prior to the Acts of Union, 1707, the maritime history of the british Isles was largely dominated by that of England. ( See Maritime history of England for more details. )
chronology [edit ]
eighteenth hundred [edit ]
The independent british export in the eighteenth century was corn whiskey. [ citation needed ] Lloyd ‘s list was established in 1734 and Lloyd ‘s Register in 1764/5. The Marine Society was set up in 1756 with the bearing of sending inadequate boys to sea.
Steam technology was first applied to boats in the 1770s but sailing ships continued to be developed. In 1794 an experimental steam powered ship called the Kent was built which showed designers the way forward. Nathanial Symonds demonstrated a sinking boat in 1729. Towards the end of the century, the Napoleonic Wars started with Napoleon, late crowned as french Emperor, and naval battles continued into the nineteenth century .
nineteenth hundred [edit ]
In 1801 a steamer called the Charlotte Dundas ran trials on a canal near Glasgow, towing barges. In 1815 Pierre Andriel crossed the English Channel aboard the steamer Élise. By the mid-century steamboats were a common sight on british rivers and canals. regular steamer sailings across the Atlantic started in the 1830s. Shipbuilders began using iron rather of wood as the ships could be made larger with more cargo space. Ships besides began to be fitted with steam engines and paddle wheels but the latter was found to be unsuited to open sea use. From the 1840s screw propellers replaced paddles. In the 1870s raw more efficient engines were introduced thus that sailing ships began to be phased out. From the 1880s sword began to replace iron for the hulls. Because of the quad required for coal and the bombastic crew requirements on steamships, sailing ships were favoured for long voyages and reached a design point with the clippers used for transporting tea and wool. Steamships gradually replaced sailing ships for commercial ship during the nineteenth century, peculiarly after more efficient engine designs were developed in the late part of the period. The Battle of Navarino in 1827 was the last to be fought by the Royal Navy entirely with sailing ships. By the conclusion of the hundred submarine design had progressed sufficiently to be useful, as had the design of torpedoes .
Twentieth century [edit ]
Titanic, days before sinking. RMS, days before dip. At the startle of the century 25 % of the global ‘s trade was through british ports, 18 % of this being to North America. Trans-oceanic travel was crucial at the start of the century with transatlantic liners competing for the “ Blue Riband “ for the fastest crossing. A significant event was the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. This led to the Global Maritime Distress Safety System and to the Iceberg Patrol. The rise of air travel led to a decrease in ocean travel but then, towards the end of the hundred, cruise ships became important again. During the twentieth century raw types of cargo ships appeared – the container embark, the oil tanker and the gasoline container transport. specialize ports for handling these were besides developed. Most warships used steam propulsion until the advent of the natural gas turbine in the mid separate of the period. Steamships were superseded by diesel-driven cargo ships in the second half of the hundred. Submarines were chiefly powered by a combination of diesel and batteries until the advent of nuclear marine propulsion in 1955. There were two major wars against Germany and its allies that saw a massive expansion in naval fleets and the use of air out world power at sea, resulting in the construction of aircraft carriers that became the main centre of ocean power. Both wars saw massive destruction of the british merchant fleet but new construction exceeded the rate of destruction. After World War II there was an initial drop in warship numbers but then the upgrade of the Soviet naval menace resulted in the Cold War with the construction of new warships and submarines. The reduction of the soviet menace at the end of the hundred was offset by threats from early sources and plagiarism a well as sea-borne drug traffic. Cod War, offshore petroleum, gasoline and wind farms. exploitation of curl exponent was started .
twenty-first hundred [edit ]
The get down of the hundred saw the construct of superliners. The Royal Navy saw far reductions in its potency, though new larger aircraft carriers have been promised .
Royal Navy [edit ]
Eighteenth-century navy [edit ]
Under the Acts of Union 1707 in 1707 the Royal Scots Navy merged with the English navy and the British Royal Navy came into being. The early eighteenth century saw the Royal Navy with more ships than early navies. Although it suffered severe fiscal problems through the earlier separate of this period, modern methods of financing government, and in especial the Navy, were developed, This finance enabled the Navy to become the most potent wedge of the late eighteenth century without bankrupting the country. The napoleonic Wars saw the Royal Navy reach a point of efficiency, dominating the navies of all Britain ‘s adversaries. Under William III and Mary II a hospital at Greenwich was founded to relieve the sufferings of british seamen .
Nineteenth-century navy [edit ]
The Battle of Trafalgar. between 1793 and 1815 the Royal Navy lost 344 vessels due to non-combat causes : 75 by foundering, 234 shipwrecked and 15 from accidental burnings or explosions. In the lapp period it lost 103,000 seamen : 84,440 by disease and accidents, 12,680 by shipwreck or founder and 6,540 by enemy action. From the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 until the outbreak of the European War in 1914, Britain had an about uncontested baron over the world ‘s oceans, and it was said that “ Britannia ruled the waves ”. During the Napoleonic Wars, there was increasing tension at ocean between Britain and the United States, as american traders took advantage of their area ‘s neutrality to trade with the French-controlled parts of Europe arsenic well as with the british Isles. The anglo-american War of 1812 was characterised by single-ship actions and the disturbance of merchant transport .
Twentieth-century united states navy [edit ]
Dreadnought hectometer The beginning of the twentieth century saw structural changes in the Navy brought about by the First Sea Lord Jackie Fisher who retired, scrapped or placed in reserve many of the older vessels, making new funds and work force available for newer ships. He saw the development of HMS Dreadnought, the first all-big-gun ship and one of the most influential ships in naval history. This ship rendered all other battleships then existing disused, and indeed lent her list to an entire course of battleships, the dreadnoughts. Admiral Percy Scott introduced new programmes such a gunnery train and central fire command which greatly increased the potency in struggle of the Navy ‘s ships. During the First World War the Royal Navy played a vital character in escorting convoy of food, arms and crude materials to Britain. It defeated the german crusade of unrestricted submarine war and prevented the break of the german High Seas Fleet. ampere well as tasks in the Atlantic it besides carried out operations in the Baltic, Mediterranean and Black Sea. In the inter-war years the Royal Navy was stripped of much of its power. The Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, in concert with the deplorable fiscal conditions during the contiguous post-war period and the Great Depression, forced the Admiralty to scrap some capital ships and to cancel plans for newly construction. The London Naval Treaty of 1930 submit fresh capital ship structure until 1937 and reiterated construction limits on cruisers, destroyers and submarines. As external tensions increased in the mid-thirties, the Second London Naval Treaty of 1936 failed to halt the development of a naval arms race and by 1938 treaty limits were efficaciously ignored. The re-armament of the Royal Navy was well under way by this point ; the Royal Navy had constructed the King George V class of 1936 and respective aircraft carriers including Ark Royal. In summation to new construction, respective existing battleships, battlecruisers and heavy cruisers were re-constructed and newly anti-aircraft weaponry reinforced. however, around this time the Imperial Japanese Navy and the United States Navy began to surpass the Royal Navy in ability. After the second gear World War, the decline of the british Empire and economic hardships in Britain forced reduction in size and capability of the Royal Navy. The increasingly potent United States Navy took on the erstwhile character of the Royal Navy as a means of keeping peace around the worldly concern. however, the threat of the Soviet Union created a new function for the Navy within NATO .
