Naval History
Battle of Fatshan Creek 1857
A Royal Navy force defeated a flotilla of Chinese war junks during the Battle of Fatshan Creek, before the Second Opium War. Sir Henry Keppel, (1809-1904) British admiral. Born in Kensington on 14 June 1809, son of the Fourth Earl of Albemarle, Henry Keppel joined the Royal Navy in 1822. He was educated at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. He…
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The Battle of Samar
At 6:35 A.M., as sunrise revealed a grayed-out and hazy dawn, the most powerful concentration of naval gun power the Japanese empire had ever assembled reordered its geometry in preparation for daylight operations. Twenty-five miles to Taffy 3’s north, lookouts on the heavy cruiser Chokai and light cruiser Noshiro reported…
Dunkerque and the Strasbourg Battleships
Dunkerque as built. Dunkerque The design of Dunkerque and Strasbourg was heavily influenced by the latest British practice. The battleships Nelson and Rodney, scaled-down versions of the G3 battlecruiser design of 1922, entered service in August and November 1927 respectively and had a major impact on the thinking of other…
MANNA FROM MARS: THE ARRIVAL OF SMSÂ GOEBEN
to force the Turks, even against their will, to spread the war to the Black Sea against their ancient enemy, Russia. —ADMIRAL WILHELM SOUCHON, commander of the German dreadnought SMS Goeben On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, the Duchess of Hohenberg, were murdered by an assassin…
Development of Naval Warfare in the Mediterranean I
A striking feature of the history of naval warfare is that most battles were fought close to land, often near a harbour or place of shelter. In ancient times sailors preferred to sail near to the coast, where protection could be sought in bad weather and supplies of food and…
Development of Naval Warfare in the Mediterranean II
Unlike their Mediterranean competitors the Turks had no established maritime culture. To become an Admiral in the Turkish fleet required no prior naval experience and the post would often be given to a governor of a coastal province. Similarly, captains and crew were not trained sailors. The captains typically rose…
Confederate Raid on New Bern, North Carolina
Start Date: February 1, 1864 End Date: February 2, 1864 New Bern, North Carolina, strategically sited on the Neuse River in North Carolina, had been captured by Union forces in March 1862. Not until January 1864 was Confederate Army of Northern Virginia commander General Robert E. Lee in position to…