BATTLE OF THE SEA

DISEASE, MEDICINE, AND SURGERY 199

MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS SUNRAY TREATMENT Submarine crews back from patrol
take sunray treatment in the depot ship to compensate for
In the 18th century health at sea increasingly became a subject of systematic their lack of exposure to daylight when on active duty.
inquiry and naval medicine was slowly professionalized. Theories of disease The goggles are to protect their eyes.
were still woefully inadequate—the fumes from smelly cheese were thought a
serious health risk by the Royal Navy. But systematic studies by ships’ surgeons
such as James Lind, whose Treatise on Scurvy was published in 1753, encouraged

action by captains and administrators to improve
cleanliness and nutrition. The role of citrus fruit
and fresh vegetables in preventing scurvy was
known from at least the early 17th century, but
organizing a general policy to eradicate the disease
was a slow business. Still, by 1800 the British fleet
blockading Brest could keep 24 ships at sea all
through a summer without crippling death rates.

SURGEON’S INSTRUMENTS A typical naval
surgeon’s chest contained instruments for
amputation, trephination, draining, dentistry,
probing wounds, and bleeding, as well as
copious bandages and cloth for tourniquets.

SICK BERTH Located far away from living quarters I shall here only observe that the result of all my 1550 – 1830
to prevent the spread of disease, the sick berth on an experiments was that oranges and lemons were the
18th-century sailing ship was constructed out of canvas most effectual remedies for this distemper at sea.
screens. During battle the screens were taken down
and patients moved to the orlop level for safety. James Lind, A Treatise of the Scurvy, &,*(

HOSPITAL SHIP Wounded US marines CUTTING THE DEATH RATE
lie in their bunks in close quarters
aboard the USS Bolivar which The introduction of steamships was a boon. They
transferred casualties in the course were healthier above all because they cut voyage
of its service during World War II. times. Food on board improved sharply through the
19th century, and water quality was ameliorated by
storage in iron tanks. The general progress of
medicine and provision of properly qualified medical
staff reduced deaths from disease and wounds
radically by the 20th century. The nature of wounds
in battle altered, with the treatment of flash burns an
unexpected problem for ships’ medical staff in World
War I. But as in the wider body of society, epidemic
disease became a radically diminishing threat.

ONBOARD OPERATION Cooperation between navies
means that an injured American sailor can be taken
300 miles (480 km) to a British aircraft carrier where
surgeons perform damage control surgery on his
fractured ankle in an onboard operating room.

200 GUN, SAIL, AND EMPIRE

early 19th-century

battles

THE EARLY DECADES of the 19th century were the final years of the age of
sail. Up to 1815 this was a time of major warfare—not only the Napoleonic
Wars in Europe but also a stiff contest between the United States and Britain
in the three-year War of 1812.After 1815, however, a period of comparative
peace ensued, especially at sea.The position of superiority enjoyed by Britain’s
Royal Navy on the world’s oceans was overwhelming and unchallenged.The
French, still with the world’s second largest navy, had neither the power nor
the inclination to stop Britannia ruling the waves.The destruction of an
Ottoman fleet at Navarino in 1827 was the last major fleet engagement of the
19th century, because a full-scale challenge to British hegemony was impossible.

GUN, SAIL, AND EMPIRE The Battle of Navarino FOUNDING A The Star-Spangled Banner
The destruction of the Turkish-Egyptian fleet at Navarino TR ADITION This is the flag seen by Francis Scott Key
by the French, British, and Russian allies was the last The United States founded flying over Fort McHenry, Baltimore, during a
battle under sail. Here, an exploding Turkish frigate a naval tradition by fits and British bombardment in 1814. It inspired him
illuminates the approaching allied vessels. The 84-gun starts in this period. Anti- to write The Star-Spangled Banner.
French ship Breslau (left) fires a broadside into the Turks. militarist instincts, which
had seen the Continental ROYAL NAV Y
Ottoman flintlock Navy disbanded after the
Flintlock firearms had rendered the matchlock Revolutionary War, were AT PEACE
obsolete by 1700. By the early 19th century they overcome in 1794 when
had reached a pinnacle of sophistication, as shown Congress agreed to build six The advent of peace with
by this silver-inlaid Ottoman example. frigates, which were soon France and the United States
supported by more warships as threats to in 1815 inevitably brought
American merchant shipping mounted. The US sharp cutbacks in Britain’s war-
Navy saw action against France in the undeclared swollen Royal Navy. By 1817
Quasi-War of 1798 to 1800 (responding to Royal Navy officers in active service stood at
French attacks on American merchant ships below a quarter of wartime numbers, and naval
trading with France’s enemy Britain) and seamen at around a sixth of the full wartime
against the Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean. complement. The number of British naval ships
War with Britain in 1812 presented a challenge in commission fell from 713 in 1814 to 121 in
on a quite different scale. It gave the American 1818. This was still considered sufficient muscle
heavy frigates a chance to show their exceptional for Britain to undertake the role of policeman
fighting qualities in a series of successful duels of the oceans, in which capacity it attempted
with British warships, while American victories to impose a unilaterally declared ban on slave
in lake battles played an important role in trading and took action to suppress piracy, most
inhibiting British military operations inland. famously in the bombardment of Algiers,
a nest of Barbary pirates, in 1816.
Inevitably the power of the Royal Navy
LIBER ATION WAR S
predominated by the end of the
conflict, but the United States emerged with a Much of the warfare in the aftermath of the
valuable stock of naval heroes, such as Stephen Napoleonic Wars arose from the birth of
Decatur and Oliver Hazard Perry, and tales of national liberation movements that sought
derring-do to provide inspiration for the future. freedom from foreign rule. In South America,
The US Navy remained a small force to the end a series of wars was fought, firstly for
of the age of sail—it never commissioned a ship independence from the colonial rule of Spain,
of the line—but it had won acceptance as a and subsequently to define the frontiers of the
necessary and respected institution. new states. In Europe the Greeks fought a
liberation war against the Ottoman Turks from
1821 to 1828. The independence movements
could only assemble makeshift naval forces,
placed under the command of imported
officers such as the ubiquitous British
admiral Thomas Cochrane, who served