Ark Royal in 1976. HMSin 1976. The 1960s saw the peak of the Royal Navy ‘s capabilities in the post-war earned run average. The fleet carriers Ark Royal, Eagle, the rebuild Victorious, Hermes and Centaur gave the Royal Navy the most knock-down fleet outside the United States. The united states navy besides had a large fleet of frigates and destroyers. New, more modern units like the County-class destroyers and Leander class-frigates began to enter avail in the 1960s. At this time the Royal Navy received its first nuclear weapons and was to become responsible for the maintenance of the UK ‘s nuclear deterrent. however, a british labour party government came into power and was determined to cut defense expending. After this the united states navy began to fall in size and by 1979 the final flit carrier was scrapped. The dark blue was forced to make do with three much smaller Invincible -class aircraft carriers with Sea Harrier aircraft. The fleet was immediately centred around anti-submarine war in the North Atlantic. Further Defence Reviews have far cut the Royal Navy. Although the Royal Navy has significantly reduced in size since the 1960s, reflecting the deoxidize requirements of the state, this does not take into account the increase in technical capability of the Navy ‘s ships. The dark blue is responsible for the british strategic nuclear hindrance. It concentrates on anti-submarine war and mine countermeasures as part of NATO .
The Navy Board [edit ]
The Navy Board was creditworthy for providing the ships and the men to man them, including warrant Officers. The Impress Service recruited volunteers but besides took many against their will. After 1740 the Admiralty gained operate over the Navy Board .
Ministry of Defence [edit ]
In 1964 the Admiralty and the Navy Board became share of the integrated Ministry of Defence. This included the Fleet Air Arm .
noteworthy wars [edit ]
American Wars [edit ]
During the american Revolution, a primitive submarine tried and failed to sink a british warship, HMS Eagle the flagship of the blockers, in New York City harbor in 1776. John Paul Jones attacked british embark in the Irish Sea and besides the towns of Whitehaven and Kirkcudbright. In the anglo-american War of 1812, an unsuccessful submarine attack was made on a british warship stationed in New London harbor .
french Revolutionary/Napoleonic Wars [edit ]
In 1793 France declared war on Britain. The future 12 years saw many battles such as that at Cape St. Vincent and at the Battle of the Nile, and ephemeral truces such as the Treaty of Amiens. The acme of the Royal Navy ‘s achievements came on 21 October 1805 at the Battle of Trafalgar, where a numerically smaller but more feel british fleet under the command of Lord Horatio Nelson decisively defeated a combine french and spanish fleet .
nautical events of World War I [edit ]
At the start of the war the german Empire had cruisers scattered across the ball. Some of them were subsequently used to attack Allied merchant ship. The Royal Navy systematically hunted them down, though not without some embarrassment from its inability to protect Allied ship. For example, the detach light cruiser Emden, part of the East-Asia squadron stationed at Qingdao, seized or destroyed 15 merchantmen a well as sinking a russian cabin cruiser and a french destroyer. however, the bulge of the East-Asia squadron – consist of the armored cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, light cruisers Nürnberg, Leipzig, and Dresden and two transport ships – did not have orders to raid transportation and was rather afoot to Germany when it was defeated by the british at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in December 1914, with only Dresden escaping destruction .
The Battle of Jutland was the major ocean struggle of the First World War. Although the british Grand Fleet suffered greater losses than the german High Seas Fleet, the latter disengage to port and the british retained control of the North Sea. soon after the outbreak of hostilities the british initiated a Naval Blockade of Germany, preventing supplies from reaching its ports. The strategy proved effective, cutting off vital military and civilian supplies, though this blockade violated broadly accepted external law codified by several international agreements of the past two centuries. A obstruct of station ships within a three-mile ( 5 kilometer ) radius was considered lawful, however Britain mined external waters to prevent any ships from entering stallion sections of ocean, causing danger to neutral ships. Since there was express reception to this tactic, Germany expected a exchangeable response to its unrestricted submarine war. german U-boats attempted to cut the provide lines between North America and Britain during the First Battle of the Atlantic. The nature of submarine war meant that attacks frequently came without admonitory, giving the crew of the merchant ships short hope of survival. The United States launched a protest and Germany modified its rules of engagement. After the ill-famed sink of the passenger ship RMS Lusitania in 1915, Germany promised not to target passenger liners. Britain armed its merchant ships. finally in early 1917 Germany adopted a policy of unrestricted submarine war, realizing the Americans would finally enter the war. Germany sought to strangle Allied sea lanes before the US could transport a large united states army overseas. The U-boat threat lessened in 1917 when merchant ships travelled in convoys escorted by destroyers. This tactic made it difficult for U-boats to find targets. The accompanying destroyers might sink a submerged submarine with astuteness charges. The losses to submarine attacks were reduced significantly, but the convoy system slowed the run of supplies. The solution to the delays was a massive plan to build new freighters. Troop ships were excessively firm for the submarines and did not travel the North Atlantic in convoy. The foremost World War besides saw the first use of aircraft carriers in combat, with Furious launching Sopwith Camels in a successful raid against Zeppelin hangars at Tondern in July 1918 .
nautical events of World War II [edit ]
In the North Atlantic, german U-boats again attempted to cut supply lines to Britain by sinking merchant ships. In the first four months of the war they sank more than 110 vessels. In addition to supply ships, the U-boats occasionally attacked british and canadian warships. One submarine sank the british mailman Courageous while another managed to sink the battleship Royal Oak at her home anchorage of Scapa Flow .
A WWII bill poster In the early stages of the war the Royal Navy placed a lot faith in ASDIC ( an early form of active sonar ) to detect submerge U-boats but the Germans countered this by the use of the “ wolfpack “ which attacked on the surface at night. To form this tamp down, the U-boats communicated to their base by radio, to coordinate the legal action of several U-boats. The british finally broke the german Naval code, which allowed this tactic to be defeated. The Germans then switched to attacking shipping off the american coast .
Hood sinking after a catastrophic explosion during battle with Bismarck. HMSsinking after a catastrophic explosion during battle with The british sank the Deutschland -class cabin cruiser Admiral Graf Spee in December 1939 and the battleship Bismarck in 1941. however the terror caused by the Tirpitz was only anticipate late after many attacks. The Royal Navy suffered significant losses in the early stages of the war including the battlecruisers Hood, which had been sunk by Bismarck, and Repulse and the battleship Prince of Wales, both of which were sunk by japanese bombers in deep 1941. The Royal Navy provided critical cover for the british and french troops during the Dunkirk evacuation and rescued the bulk of the troops, the remainder being evacuated by a fleet of humble ships. late the Navy provided cover for the Dieppe Raid catastrophe, that saw 3,623 of the 6,086 men who made it ashore killed, wounded, or captured. In the summer of 1941, the Soviet Union entered the war on the side of Britain. Although the Soviets had enormous reserves in work force, they had lost a lot of their equipment and fabricate basis in the first few weeks following the german invasion. The Allies attempted to remedy this by sending Arctic convoy, which travelled from Britain and late the United States to the northern ports of the Soviet Union, Arkhangelsk ( Archangel ) and Murmansk. The punic route around the North Cape of Norway was the locate of many battles as the Germans continually tried to disrupt the convoys using U-boats, bombers and surface ships. Malta was an important basis for attacking the Axis issue lines to North Africa. Submarines, aircraft and surface ships were used from maltese bases. In 1941 “ Force K “ was based in Malta which caused the Italians to suspend their convoys but the Germans insisted that they be resumed. Force K ran into a minefield and warships were besides lost by attacks by U-boats and human torpedoes. Axis aircraft attacked Allied provide convoys to Malta and the site became desperate. finally in 1942 “ Operation Pedestal “, 14 ships with a large date was sent. however, alone 5 ships got through and many escorts were lost. The renewed attacks by the submarine wedge prevented full use of the Axis held port of Tobruk and finally to victory in North Africa. Gibraltar was besides an important naval base, as was Alexandria. In recently 1941 Winston Churchill tried to prevent japanese aggression against british territories in the Far East by sending a naval hindrance called “ Force Z ”. The Royal Navy could only spare one newfangled battleship, HMS Prince of Wales, an old battlecruiser HMS Repulse and the carrier HMS Indomitable. The latter hit an chartless rock and was put out of action but Churchill insisted on the other two ships being sent. They arrived at Singapore on 2 December 1941. A day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the ships with escorting destroyers sailed to attack japanese transports. They were spotted by reconnaissance aircraft and finally sunk by torpedoes from planes. The turning orient in the “ second Battle of the Atlantic “ was in early 1943 as the Allies refined their naval tactics, making effective consumption of new engineering to counter the U-boats. The Allies produced ships faster than they were sunk and lost fewer ships by re-adopting the convoy system. Improved anti-submarine war think of that the life anticipation of a distinctive submarine crew would be measured in months. The vastly improved Type 21 submarine appeared at the end of the war but was excessively late to affect the consequence. In December 1943 the last major ocean battle between the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine ( War navy ) took place. At the “ Battle of North Cape “ Germany ‘s battleship Scharnhorst was sunk by HMS Duke of York, HMS Belfast and several destroyers. For the D-Day landings in 1944 the Royal Navy provided most of the warships and three-quarters of the landing craft. After the german surrender, a wedge was sent to the Pacific Ocean to attack the Japanese .
