board Minerve, on seeing the port of Cartagena empty and realising that the Spanish were trying to reach Cadiz, came at full speed to inform Jervis of what had happened. He too was forced off course by the winds and in fact (because of the fog and the sleepy Spanish watch) passed unnoticed through the Spanish fleet on the evening of 11 February to reach Jervis. When the winds changed, the Spanish then headed again for Cadiz. On 14 February at 8-30am, the two fleets met.
Culloden (74) Capt. Thomas Troubridge, Blenheim (98) Capt. Thomas Frederick, Prince George (98) Rear Admiral Parker, Capt. John Irwin, Orion (74) Capt. Sir James Saumarez, Colossus (74) Capt. George Murray, Irresistible (74) Capt. George Martin, Victory (100) Admiral Sir John Jervis, Capt. Robert Calder, Egmont (74) Capt. John Sutton, Goliath (74) Capt. Sir Charles Knowles, Barfleur (98) Vice Admiral William Waldegrave, Capt. Richard Dacre, Britannia (100) Vice Admiral Charles Thompson, Capt. Thomas Foley, Namur (90) Capt. James Whitshed, Captain (74) Commodore Horatio Nelson, Capt Ralph Miller, Diadem (64) Capt. George Towry, Excellent (74) Capt. Cuthbert Collingwood, Minerve (38) Capt. George Cockburn, Southampton (32) Capt. James Macnamara, Lively (32) Capt. Lord Garliesc, Niger (32) Capt. Edward Foote, Bonne Citoyenne (20) Cdr Charles Lindsay, Raven (18) Cdr William Prowse, Fox (10) Lt. John Gibson
Santìssima Trinidad (130), Prìncipe de Asturias (112), Conde de Regla (112), San José (112), Oriente (74), Atlante (74), Soberano (74), Infante de Pelayo (74), San Ildephonso (74), San Ysidro (74), San Pablo (74), Neptuna (74), San Domingo (74), Terrible (74), Mexicano (112), Purìsima Concepción (112), Salvador del mundo (112), San Nicolas (84), Glorioso (74), Conquestada (74), Firme (74), San Genaro (74), San Francisco de Paula (74), San Antonio (74), San Fermìn (74), Bahama (74), San Juan Nepomuceno (74)
At the end of May, 1797, the British Northe Sea fleet was so diminished (many vessels in port for repairs) that Admiral Duncan found himself blockading the port of Texel (and the whole Batavian fleet in it, under Vice-admiral de Winter) with only two ships, Venerable (74) and Adamant (50). Joined by other vessels towards the middle of June, Duncan spent the summer blockading the Texel before returning to Yarmouth on 3 October for refitting and replenishing stores. On 9 October, he received the information that the Batavian fleet had left the Texel. According to the French, de Winter was looking for the British vessels, whilst in England they said that he was attempting to link up with the French fleet with an eye to invading Ireland. Duncan left Yarmouth immediately. On arriving off the Texel on 10 October, he found 22 merchantmen but no warships. The ships which he had been blockading all summer had got away. Captain Trollope informed him that the Batavian fleet was heading south.
The Batavians
Vryheid (74), Vice-admiral de Winter, Jupiter (74), Vice-admiral Reyntjes, Brutus (74), Rear-admiral Bloys van Treslong, Staten-Generaal (74), Rear-admiral Story, Cerebus (68), Jacobson, Tjerk Hiddes de Vries (68), Zegers, Gelijkheid (68), Ruysen, Haarlem (68), Wiggerts, Hercules (64), Van Rysoort, Leyden (64), Musquetier, Wassenaer (64), Holland, Alkmaar (56), Kraft, Batavier (54), Souters, Beschermer (54), Hinxt, Delft (54), Verdoorn, Mars (44), Kolff, Monnikendam (44), Lancaster, Ambucade (32), Lieutenant captain Huys Heldin (32), Lieutenant captain L’Estrille
Venerable (74), Admiral Adam Duncan, Monarch (74), Vice-admiral Richard Onslow, Russel (74), Captain Henry Trollope, Montagu (74), Captain John Knight, Bedford (74), Captain sir T. Byard, Powerful (74), Captain William Drury, Triumph (74), Captain W. Essington, Belliqueux (64), Captain John Inglis, Agincourt (64), Captain J. Williamson, Lancaster (64), Captain J. Wells, Ardent (64), Captain R. Burgess, Veteran (64), Captain G. Gregory, Director (64), Captain W. Bligh, Monmouth (64), Captain J. Walker, Isis (50), Captain W. Mitchell, Adamant (50), Captain W. Hotham, Beaulieu (40), Captain F. Fayerman, Circe (28), Captain P. Halkett
Royal Battleships Cracked
![Toy Toy](/uploads/1/1/7/8/117883727/626930204.jpg)
Conclusion
Napoleonic navies on the web
http://www.nelsonsnavy.co.uk
http://www.stvincent.ac.uk/1797/Victory/index.html
The letters and despatches of Horatio Nelson (War Times Journal) http://www.wtj.com/archives/nelson/
The National Maritime Museum (UK)
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/
Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth (UK)
http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/
Musée de la marine (Fr)
The site (still partially under construction) of the French Naval Museum (in French)
http://www.musee-marine.fr/
British Naval Chronology, 1793 to 1803
1 June 1794, the ‘Glorious First of June’, sea battle in the Atlantic 150 leagues off the Ile de Ouessant. Even though the convoy of grain guarded by the French warships reached port, the French lost 33 ships of the line, 7,524 men, against 290 dead and 858 wounded on the English side
5 February, 1794, British capture of Martinique
19 February, 1794, British capture of San Fiorenzo, Corsica, by Lord Hood
beginning April, 1794, capitulation of Bastia, Corsica, to Lord Hood
mid August, 1794, capitulation of Calvi, Corsica. Corsica was under British control until 1796 when it was returned to France
20 March, 1794, British capture of Guadeloupe (retaken by France, end of 1794)
April 1794, British capture of Tobago and Santa-Lucia (Santa-Lucia retaken by the French, summer, 1795, taken back by the British, April 1796)
1795, French attempt to retake Corsica beatne off by the British Mediterranean fleet under Admiral Hotham – loss of the ships of the line Censeur and Ça-Ira on the French side and the ship of the line Illustrious, on the British side
23 June, 1795, action at Ile de Groix – French loss of 3 vessels (Tigre, Alexandre, and Formidable)
July 1795, Nelson took Elba
27 June, 1796, British evacuation of Livorno
17 August, 1796, the Batavian expedition to take the Cape of Good Hope beaten back by Vice-admiral Sir Keith Elphinstone. The Batavians lost 9 ships
19 October, 1796, recapture of Corsica by the French and subsequent British loss of control in the Mediterranean
December 1796, British evacuation of Elba
December 1796, failed invasion of Ireland
February 1797, British capture of Trinidad from Spain
14 February, 1797, defeat of the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Cape Saint Vincent at the hands of the Royal Navy. Spanish losses: 14 ships, including two 112s, one 80 and one 74, 5,000 dead, wounded and taken prisoner; British losses: 73 dead, 227 wounded, 5 ships very seriously damaged
April and May, 1797, mutinies at Spithead and The Nore in England
24-25 July, 1797, action in Tenerife – British attempt to seize a ship laden with silver anchored in the port. British disaster against 8,000 Spanish and 100 French soldiers. British losses: Nelson lost his right arm, 102 men drowned, 45 killed, 5 lost, 105 wounded.
11 October, 1797, Batavian defeat at the Battle of Camperdown at the hands of the British navy. Batavian losses: 11 ships of the line, 540 dead, 620 wounded; British losses: 203 dead, 622 wounded
1 August, 1798, French defeat at the Battle of the Nile at the hands of the British navy. French losses: 11 ships of the line, 2 frigates, 1,700 dead, 1,500 wounded, 2,000 taken prisoner (all set free on land); British losses: 218 dead, 678 wounded (including Nelson in the head)
September 1798, yet another failed French invasion of Ireland. French losses; 7 vessels, 425 dead/wounded, 1,870 prisoners; British losses: 13 dead, 75 wounded
April 1799, Admiral comte de Bruix slipped through the blockade and attempted to join the Spanish fleet in Cadiz – seeing Lord Keith blockading of Cadiz, he avoided battle and entered the Mediterranean. Bruix finally managed to join up with the Spanish fleet on 22 June at Cartagena. The allied fleets of France and Spain then again gave British vessels the slip and, hotly pursued by them, managed to reach Brest, 13 August, 1799
May 1799, Sir Sidney Smith shelled Bonaparte outside Saint John d’Acer, forcing him to lift the siege
March 1800, British blockade off Genoa, where Masséna was besieged by the Austrians under the general von Ott
September 1800, French capitulation of Malta to the British fleet which had been blockading the island for two years
2 April, 1801, Battle of Copenhagen, British victory. Danish losses: 480 dead, 570 wounded, 2,000 prisoners/lost in action (all prisoners were returned before 12 April); British losses: 256 dead, 688 wounded.
6-12 July, 1801, action at Algeciras between French/Spanish vessels and British ships. British losses: one ship of the line (Hannibal) 130 dead, 240 wounded; French/Spanish losses: 5 ships of the line, at least 1,700 dead
Battleship Royal Oak
Toy Royal Battleship
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