201

in Chile, Brazil, and Greece. The fact that such ON THE BR INK OF CH A NGE Meanwhile, in 1824, French general Henri- 1550 – 1830
improvised forces performed with considerable Joseph Paixhans showed the effectiveness of a
success in the independence wars was powerful Navarino was still a battle from the age of sail. naval gun firing explosive shells. Between
evidence of the decline of those once-great But the transition to a new era of naval warfare them, steam power and the exploding shell
naval powers, Spain and the Ottoman Empire. was already under way. The introduction of spelled the end of battle between
The weakness of Ottoman sea power had been steam ships into warfare was slow because their wooden sailing ships. The latter
exposed by a series of defeats at the hands of usefulness was at first limited. In 1814 the would soon be replaced
Russia in the late 18th century. This process of United States built the first steam-powered by ironclads.
humiliation was completed at the Battle of warship, Demologos, designed by the prolific
Navarino in 1827. inventor Robert Fulton, but it was only suitable Bombardment of Algiers
for use as a floating gun battery in harbor. The Dutch and British ships
British adopted steamships as tugs, initially only bombard Algiers in 1816, in
to tow sailing ships in and out of harbor, but an operation that broke the
later as armed support vessels for use in combat. power of the Barbary pirates.
By 1829 the Royal Navy had built eight armed

paddle steamers. The Karteria, built and
manned by the British, saw action with
the Greeks in their independence war.

202 EARLY 19TH-CENTURY BATTLES

the united states at war

DURING THE OPENING DECADES of the 19th century, the United 1801.An American squadron fought Tripoli until a compromise was
States fought a major war against Britain and two lesser conflicts reached in 1805, but a second round in 1815 was required to finish off
against the Barbary pirates.These wars had in common a concern the pirate menace.The war with Britain was largely the result of the high-
to maintain the freedom of the seas.The Barbary pirates were the naval handed actions of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars.When
forces of rogue North African Muslim states that preyed upon shipping in the conflict began the United States had 17 warships to Britain’s 719.
the Mediterranean.The United States was one of the countries that paid The Americans distinguished themselves in battles on Lake Erie and Lake
protection money to these states until President Thomas Jefferson threw Champlain and in frigate actions at sea, although the Royal Navy was able
doubt upon the practice, provoking Tripoli to declare war on America in to blockade the American coast, burn Washington, and bombard Baltimore.

FIRST BARBARY WAR fight to the most obdurate of small force of gunboats and bomb- met by 11 Tripolitan gunboats. Fierce
the pirate cities,Tripoli, which had ketches (borrowed from the Bourbon hand-to-hand fighting developed
TRIPOLI HARBOR declared war on the United States. Kingdom of the Two Sicilies) to enter as boats were boarded. Decatur was
the shallow waters of the harbor, while fortunate to escape with his life.The
Date August 3, 1804 In the fall an American frigate, the frigate Constitution bombarded Libyans suffered by far the heavier
Forces Americans: 1 frigate, Philadelphia, ran aground off Tripoli Tripoli’s shore batteries and castle at losses, but no decisive advantage was
6 gunboats, 2 bomb-ketches; while in hot pursuit of two pirate long range. In the event only three of gained and the blockade and occasional
Libyans: 11 gunboats ships. It was captured and taken into Decatur’s six gunboats succeeded in bombardment of the port continued.
Losses Americans: none; the harbor for use as a floating battery. entering the harbor, where they were
Libyans: 3 boats sunk, 3 captured On February 16, 1804, a young An end to the conflict came in 1805
lieutenant, Stephen Decatur, took a Close-quarters fight after US Marines were put ashore to
Location Tripoli harbor, raiding party into the harbor at night During the fight in Tripoli harbor, Decatur shot a threaten Tripoli by land.A compromise
Libya and stormed Philadelphia, setting it Libyan in the back with a pistol, the spent ball agreement saw the United States pay
ablaze so that it could be of no further lodging in the American captain’s clothes. $60,000 for the release of all hostages.
In June 1803, Commodore Edward use to the enemy.This action, hailed by
GUN, SAIL, AND EMPIRE Preble was put in command of the Lord Nelson as “the most bold and
squadron of ships sent by the United daring act of the age,” made Decatur
States to the Mediterranean to deal an American national hero.
with the problem of piracy promoted
by North African Barbary states.Where On August 3, 1804, Preble launched
previous US naval commanders had his most determined assault on Tripoli.
concentrated on protecting American He sent Decatur, now a captain, with a
ships, Preble was determined to take the