Post World War II operations [edit ]
Since the late 1950s, the United Kingdom became engaged in a drawn-out challenge with Iceland over fishing rights in North Atlantic waters. The Royal Navy, along with tugs from the MAFF and British civilian trawlers, was involved in three major confrontations with the Icelandic Coast Guard from 1958 to 1976. These largely ashen clashes became known as the Cod Wars, and consisted in a series of close encounters and rammings between Icelandic gunboats and british frigates and tugs. A sum of 15 Royal Navy warships and five Icelandic gunboats were damaged in different degrees during the one-third conflict only. [ 3 ] The dispute ended in June 1976 with the recognition by Britain of Iceland ‘s exclusive 200 nautical miles fishery zone. The Falklands War was fought in 1982 between Argentina and Britain over the quarrel Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Britain was initially taken by surprise by the Argentine fire on the South Atlantic islands, but launched a naval undertaking pull to engage the Argentine Navy and Air Force, and to retake the islands by amphibious attack. A Westland Lynx HAS.2. and three Westland Wasp HAS.1 from the Royal Navy disabled the Argentine submarine ARA Santa Fe with AS-12 air-to-surface missiles in South Georgia and nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sank the light cruiser ARA General Belgrano, but lost the destroyers HMS Sheffield and HMS Coventry and the frigates HMS Ardent and HMS Antelope due to atmosphere approach. The Argentine airstrikes besides sank the bottom Atlantic Conveyor, the logistic ship RFA Sir Galahad and an LCU landing craft from HMS Fearless. Another Argentine bomber, the ARA San Luis, launched a number of unsuccessful attacks on the british undertaking force, [ 4 ] which in bend expended 50 Mk 46 anti-submarine torpedoes during the conflict. [ 5 ] The Argentine ecstasy ARA Isla de los Estados was sunk by HMS Alacrity, while the coaster ARA Monsunen managed to slip away after a hot pastime by the frigates HMS Yarmouth and HMS Broadsword. The assault pull was landed at San Carlos Water, where Royal Navy warships and aircraft shot down 22 argentine fighter-bombers. The british finally prevailed and the islands returned to British operate. The Royal Navy took separate in the 1990 Gulf War, the Kosovo War, the Afghanistan War and the 2003 Iraq War. In August 2005 the Royal Navy rescued seven Russians stranded in a submarine off the Kamchatka Peninsula. Using its Scorpio 45 unmanned mini-sub, the russian submarine was freed from the fish nets and cables that had held the submarine for three days .
luminary individuals [edit ]
Charles Hardy [edit ]
Charles Hardy was a british naval officer and colonial governor. He was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of the british colony of Newfoundland in 1744. In 1758 he and James Wolfe attacked french posts around the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River and destroyed all of the french fish stations along the northerly shores of what is nowadays New Brunswick and along the Gaspé Peninsula .
Augustus Keppel [edit ]
Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel was a british admiral who held ocean command during the Seven Years ‘ War and during the American Revolutionary War. In the final years of the latter conflict he served as First Lord of the Admiralty. During the Seven Years ‘ War he had seen constant service. He was in North America in 1755, on the coast of France in 1756, was dispatched on a cruise to reduce the french settlements on the west seashore of Africa in 1758 and his ship Neptune ( 1683 ) was the first to get into action at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759. In 1757 he had formed part of the court-martial that had condemned Admiral John Byng, but was active among others who endeavoured to secure a amnesty for him. however, neither he nor those who had acted with him could produce any good reason why the prison term should not be carried out. When Spain joined France in 1762 he was sent as second in instruction with Sir George Peacock in the expedition which took Havana. His health suffered from the fever which carried off an huge proportion of the soldiers and sailors, but the £25,000 of loot money which he received freed him from the unpleasant position of a younger son of a family ruined by the extravagance of his church father .
Edward Hawke [edit ]
Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke was a naval officer of the Royal Navy. During the War of the austrian succession he was promoted to Rear admiral. In the Seven Years ‘ War Hawke replaced Admiral John Byng as air force officer in the Mediterranean .
Richard Howe [edit ]
Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe was a british admiral. During the rebellion in North America, Howe was known to be sympathetic to the colonists. He had in anterior years sought the acquaintance of Benjamin Franklin, who was a acquaintance of Howe ‘s sister, a popular lady in London club. During his career Howe displayed an rare tactical originality. His performance was unexcelled even by Nelson who, like Howe ‘s other successors, was served by more highly trail squadrons and benefitted from Howe ‘s concepts .
Horatio Nelson [edit ]
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson was a british admiral who was celebrated for his engagement in the ocean battles of the Napoleonic Wars, most notably at the Battle of Trafalgar a critical british victory where he lost his life. He was born in 1758 in Norfolk and in 1771 joined Raisonnable ( 1768 ). By the time he was 20 he had been to the Arctic, the Indies and the Caribbean. He was appointed Lieutenant in 1777, Post-Captain in 1779 and Commodore in 1796. He took separate in the campaign in Corsica in 1794 where he lost his correct eye. In 1797 he was at the battle of Cape St. Vincent at which he was promoted Rear Admiral of the Blue. That year he lost his right weapon after the raid on Santa Cruz, Tenerife and was knighted. In 1798 he fought the french flit at the Battle of the Nile in Abu Qir Bay, Egypt and was given the title “ Baron of the Nile ”. Nelson was noted for his considerable ability to inspire and bring out the best in his men, to the point that it gained a appoint “ The Nelson Touch ”. His actions during these battles meant that before and after his death he was revered like few military figures have been throughout british history. Alexander Davidson was a contemporary and close supporter of Nelson and is creditworthy for several acts that glorified Nelson ‘s populace image. These included the creation of a decoration commemorating the victory at the Battle of Trafalgar and the creation of the Nelson Memorial at his estate in Swarland, Northumberland. As a close up ally of the Admiral he acted as an mediator when Nelson ‘s marriage to his wife Frances Nelson fell apart ascribable in big part to his affair with Emma Hamilton .
