THEMES: NAVY

• REDUCTION IN THE SIZE OF THE NAVY AFTER 1815

  
  

  • Congress of Vienna, 1814-15- a new era of peace in Europe.
  • The role of the Royal Navy after 1815 was to change dramatically.
  • Policing trade routes and protecting British commerce.
  • By 1817, there were only 13 battleships still on active duty.
  • 'Gunboat diplomacy'.
• THE SHIFT FROM SAIL TO STEAM

  • The deeply conservative sea lords were suspicious of the new power source.
  • First steamships commissioned as early as 1820.
  • Not until the 1850s did the Royal Navy begin a programme of building steam-powered battleships, using a screw propeller rather than a paddle and with quick-firing cannons.
  • The navy’s first steam-powered battleship, HMS Agamemnon, was built in 1852 but still had full sail rigging.
• FROM WOOD TO IRON

  • Wooden hulls could only carry their equivalent weight.
  • The French started building ironclads in 1858 and the Royal Navy responded with the first fully iron warship, HMS Warrior, launched in 1860.
  • As iron warships got bigger so did the guns.
  • The new high explosive shells could rip gaping holes in wooden ships.