An Encyclopedia of Naval History

Product Information

It is a glimpse into a bygone world, captured shortly before the beginning of the Dreadnought naval arms race that foreshadowed the calamity of the First World War.

After that, the Italian Wars (1494 –1559) stimulated the growth of the French and Spanish galley navies. Sweden and Denmark traditionally regarded it as important that the other power should not be able to control the Baltic Sea, and this shaped their naval policy.Dedicated to the history of all ships of the industrial era and 20th century, so 1820 to 1990, but also earlier times. What sets Tucker's, The Civil War Naval Encyclopedia, apart is that it combines many of the issues that are covered in these other publications into an easy to navigate, two-volume set. It's full of unexpected gems, from the typography in the ads (I just love "Phosphor Bronze" on Page 1) to the ahead-of-its-time multimedia approach with pages that combine maps, photographs, sketches, and text. At this time the harnessing of steam propulsion and the use of screw propellers rendered sails obsolete, iron (and later steel) plating replaced timbers in the hulls and protective sheathing of ships, and rifle-barreled, breech-loading guns firing high-explosive shells greatly increased the range and destructive power of warship batteries.

In the Levant, Venice and the Ottomans began to build sailing navies in the 1670s, although information about the latter navy is incomplete. An avid miniatures wargamer, Jane first published All the World's Fighting Ships (known as Jane's Fighting Ships after 1905) in 1898, which catalogued all the warships operated by each country, their armaments, and other details, as a supplement to a wargame he designed.But at the end of his life (1920) Fisher was convinced that air power was inseparable from sea power in any future conflict, and that the capital ship had had her day—a glimpse of what was to happen in the Second World War to the Prince of Wales, Repulse, and Hood. Sometimes we discover new information that changes what we know about an object, such as who made it or used it. All pages were then subjected to a "preflight" image manipulation that increased page size from the scanned size of approximately 7. When in June 1808 Sir Arthur Wellesley (the future Wellington) spoke in Parliament of the navy as ‘the characteristic and constitutional force of Britain’, he was expressing a national sense of obligation to a service which, resolutely administered by Middleton (Barham) since 1778, and liberally provided for by Pitt in the 1780s, had earlier withstood the unprecedented challenges of the American War and had next reaped the laurels of victory under exceptional commanders. Wars at sea were fought with infantry weapons and they could be used on merchantmen temporarily armed for war.

There is also, necessarily, a vast organization for the administration and upkeep of these warships. these ports, joined by Winchelsea and Rye, provided the ‘drive’ for assembling royal fleets, though under Henry III ( c. Within the period 1867–90 there was a breath-taking acceleration in the power of warships, but seamen of all ranks lacked the training to exploit these advances. It soon became evident that the ship that was powerful enough to be the mainstay of the fighting fleet was too large and too expensive—and also too heavy and too slow—to serve those functions of sea power that required numerous armed ships of good speed. The Mediterranean powers preferred galleys, which at least up to the mid-sixteenth century proved viable as a weapons system in competition with sailing warships, which were still in their infancy.Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single entry from a reference work in OR for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). It became obvious that fewer large ships with heavier guns had an advantage over more numerous smaller ships. Through to the coming of the steam-powered ‘ironclad’ this was the basic character of the warship; the teamwork, ensuring high rates of fire, inculcated in motley crews described in the 18th cent. Such were the ships that won the great English victory in 1588 over the Spanish Armada, which contained large, slow ships with relatively few easily reloadable guns.

The form will be sent to our Collections Management Team who will use it to improve our object records. The age-old side rudder also gave place to the stern-post rudder aligned on the keel, facilitating steering a few points off the wind. Maritime cities with many large cargo carriers could rapidly form powerful navies, and mercantile power was easily converted into sea power. After her last refit in 2023, the present ship has been repainted anew, modernized and made more appealing, ready for even more extensive service, hopefully staying in the current state for the next five years of service.

In addition, topics such as the everyday life of ship crews, the most important waterways and ports and the role of logistics are also included. Around 170 years later, when England faced the Armada in 1588, only 14 of the 177 private ships enlisted for service were over 200 tons, and only 5 of the 34 ‘Queen's Ships’ exceeded 500 tons.