Hyde Parker [edit ]
In 1778 Sir Hyde Parker was engaged in the Savannah expedition, and in the following year his ship was wrecked on the hostile Cuban coast. His men, however, entrenched themselves and in the end were brought off safely. Parker was with his father, Sir Hyde Parker, 5th Baronet at the Dogger Bank and with Richard Howe in the two actions in the Strait of Gibraltar. In 1793, having just become rear Admiral, he served under Sir Samuel Hood at Toulon and in Corsica. Two years late, now a Vice Admiral, he took separate under William Hotham in the indecisive flit actions in 1795. From 1796 to 1800 he was in command at Jamaica and competently conducted the operations in the West Indies .
Edward Pellew [edit ]
Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, was a british naval military officer who fought during the American War of Independence, the french Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. Pellegrew is remembered as an officeholder and gentleman, earning his farming and titles through courage, leadership and skill – serve as a paradigm of the versatility and determination of naval officers during the Napoleonic Wars .
James Saumarez [edit ]
James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez was an admiral of the Royal Navy, celebrated for his victory at the Battle of Algeciras Bay. In 1801 he was raised to the rank of Rear Admiral of the Blue, was created a baronet and received the command of a small squadron which was destined to watch the movements of the spanish fleet at Cádiz. Between 6 and 12 July he performed a brilliant man of service, in which after a first repel at Algeciras he routed a much ranking combined force of french and spanish ships at the Battle of Algeciras Bay. For his services Saumarez received the order of the Bath and the Freedom of the City of London .
William Dampier [edit ]
William Dampier made voyages from Weymouth to Newfoundland, Java, Jamaica and Honduras. From his experiences he wrote a book A New Voyage Around The World that was much admired and resulted in his control of the first ocean trip of exploration organised by the Admiralty. He reached Australia but found no wealth so it was not a success. Dampier late took up privateering and rescued Alexander Selkirk, which was the footing for Robinson Crusoe .
James Cook [edit ]
James Cook was born in Yorkshire in 1728. Having worked in a denounce, he decided that a life at sea was what he wanted and he became apprenticed to a tauten of Whitby coal shippers. He then joined the dark blue as a seaman and worked his manner up to command. The Royal Society wanted to observe the transit of Venus due in June 1769 and to find the think southern continent. They persuaded the Admiralty to provide a ship and James Cook, a navigator who had prepared charts of the St Lawrence river. For the ocean trip Cook chose the HM Bark Endeavour which was a Whitby coal miner. It was adapted in the Royal Navy Dockyard at Deptford, and scientific instruments for observing the transit were loaded. Accompanying Cook were the astronomer Dr Green, a botanist Joseph Banks and two artists. The Endeavour sailed around Cape Horn to Tahiti, then to New Zealand and last to Australia. After a year at home, Cook took two colliers, Resolution and Adventure, to the Antarctic and then to Tahiti, testing the fresh timekeeper of John Harrison. He made a third voyage, to try to find the Northwest passage, with Resolution and HMS Discovery. After encountering ice he turned back to Hawaii. There he was treated as a god but on leave was forced to return. When Cook tried to take the king hostage, because of the larceny of a ship ‘s boat, he was killed on 14 February 1779 .
George Vancouver [edit ]
George Vancouver was born in King ‘s Lynn in 1757. He became a captain in the Royal Navy and carried out surveys of the west coast of America, using a unlike transport besides called the Discovery (1789), of Australia and New Zealand. Both the city of Vancouver and Vancouver Island are named after him. He besides negotiated agreements with the king of Hawaii but died at the age of 40 .
Admiral Anson [edit ]
George Anson, 1st Baron Anson took a squadron of british ships around Cape Horn in 1740–4 to harass the spanish. He captured several ships, raided the Philippines and visited Canton ( now Guangzhou ). He returned with much gold and eloquent to big acclaim .
Sir John Franklin [edit ]
John Franklin was an officer in the Royal Navy and an Arctic internet explorer. He was born in 1786 and joined the navy at the age of 16. He sailed on Matthew Flinders voyages around Australia and took character in the Battle of Trafalgar, but is best remembered for his four Arctic voyages. He made maps of over 3,000 miles ( 4,800 kilometer ) of the coast of northern Canada. On his concluding ocean trip in 1845 he had two ships the Erebus and the Terror. He was seen off Baffin Island but then disappeared. versatile expeditions were mounted to find him and his crowd. One expedition met Inuit who said that the ships had been crushed in the ice. Messages from the explorers were found but all by and by died. Franklin had died in 1847 and the remainder had tried to travel south. Robert McClure completed the route in 1850 .
James Clarke Ross [edit ]
James Clark Ross surveyed Victoria Land in Antarctica in 1842. The Ross Sea and Ross Island are named after him adenine is a ship of the british Antarctic Survey .
Robert Scott [edit ]
Robert Falcon Scott surveyed the Great Ice Barrier in the Antarctic in 1901–4 in RRS Discovery. He died in 1910 on the travel back from the South Pole.
Ernest Shackleton [edit ]
Ernest Shackleton led an expedition to try to cross Antarctica in 1914. His ship became crushed in the frost but he led 28 men to guard on Elephant Island. To get help Shackleton and six men crossed 800 nautical miles ( 1,500 kilometer ) of sea in an open boat to South Georgia and then crossed the mountains to Grytviken. He returned to rescue all his men from Elephant Island. He died on South Georgia in 1922 .
shipbuilding [edit ]
At the meter of the creation of the United Kingdom, England had crucial royal dockyards at Harwich, Sheerness and Plymouth. A mechanized jam factory was set up at Portsmouth in 1806 that was cheaper and faster than producing them by hand. As shipbuilding centres in the north east of England expanded, those in East Anglia declined. Ship sizes increased in the nineteenth hundred due to the exchange from wood to iron and then steel. Yards in the north east and in Scotland became prevailing. british yards produced the majority of the earth ‘s ship at the end of the hundred, largely roll steamers. In 1913 Britain had 61 % of the world grocery store, with 40 % in 1920 but this had declined to 0.7 % in 1997. modernization of the shipyards took locate in the 1960s allowing construction of supertankers. The british yards were nationalised as part of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 and renamed “ british Shipbuilders “ but were privatised again in the 1980s. Rosyth Dockyard was started in 1909 while HMNB Clyde ( Faslane ) submarine basis was created in the 1960s. american nuclear submarines were based in Holy Loch but have since left .
celebrated ships [edit ]
Cutty Sark [edit ]
The Cutty Sark was a limiter embark built in 1869 in Dumbarton, Scotland, to carry 600 tons of cargo. She raced the Thermopylae and early clippers in the tea trade wind from China and later in the wool trade from Australia. She was capable of sailing at over 17 knots ( 31 kilometers per hour ). Built as a full-rigged ship, she spent her final trade years as a barquentine. She was dismasted in 1916 but restored in 1922 then used as a coach transport. Cutty Sark was taken over by a conservation company in 1952 and moved to Greenwich. In 2007 she was damaged by fire during renovation ferment but is now repaired and offers visitors tours angstrom well as a keepsake shop and a chocolate denounce .
