Sail
SYRACUSE
415–413 b.c. Forced Engaged Syracusan: Unknown, although probably roughly equal to Athenians; included 4,400 Spartans. Commander: Gylippus. Athenian: Approximately 200 galleys and 45,000 to 50,000 men. Commander: Nicias and then Demosthenes. Importance Athenian defeat broke the naval dominance of the eastern Mediterranean by the Athenians, led to their downfall as the dominant Greek polis, and kept them from possibly establishing…
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NAVIES IN THE CONTINENTAL POWER STRUGGLE
Peace was more common than war in the Baltic from 1721 to 1814 but there were also long periods of tensions and diplomatic and military preparations for war. Europe during this period was involved in almost constant negotiations about alliances and alignments between the various powers shifted frequently. Historians have…
Naval warfare in Latin America (1858-70)
Artist’s rendering of Punta Gruesa battle, 1879. The wreck of the Independencia at Punta Gruesa, oil by Thomas Somerscales. Artist’s conception of the Chilean battle fleet at Angamos, October 8, 1879, when they took the then-Peruvian ironclad Huáscar (foreground). In this rendering, the Chilean gunners have not yet found the…
Ottoman Naval Tactics
During the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the invading Turks faced a major challenge. The Byzantines had erected a giant chain across the Golden Horn, a stretch of water that connected Constantinople to the sea. This chain effectively blocked the Ottoman navy from making their way to the enemy…
Battles of Naupactus and Chalcis (429, summer) – Peloponnesian War
Phormio’s strategy: The Athenians (red) sail around the circled Peloponnesian ships (black). The Athenians risk a sudden attack by exposing their flanks to the enemy, but by compressing the Peloponnesian circle they cause confusion among the inexperienced Peloponnesian crews. Red brackets indicates roughly where the battle took place. We can…
After Bismarck I
Destroyer HMS Maori (F24) underway, coastal waters. HMS Maori Sinking. Legend has it that, after a Bismarck officer was hauled up over the side of HMS Dorsetshire, plucked from a watery grave by the willing hands of his enemies, he told his British rescuers: ‘Us today, you tomorrow.’1 And so…
Soviet Naval Activity – Post WWII
In the immediate post-war years the only naval units of even marginal significance were three battleships: a Russian vessel dating back to tsarist times and two British ships of First World War vintage, which had been lent to the USSR during the war. One of the latter was returned to…