The Century of The Rise of Navies
The ‘Royal Prince’ and other Vessels at the Four Days Battle, 1–4 June 1666 The seventeenth was the century of the rise of navies. At the start of the century the commercial exclusivity upon the great...
View ArticleThe French Navy in the Nine Years’ War (1688-1697)
The action at La Hogue in May 1692 formed a crucial scene in the wider context of the Battle of Barfleur. This was a naval battle of the War of the League of Augsburg [Nine Years’ War], 1689-97, fought...
View ArticleRussian Ship Types and Classifications – Age of Sail
The Russian sailing navy at the height of its power and efficiency: during a state visit to Britain the Russian squadron at Spithead mans the yards in honour of the Duchess of Clarence, 8 August 1827....
View ArticleThe Dutch Navy Warships of the Napoleonic Era
An watercolour of a small Dutch frigate shown, from two angles in a common convention of ship portraiture. She is flying the ensign of the Batavian Republic, dating it between 1796 and 1806. Prince...
View ArticleCanadian Navy WWII
HMCS Haida is a Tribal-class destroyer that served in the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) from 1943 to 1963, participating in World War II and the Korean War. She was named for the Haida people. The only...
View ArticlePortugal and the Changing Art of War
Portuguese kings needed more revenue by the late fourteenth century especially because of their escalating military costs. These cost increases were mainly a consequence of developments in the...
View ArticleThe Sri Lankan Government Forces – Sri Lankan War I
Background The regular Ceylon Defence Force (CDF) was founded in 1910 although a reserve volunteer force had existed since 1881. The CDF came under the command of the British Army. It was mainly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Royal Navy Readiness for a War with Japan in Mid-1941: Intelligence and...
The latest Royal Navy carriers had the most advanced radar of the day. Aircraft communications systems and direction-finding homing were steadily improved. The Royal Navy continued developing and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Royal Navy Readiness for a War with Japan in Mid-1941: Intelligence and...
Royal Navy air capability in 1941 The Royal Navy required a strategy for dealing with Japan that took realistic account of its available resources in 1941. However, it also needed to apply the right...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Royal Navy Readiness for a War with Japan in Mid-1941: Intelligence and...
Importantly, FECB collaborated closely with NID with inevitable advantages here for intelligence distribution and exploitation. Patrick Beesly, who worked for NID in the war, described FECB as a ‘well...
View ArticleClik here to view.
French Navy: 1870s to 1904 Part II
French battleship design had a style all of its own, backed up by intensive work and study on ship behaviour, though this was often of a theoretical rather than practical kind. Change and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
CHINA DREAMS ON Part II
China’s aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, during military drills in the Pacific. Type 075 class of amphibious assault ship. Every yuan China devotes to projects of questionable worth in South and...
View ArticleCHINA DREAMS ON Part I
Peering through a glass darkly into the future. China is busily accumulating sea power to make President Xi Jinping’s Chinese Dream come true. The dream is about making China great again after it...
View ArticleClik here to view.
THE ALFA ENIGMA
An Alfa on the surface, showing how her sail blends into her hull. A mast is raised forward of the windshield. When the masts were retracted they were covered over to minimize water flow disturbance...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The French Navy After 1815 Part II
An Anglo-French squadron of steamers bombards Odessa in the Black Sea, 22 April 1854. Left to right, the attacking ships are: Terrible (RN), Vauban, Mogador, Sampson (RN), Descartes, Retribution (RN),...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The French Navy After 1815 Part I
In the post-1815 era the French Navy was employed on numerous overseas operations, supporting French colonial expansion or in the service of foreign policy objectives. In 1837-38, for example, France...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sweden’s Early Navy
Gustav Vasa was determined to build up his navy as well as his army, and he sought foreign assistance not only to man his ships but also to design and build them; Scotland was one of the places he...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Third Reich’s Battleship Ambitions
In what was a time of general Allied distress at sea. In the European Theater, the notorious Channel Dash of 11-13 February 1942, by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau with an escort of destroyers and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY “Kaigun.” Part II
From 1942 the Japanese floated several large new fleet carriers and built the world’s largest carrier – the IJN Shinano – utilizing the hull of an unfinished superbattleship. It would be sunk by a USN...
View ArticleClik here to view.
IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY “Kaigun.” Part I
From the late 19th century to the cusp of World War II, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) cleaved to an idée fixe that the defense of Japan was principally its task, rather than the Army’s. For most of...
View Article