Endeavour [edit ]
HM Bark Endeavour was built in 1768 as a coal miner at Whitby. She was a full-rigged ship and sturdily built with a boastfully hold. Endeavour’s flat-bottomed hull was well suited for sailing in shallow water and was designed to be beached. She was acquired by the Royal Navy, and after a major refit at Deptford she was used by James Cook on his first voyage to the Pacific Ocean. She ran aground on “ Endeavour Reef ” in the Great Barrier Reef but was refloated and repaired. On her return to Britain, Endeavour was used as a storehouse ship and then sold out of the united states navy and used as a merchant transport. Her later destiny is uncertain. A replica of Endeavour was built in Fremantle from the original drawings, starting in 1988. This was completed in 1994 and Endeavour undertook a voyage to Whitby where she stayed from 1997 to 2003. She is now at the australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney .
Great Britain [edit ]
The SS Great Britain was Isambard Kingdom Brunel ‘s second embark design, after a wooden paddle soft-shell clam called the SS Great Western. She was the first steamer to make regular crossings of the Atlantic. This was the foremost large iron steamer and the first to use a screw propeller. After a long career she was abandoned in the Falkland Islands but was brought back to the dry dock in Bristol in which she was built. There she has been restored .
Great Eastern [edit ]
The SS Great Eastern was launched in 1858 and was six times bigger than any embark before. She was the third ship designed by Brunel. The Great Eastern had six masts a well as coal fired engines driving paddle wheels. It was designed to carry enough coal to travel to Australia and tax return, and was intended to carry 4,000 passengers ( or 10,000 soldiers ). workplace started on the ship in 1854 but there were many problems in build up and launching the ship. After fitting out at Deptford she undertook trials in September 1859 but the heater attached to the paddle engine boilers exploded. As the embark had been fitted with unassailable bulkheads she survived and was repaired. Because of the orifice of the Suez Canal, she was not used on the australian route as envisaged but on the Atlantic crossings. Passengers did not like the roll in storms and she was sold to a cable laying company after merely six years. The Great Eastern was used to lay the foremost transatlantic telegraph cable and many others subsequently. She was broken up in 1888 .
Titanic [edit ]
The Titanic and her baby ships Olympic and Britannic were built the White Star Line to outdo the Mauretania and Lusitania which belonged to the rival Cunard Line. Titanic was 269 thousand long and weight 45,000 tons. She was described as a luxury hotel at sea and as “ unsinkable ”. She was fitted with a bivalent bottomland and 16 unassailable compartments so that even if two were flooded she would not sink. Titanic departed from Southampton on 10 April 1912 on her maid ocean trip to America. She called at Cherbourg and then Queenstown ( now Cobh ) before heading for New York City. Despite warnings of iceberg, she continued at 24 knots ( 44 kilometers per hour ) on the night of 14 April. About midnight she hit an iceberg and five compartments started to flood. Two hours afterwards she sank. There were alone enough lifeboats for half the passengers and about 1,500 people perished. In 1985 her wreck was identified by sonar 4,000 thousand down and explored using a remotely operate vehicle ( ROV ). many objects from the shipwreck have been recovered .
Queen Mary [edit ]
RMS Queen Mary was built in 1936 by John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Scotland for what is now the Cunard Line. She made runs across the Atlantic between Southampton, Cherbourg and New York City in partnership with Queen Elizabeth. The Queen Mary was used as a troop ship in the second World War, carrying 16,082 people on one voyage. After the war she resumed Atlantic runs but these became loss take. She was withdrawn from service in 1967 and is now in Long Beach California as a hotel and tourist attraction .
Britannia [edit ]
HMY Brittania was the name given to two yachts owned by the british royal family. The last one of these was built in 1953 and served the british royal family for about 43 years. Britannia is 5862 tons with an overall distance of 412 feet ( 126 m ). During her time in service she steamed 71 million miles. She has been preserved in port at Leith in Scotland. She was designed to be used as a hospital ship in fourth dimension of war but did not undertake this function .
Victory [edit ]
HMS Victory was built between 1759 and 1765 at Chatham Dockyard with over 100 guns. She fought at Ushant in 1778 and 1781, and at Cape St. Vincent in 1796. Victory was reconstructed in 1798 with more guns and then fought at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Later she sailed on many naval expeditions. however, in 1889, Victory became home to the “ naval School of Telegraphy ”. She got into a inadequate state and was restored 1922–8. Victory is now in dry-dock at HMNB Portsmouth ( Portsmouth Historic Dockyard ), where she received some damage in the second World War. Victory is still the flagship of the Second Sea Lord .
Warrior [edit ]
HMS Warrior was built in 1860 in response to the french ship La Gloire. She was the first iron-hulled ironclad, with three skins of cast-iron, teak and cast-iron. Warrior was broadside discharge with 9 long ton gag loading guns. She was described by Napoleon III as a “ black snake amongst the rabbits ”. Her construction started a revolution in shipbuilding which meant that she was soon outclassed. She ended her days as an petroleum breakwater at Pembroke Dock but was restored and has been on display since the 1980s at HMNB Portsmouth .
Belfast [edit ]
HMS Belfast is a Town-class cabin cruiser launched in 1938. At the startle of the Second World War she was character of the storm mounting a blockade on Germany. After sustaining mine price she was reconstructed and became the heaviest cabin cruiser of the class at 11553 tons. Belfast fight in the Battle of North Cape against the Scharnhorst and took depart in operations against Tirpitz. She was share of the bombardment force during the D-Day landings and belated served in the Far East. Belfast besides took character in the Korean War. Belfast was then modernised and went to the Far East again. She was paid off from the Royal Navy in 1963 and is now a museum ship on the River Thames at London .
Navigation [edit ]
Instruments and guides [edit ]
between 1735 and 1760 John Harrison developed four types of marine chronometers for function at ocean to allow accurate determination of longitude. The gyrocompass was introduced in 1908.
Lighthouses [edit ]
The foremost offshore beacon was that built on the Eddystone Rocks in 1699. This was washed away in a bang-up storm but a successor was built. As its foundations were unsatisfactory it was taken down and rebuilt on Plymouth Hoe. The third beacon on the witwatersrand still stands. The first lightship was positioned at the Nore in 1732. Foghorns were incorporated in the nineteenth century to provide warning in low visibility. In the belated 19th and early twentieth century submerged bells were used as warning devices .
Navigation marks [edit ]
Trinity House of Deptford was founded in 1514 to look after navigation marks in the Thames Estuary. exchangeable organisations were founded at other places late. These were subsequently amalgamated and its assurance was increased in 1836. Trinity House now looks after most of the marks in England and Wales, with the Northern Lighthouse Board in Scotland and the Commissioners of Irish Lights for the unharmed of Ireland .
electronic seafaring [edit ]
Ship ‘s radar started to be used during WWII, though it was chiefly for military use. After 1945 when it came off the secret list, it was used commercially by the merchant fleets. Radar is besides used on bring for monitoring the side of embark, for case in the Strait of Dover which is the busiest area of ocean in the world. The Decca Navigator System was a hyperbolic radio navigation organization for commercial use that was installed in the decades after WWII, when it had come off the secret number. It had been used to sweep and mark the channels for the D-Day invasion Operation Overloard. After the end of World War II the Decca Navigator Co. Ltd. was formed to enable commercial manipulation, and the system expanded quickly, particularly in areas of british charm. It gave alone accuracy until the advent of GPS satellite-based systems. At its vertex it was deployed in many of the world ‘s major shipping areas. More than 15,000 receiving sets were in use aboard ships in 1970. There were 4 transmitting “ chains ” around England, 1 in Ireland and 2 in Scotland, 12 in Scandinavia and a number elsewhere in the universe. It was lone phased out after the USA GPS signals became available for public use in 2001. electronic echo looking was introduced in the 1930s to determine water depth and was utilitarian in shoal waters .
condom and rescue [edit ]
Plimsoll agate line [edit ]
In the nineteenth century it was sometimes the practice to send heavy insured “ coffin ships “ to sea that were old, ailing maintained and overloaded. In 1868 Samuel Plimsoll became concerned by the scandal and published Our Seamen which revealed the position. A load note ( which became known as the Plimsoll Line ) was required by the Merchant Shipping Act of 1876 but it was not until 1890 that the Board of Trade became responsible for determining where it should be .
