Navies
Britain was the only global maritime power
Ville de Paris in 1854. The escadre d’évolution, under vice-admiral Penaud. The ships Ville de Paris, AlgĂ©siras and Gloire can be seen. Capture of Saigon by France, 18th February 1859. When the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815, Britain was the only global maritime power. Even with a major reduction in her navy, Britain’s naval power was unchallenged. From 152 battleships…
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The Seventeenth Century: The Rise Of Navies
Scale of Royal and other State Navies (displacement tonnage 000s) At the start of the century the commercial exclusivity upon the great waters attempted by Portugal and Spain was already gone. The determining race for power and mastery upon the seas had begun, with the Iberians already seen as the…
Prince Rupert Admiral and General-at-Sea:Â Revenge
There would not be another Revenge until the Newbury was renamed in 1660. Like the stunned silence that follows the finale of a dramatic piece of music, or the last act of a great play, a pregnant pause hangs over the last act of the great Revenge tragedy and, as…
Salamis on Cyprus in 306Â BC
Ptolemy’s fleet, the appropriated Phoenician navy, made the Egyptian dynast a powerful force in the Aegean. The strategic location of Rhodes and Cyprus, as we have said, made control of both of them desirable. Cyprus was also rich in grain, copper, and especially timber, which Ptolemy needed for his fleet,…
Ptolemy I & II’s Military Forces
When Alexander left Egypt in 331 BC, he appointed two Egyptians, Doloaspis and Petisis, as governors – the second soon resigned – while Cleomenes of Naucratis, a local Greek, was in charge of collecting the tribute and governing Arabia. Four thousand of Alexander’s soldiers were stationed in garrisons at Memphis…
WWI Cruiser Warfare
Minotaur-class cruiser (1906) first class armoured cruiser, 14,600 tons, 4-9.2in, 10-7.5in Challenger-class cruiser (1902) second class cruiser, 5,880 tons, 11-6in In 1914 the Royal Navy had twelve designated cruiser squadrons (although one had no ships in it), all of which were based around, or entirely comprised of, armoured or first-class…
Carthage’s Navy
CARTHAGE Showing naval port. Carthaginian Tetrere: The Marsala ship. Reconstruction by Michael Leek Punic hepter. The dimensions of the holds of the military port of Carthage permitted only vessels of 4.80 m wide, the size of a trire, in the islet of the Admiralty with the exception of two holds…