Lifeboats [edit ]
There were some locally organised lifeboats in the eighteenth hundred, the inaugural being in 1789 as a consequence of a tragic accident at the entrance to the River Tyne. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution was founded by Sir William Hillary in 1824 and is financed voluntarily. It maintains many lifeboats and lifeboat stations around the coast of Britain, the stations being run by pay up engineers but by and large manned by local anesthetic volunteers. An exception is the station at Spurn Head which is isolated so it is manned amply by paid crowd. The boats were rowed with oars until the 1890s when steam-driven boats began to be introduced. Nowadays there are large diesel-driven offshore boats and small fast inshore boats. In some places hovercraft are used for rescues. The RNLI boats cooperate with the other rescue services, particularly the rescue helicopters .
Maritime and Coastguard Agency [edit ]
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency was formed in 1998 to look after safety in british waters. It coordinates the search rescue services and determines safety standards. It incorporated the Coastguard Agency, that had been formed from Her Majesty ‘s Coastguard, and the Marine Safety Agency .
Ports and harbours [edit ]
Around the slide of Britain there are hundreds of ports and harbours, varying from the bantam ( such as Porlock Weir ) to the boastfully ( such as the Port of Felixstowe ). Ships were besides just drawn up on beaches. Over the centuries the relative importance of each port and harbor has changed due to such factors as silt up and trade wind alterations. In late periods deep water system access has been a major factor in determining a port ‘s success. In the eighteenth hundred there were major harbor improvements with dredge of channels and construction of piers. wet docks were built at London, Liverpool, Hull and Bristol. London was still the largest port in the nineteenth hundred when newly docks were built. cardiff became a major coal exporting port after a railway liaison was built, as did other South Wales ports. The railways were responsible for developing new ports such angstrom Newhaven as ferry terminals and the Manchester Ship Canal enabled Manchester to become a meaning port though far inland .
Scene in a british dockyard during WWII When oil replaced coal after the first World War, coal ports like Cardiff declined. London, Southampton, Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow increased in trade during the inter-war years, and ferry ports such as Harwich and Dover grew. vegetable oil terminals were built from the 1920s and the larger ships required fresh docks at existing ports. After the second World War modern cargo handling methods were introduced, such as pallets ( 1950 ), containerisation ( 1960s ) and roll-on/roll-off ships. Dockers at some ports resisted this change indeed lead to the development of new facilities at ports such as Felixstowe and Tilbury. Older port facilities became pleonastic and were redeveloped, such as Canary Wharf in London. In 1977 the major ports of Britain were London, Tees and Hartlepool, Grimsby and Immingham, Forth, and Milford Haven. Many of the little ports were redeveloped as marinas, such as Watchet .
Trade [edit ]
Goods [edit ]
The Navigation Ordinance of 1651 dilute out Dutch shippers from English trade which led to war. In the seventeenth century trade expanded with imports of fish and boodle. Exports were of corn and manufactured goods. The royal african Company had a monopoly of the African trade until 1712 but there was a lot privateering. later a major separate of this craft was in the “ triangular trade wind “ which involved taking goods from Britain to West Africa, slaves from Africa to the West Indies and America, then sugar to Britain. The main ports involved were London, Bristol and Liverpool but there were many others, with a total of 11,615 sailings with 3.4 million slaves between 1662 and 1807. William Wilberforce and his supporters got the slave trade wind abolished in 1808 and subsequently the Royal Navy tried to suppress it. In 1600 Queen Elizabeth had given the Honourable East India Company the right to trade east of the Cape of Good Hope. By 1804 the company ‘s evanesce from India was said to be worth £6M. The Virginia Company failed in 1624. The South Sea Company had been set up to trade in the Pacific but became involved in domestic politics. The levant party was set up to trade with Turkey. The Industrial Revolution caused a boastfully increase in shipping movements. crude materials were imported and manufactured goods were exported. In addition there was a need for char. In the nineteenth hundred Britain built up the largest merchant evanesce in the populace. Around half the ocean-going tonnage was under the Red Ensign. Examinations for masters and mates of large merchant ships were introduced in 1845 for foreign-going ships and in 1854 for coastal ones. Engineers tickets were required after 1862. Logs were required to be kept after 1850. In the First World War a fifth of Britain ‘s pre-war merchant ship had been sunk by 1917, including 1349 ships in August of that year. Most deep water ships were sunk by torpedoes while most coastal ones hit mines. The fleets of impersonal countries had expanded and in the 1920s there was a slump in shipping. Development of refrigerated ships allowed the importing of lamb and other meats from places such as New Zealand. A big total of merchant ships were sunk in the second gear World War, but Britain ‘s evanesce had expanded by the end due to new construction. In the 1950s “ flags of Convenience “ were taking an increasing contribution of world deal and the eastern Bloc ‘s ship was expanding to earn foreign currency. Excluding tankers and the US War Reserve, Britain still had the world ‘s largest merchant fleet in 1957. however, since then there has been a sharp descent, partially because of “ re-flagging ” to cut costs. Britain now the world ‘s fifth largest trade nation, exports 26 % of its gross domestic merchandise with 95 % of this trade going by sea .
passenger liners [edit ]
The first toddle steamer was used in 1793 and by 1821 there were services between Leith and London. The first british steamer to cross the Atlantic was the Sirius in 1838, close followed by the Great Western. The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company was originally set up to take passengers to Gibraltar and this was extended to India, the party finally becoming “ P & O ”. The “ White Star Line “ primitively concentrated on the emigrant trade but had fast liners after 1871. During wartime the liners were used as parade ships. Southampton became the chief passenger port because of its cryptic seaport with four tides .
Some 20,000 people emigrated from Britain to North America in the 20 years after the Mayflower ‘s voyage. After the loss of the american Colonies, Britain used Australia as a penal colony. The first Fleet in 1787 consisted of 1,200 people including 780 convicts. After the second World War emigrants travelled by sea to the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand .
Ferries and cruise boats [edit ]
Ferries operate across the English Channel, the Irish Sea, to the Isle of Man, to the Isle of Wight, the Isles of Scilly and to many scots islands. Ships have credibly sailed these routes since prehistoric times. however, unconstipated ferry services ( apart from Mersey Ferry which started in 1200s ) only started in the eighteenth hundred. On the Isle of Man road, sailing ships were used until 1830 but steamships proved faster and more dependable. The ferry barter expanded with the advent of roll-on/roll-off ship designs. The ferries across the english Channel were badly affected by the hatchway of the Channel Tunnel in 1994. Cruise boats became popular in the nineteenth hundred. They operated from beaches in Dorset and Devon, and from Liverpool to North Wales. They besides operated in the River Clyde, Thames and Bristol Channel. A paddle steamer, the Waverley built in 1946, is still running, making trips for case to Lundy .
Customs men and smugglers [edit ]
Customs duties are account payable on stipulate goods imported or exported. The range of goods on which there are charges has varied over time. Customs men were put into the versatile ports and they tried to keep watch over the border coasts. These boards were combined as the Board of Customs and Excise ( late Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise, which was formed in 1909, and became part of Her Majesty ‘s Revenue and Customs in 2005. In the 18th and 19th centuries there was across-the-board smuggle by sea from the celibate to Britain because of the high gear duty on lavishness goods. The late was to finance the wars with France and the United States. Silks, spirits and tobacco came from France while snare came from the Netherlands. tax income cutters were used to try and intercept the smugglers but with little success. After the Napoleonic Wars there was excess work force that was used to try and suppress smuggling. In certain areas ( such as in Kent and Cornwall ) smuggle was for many communities more economically significant than legal activities such as agrarian or fish .
Fishing [edit ]
In the 19th and early twentieth centuries herring fishing was a major activeness in Britain. Herring fish stopped in England and Wales during the 1960s but continued in Scotland until 1977/8. In 1937 the herring catch at Yarmouth dropped dramatically, then that at Lowestoft declined .
Unloading fish on the fishing boat “ Silvery Sea ” in Mallaig harbor, Scotland, in 1977. This boat bury with all hands lost after a collision off the Danish seashore in 1998. trawl has besides been a major bodily process, with the use of radio navigation aids and repeat sounders making life easier now. Fishing in waters off Iceland became significant, which led to three “ Cod Wars “ from the 1950s to the 1970s. british boats were excluded from Icelandic waters in 1976. In 1977 a 200-mile ( 320 kilometer ) fish limit was set up by the european Economic Community, and british waters were opened to early Community members. This led to overfishing. Landings decreased 28 % between 1967 and 1997, with fishing now chiefly off Scotland. early sorts of fish besides take place on a commercial basis such as for gripe, lobster, mollusk and mackerel. Sport fishing is democratic from coasts and boats, including for shark off south west England. In the by local anesthetic conditions led to the development of a wide image of types of fish boats. The bawley and the smack were used in the Thames Estuary and off East Anglia, while trawlers and drifters were used on the east coast. In 1870 toddle tugs were being used to tow luggers and smacks to sea. steam trawlers were introduced in 1881, chiefly at Grimsby and Hull. The steam vagrant was not used in the herring fishery until 1897. In 1890 it was estimated that there were 20,000 men on the North Sea. The first gear trawlers fished over the side but in 1961 the first stern trawler was used at Lowestoft for fishing in Arctic waters. By 1981 merely 27 of 130 deep sea trawlers were silent going to sea. many were converted to oil rig base hit vessels. however the “ inshore ” boats landed a greater weight of fish even in 1973. Herring fish started in the Moray Firth in 1819. The acme of the fishing at Aberdeen was in 1937 with 277 steam trawlers, though the inaugural diesel vagrant was introduced in 1926 .
Energy [edit ]
Gas and vegetable oil [edit ]
The first base british tanker was launched in 1886 and could carry 1,950 tons of petroleum. By 1961 the distinctive tanker was around 80,000 tons which grew to over 100,000 tons by 1967 and to over 250,000 tons by 1973. By 1965 BP had 170 tankers .
The accelerator fields in the North Sea have been in production since the 1960s while vegetable oil was discovered off Scotland in 1975. This led to the development of respective subscribe bases in Scotland. Platform construction has declined since 1985. The at hand decline of North Sea boast has led to the construction of fluid flatulence tankers and meaning facilities at Milford Haven .
vegetable oil spills [edit ]
There have been a number of major oil spills around the seashore of Britain. The crash of the Torrey Canyon in March 1967 resulted in the first major anoint spill. The ship grounded on the Seven Stones reef between Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. The ship was bombed to break it up and detergent used to disperse the 700 km2 oil slick. It is estimated that 15,000 birds were killed and there was besides a large consequence on marine biography. As a resultant role of this incidental many lessons were learned on how to handle such problems and it led to changes in regulations. The ground of MV Braer in January 1993 in Shetland led to the loss of 84,700 tons of unhorse petroleum petroleum. There was again a large impression on wildlife, both birds and mammals. Because of the stormy conditions, the anoint satiny became broken up and had dispersed by October 1994. The Sea Empress hit a rock off Milford Haven in February 1996. Some 730,00 tons of anoint were spilt, resulting in an calculate 5,000 birds being killed with much oil being washed up on beaches. It is estimated that the monetary value of the spill was £60 million .
offshore fart farms [edit ]
Britain started installing wreathe farms off prop up in the year 2000. By February 2007 this had reached 2 GW capability though its average output was much less. It could provide up to 1.5 % of the United Kingdom ‘s electricity. The capacity of offshore wind farms exceeds that of the inshore ones and is expected to rise over the coming years with many proposals being made .
Coast [edit ]
The coastline of the United Kingdom is constantly changing by erosion and deposition of materials. One area suffering from major corrosion is the east coast of England, where in particular the township of Dunwich has been swallowed by the ocean. At one clock it was one of the largest ports in England but is wholly gone. Another seat that was largely destroyed is Hallsands, which was hit by storms in 1917, its defences having been removed by offshore dredging. many beaches have had groynes constructed on them to control the apparent motion of material. Some areas of the UK are now under menace from rising sea levels while in the past the North Sea, Bristol Channel and English Channel have been flooded. The down is besides still recovering from the deposition of ice on northern parts in the last frost long time. Thus southern England is sinking while Scotland is rising. In some cases it has been decided to not defend areas against sea encroachments in storms, such as in Porlock bay, while valuable areas are being protected. The Thames Barrier was completed in 1994 to prevent flood in the upper Thames estuary .
leisure activities [edit ]
Three-colour lantern slide of children playing on a Brighton beach, 6 August 1906, by Otto Pfenninger
Resorts [edit ]
In the eighteenth hundred people began visiting places on the slide of Britain for pleasure. initially this was for aesculapian reasons but became popular when King George III made Weymouth his summer home around 1800 and late King George IV built a palace at Brighton. many resorts such as Blackpool became popular when they were linked by railways to the big conurbations. More recently there has been a decline in popularity of british resorts due to the advent of bum software holidays abroad with their better upwind .
Rowing, yachting and power boats [edit ]
offshore rowing races are democratic in the southwest of England using gigs based on those primitively used in the Isles of Scilly for piloting and attending wrecks a well as smuggling. These are six oared vessels up to about 10 m retentive with closely a 2 molarity radio beam. many yacht cabaret “ one design ” were popular between 1920 and 1960, such as the Salcombe yawl which was later built in plastic as the Devon yawl. late more widespread dinghy designs became more popular, such as the “ enterprise ” introduced in 1960. In the former 19th and early partially of the twentieth hundred capital yachts such as the J-class were built, including “ Shamrock V ” constructed to attempt to win the America ‘s Cup which originated in 1851. Cowes Week has been held since 1826 and includes a race around the Isle of Wight. The Fastnet raceway was first sailed in 1925. The first single-handed circumnavigation by a Briton was by John Gusswell between 1955 and 1959, while the beginning single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race was held in 1960 and won by Francis Chichester. The first base nonstop circumnavigation race in 1968 was won by Robin Knox-Johnston, while the foremost “ wrong way ” circumnavigation was by Chay Blyth in 1970. A Round Britain Single Handed Race was instituted in 1966. A sailing rush world record of 36 knots ( 67 kilometers per hour ) was set at Portland by a catamaran in 1980. Frederick W. Lanchester built the first office boat in 1898 using a 8 horsepower ( 6.0 kilowatt ), water-cooled engine. Since then office boats have been used as run-abouts and for racing, equally good as for water-skiing. Both inboard and outboard engines are used. The british Power Boat Company built many power boats between 1927 and 1946 including Miss Britain III and PT9 that became the basis of Motor Torpedo Boats and the US PT boats during the second gear World War. The power speed record rose from 95 knots ( 176 kilometers per hour ) in 1930 to 123 knots ( 228 kilometers per hour ) in 1939. After the war the record accelerate rose again with runs by Donald Campbell, who was killed during an undertake on the record in 1967 .
Marinas [edit ]
The increasing popularity of yachting and power boating has led to the creation of many purpose-built marinas and the conversion of existing harbours. See List of marina # United Kingdom for those in the United Kingdom .
Marine science [edit ]
Hydrographics [edit ]
The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office ( first the Admiralty then the Ministry of Defence ) is creditworthy for publishing navigational nautical charts in Britain, now with cosmopolitan shroud. It besides produces relate publications. in the first place based in London, it moved to Taunton in the second World War. The Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty was set up in 1795 and had seven vessels by 1820. One of its foreman interests was in finding a Northwest passage around Canada. The first catalog of charts was produced in 1825. The hydrographic squadron still forms part of the Royal Navy .
oceanography [edit ]
One of the first scientific articles on oceanography was by James Cook who included information on the oceans in his report on his voyages between 1768 and 1779. James Rennell wrote the first textbooks about currents in the Atlantic Ocean and indian Ocean around 1800. Sir James Clark Ross took the first sound in the deeply sea in 1840 and Charles Darwin published a paper on reefs and atolls as a resultant role of the moment ocean trip of HMS Beagle ( Beagle ) in 1831–6. The Royal Society sponsored the Challenger ( 1858 ) excursion ( 1872–76 ) that resulted in a 50 volume report, covering biological, physical and geological aspects. The 1910 North Atlantic expedition headed by Sir John Murray and Johan Hjort resulted in the classic book The Depths of the Oceans. The National Oceanographic Laboratory ( later the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences ) was set up at Godalming but was transferred to the Southampton Oceanographic Centre in 1994. The latter was renamed the National Oceanographic Centre. It operates a number of vessels that undertake exploratory cruises a well as respective unmanned vehicles and buoys .
Maritime studies [edit ]
Colleges [edit ]
A phone number of places in the UK put up facilities for the study of the assorted aspects of seamanship, such as Orkney College. These courses lead to Certificates of competence for detail jobs. other places, such as Liverpool John Moores University, provide more academic courses on mercantile practice, transport design and operation. The University of Exeter is one of those places that has specialised in maritime history .
admiralty law [edit ]
Admiralty jurisprudence governing relations between entities that operate vessels on the oceans is cope with by extra courts. There was a high gear Court of Admiralty in London and Vice Admiral ‘s Courts in other ports. originally they dealt with administrative and naval matters but then included piracy cases ( from 1700 ). By the sixteenth hundred they had wide powers but these were late reduced until restored in the nineteenth hundred. Trade disputes generally are dealt with by the commercial motor hotel. The admiralty laws were a outstanding feature in causing the american english Revolution .
law of the sea [edit ]
This is a body of law governing external relations at sea. There have been three United Nations Conventions on the Law of the Sea – in 1956, 1960 and 1967 – which have been ratified by Britain. The last one came into impel in 1994 .
Ship plan [edit ]
in the first place ship design, or naval computer architecture, was by the skill of the shipwright only. In the sixteenth hundred shipwrights were authorised by the crown and under Henry VII a number of passkey shipwrights was produced. A treatise on ship design was written in the sixteenth century. A school of naval architecture was set up at Portsmouth in 1811. Nowadays ship design can be studied at a phone number of colleges in Britain. The master body for ship designers in Britain is the Royal Institution of Naval Architects
Maritime museums [edit ]
The chief nautical museum in Britain is the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich. however, there are closely 300 smaller ones ( including ships ) at assorted ports around Britain. These include museums at Kingston upon Hull, Hartlepool and the oldest Merseyside Maritime Museum at the Royal Albert Dock in Liverpool ampere well as HMNB Portsmouth. These provide much information on the nautical history of Britain .
Maritime archeology [edit ]
Maritime archeology is authoritative in Britain because of the large phone number of shipwrecks around the slide and because of the large areas off the coast that have been submerged by rising ocean levels. The archeology of shipwrecks covers sites from the Bronze Age ahead. many artifacts have been obtained from the southern North Sea, for case. A holocene discovery on the coast was Seahenge. The subject can be studied at universities in Bristol, Bournemouth and Southampton while English Heritage is besides concerned .
maritime subjects in the Arts [edit ]
art [edit ]
many works of Marine artwork have been produced by british artists and on british nautical topics. One of the best know paintings in Britain is “ The Fighting Temeraire “ by J. M. W. Turner that hangs in London ‘s National Gallery. A lot of seaside resorts have art galleries selling marine subjects.
Read more: A Man Quotes Maritime Law To Avoid Ticket
In accession there is art produced by the sailors themselves, such as scrimshaw .
literature [edit ]
Britain has had many authors who wrote on marine topics, the seafaring era being a popular period. Joseph Conrad, who was born in Poland in 1857, came to Britain in 1878 and was naturalised in 1886. He undertook a voyage in a coal miner and then a wool limiter, obtaining a headmaster ‘s ticket in 1887. His last voyage in 1916 was in a Q-ship during the war. Conrad wrote many stories based on his experiences, such as “ Lord Jim “. Basil Lubbock went out to the Klondike and then sailed back from San Francisco on a grain transport. From this he wrote “ Round the Horn before the Mast ” describing the life of an ordinary mariner. After settling down in England he collected facts on sailing ships and wrote books about them. Alan Villiers beginning sailed in a british feather rigger and then in danish ones. He bought a small Danish amply rigged ship and sailed around the world. After his tax return he wrote books about square riggers. many works of fabrication have besides been written, possibly the most celebrated being the series on Horatio Hornblower by C. S. Forester .
music [edit ]
There are a big phone number of sea shanties that have been collected, many by Cecil Sharp at Watchet .
See besides [edit ]
References [edit ]
- Brenton E P (1837). The Naval History of Great Britain.
- Calio J (2004). Who’s Who in Naval History.
- Campbell J (1841). Lives of the British Admirals and Naval History of Great Britain.
- Corbett S (1965). Drake and the Tudor Navy.
- Friel, Ian (2003). Maritime History of Britain and Ireland.
- Harrison H (1980). John Cabot in “The Maritime History of England under the Tudors”.
- Hattendorf, John (2007). Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History.
- Heiney, Paul (2005). Maritime Britain.
- Hervey F (1779). The Naval History of Great Britain, from the earliest times to the rising of Parliament in 1779.
- Mahan A T (1969). Types of Naval Officers drawn from the British Navy.
- Sobecki, S. (2008). The Sea and Medieval English Literature.ISBN 978-1-84615-591-8
- Sobecki, S. (2011). The Sea and Englishness in the Middle Ages: Maritime Narratives, Identity and Culture. ISBN 9781843842767
- Simper, Robert (1982). Britain’s Maritime Heritage.
- Toogood, Brassey and James (1895). Index to Janes Naval History.
- Wilson H W (1896). Ironclads in Action: a sketch of Naval Warfare from 1855 to 1895. London.