1779–1820

stephen decatur

AMERICAN NAVAL COMMANDER

Born in Maryland, Decatur became a naval
midshipman in 1798.After his bold action in
Tripoli Harbor in 1804 he was made a captain,
the youngest ever in the US Navy. Commanding

the frigate United States, he captured the British
frigate Macedonian in October 1812.Three
years later, as commodore of a squadron in
the West Indies, he was overcome by a
British force and taken prisoner.After
the war he commanded the American
Mediterranean squadron and secured
a final peace treaty with the Barbary
pirates. He was killed in a duel with
Commodore James Barron.

WAR OF 1812 shipping around the Gulf of St. Constitution’s live oak hull—earning and her deck swept by grapeshot.The
Lawrence. Seventeen days later, sailing the American frigate the nickname Guerriere’s fallen mizzen mast snagged
CONSTITUTION VS back southward, he ran into the smaller “Old Ironsides.”When the two ships on Constitution and the two ships tangled
GUERRIERE 38-gun British frigate Guerriere. With came to close action, Guerriere’s mizzen together but, despite their greater
full confidence in British naval mast was quickly brought down, lying numbers, the Americans failed to board,
Date August 19, 1812 superiority, Guerriere’s captain, driven back by British musket fire.
Forces Americans: 1 frigate; James Dacres, was happy over the side of the ship. Partially Casualties were heavier on Guerriere’s
British: 1 frigate to fight, even though out of control, the British decks, however, with Dacres among
Losses Americans: none; Constitution mounted frigate was raked by the those wounded by American musketry.
British: 1 frigate 52 guns and had 476 American heavy guns
men on board to the When the ships eventually broke
Location Off Halifax, British frigate’s 280. Victory medal apart, Guerriere lost its other two
Nova Scotia This medal, commemorating masts and lay a defenseless hulk.
The Guerriere the battle, shows a starboard- Dacres struck to avoid further loss
Early in the War of 1812, on August 2, opened fire first, quarter view of the Guerriere of life.The ship was too badly
1812, Captain Isaac Hull took the but her solid shot dismasted (left), and a port damaged to be saved and the Americans
American heavy frigate Constitution bounced off broadside view of the scuttled it the following morning.
out of Boston to harass British Constitution firing (right).

203

Perry’s victory
Commander Perry leaves his battered flagship
Lawrence and crosses over to the Niagara,
on board which he led the Americans to
a remarkable and courageous victory.

WAR OF 1812

the battle of lake eRie 1550 – 1830

In March 1813, 27-year-old Master the Niagara failed to engage Spyglass telescope BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE
Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry Queen Charlotte.Thus Perry Retractable to a portable size,
arrived on the southern coast of Lake soon found himself occupied telescopes such as these were vital to Date September 10, 1813
Erie, charged with creating a squadron with both of the largest the functioning of a warship. By 1813 Location Lake Erie, Ohio
of warships to win control of the lake British ships.The carnage on they had impressive magnification. Result American victory
from the British. Building ships and board Lawrence after two
procuring guns and crews was a difficult hours’ close fighting was with the fresh, undamaged COMBATANTS
task in such a remote region, but by horrendous, although Niagara.With most of his
the end of July Perry had two 20-gun the American portside guns out of action, UNITED STATES BRITAIN
square-rigged brigs, Lawrence and carronades Barclay attempted to turn his
Niagara, supported by smaller vessels. visited similar ship to present the starboard COMMANDERS
The British, based at Amherstburg, punishment
experienced the same difficulties in upon the broadside to the Oliver Hazard Perry Robert Barclay
building, equipping, and manning a British.With approaching American
lake fleet. Royal Navy commander most of his gun brig. For Detroit and FORCES
Robert Barclay, a one-armed veteran carriages shattered and Queen Charlotte, badly
of Trafalgar, had two ships that could more than half his crew casualties, damaged and manned Ships: 2 20-gun brigs, Ships: 2 ships, 2 brigs,
take on Perry’s brigs, the 19-gun Perry decided to shift his flag. He had by mostly inexperienced 7 other vessels 2 other vessels
Detroit and the 15-gun Queen Charlotte. himself rowed across to the still
unengaged Niagara, standing upright crews now decimated LOSSES
AMERICAN VICTORY in the boat through heavy fire, while by cannonfire, it was too complex
Lawrence struck its colors. a maneuver.The two ships ran into Men: 27 dead, Men: 41 killed,
On the morning of September 10, the one another and became inextricably 96 wounded 306 captured, of
British came upon Perry’s squadron The British cheered the American entangled. Charlotte had already lost her Ships: 1 brig damaged which 93 wounded
in Put-in-Bay, in the lee of South Bass flagship’s surrender, but their joy was captain and first lieutenant; now Barclay Ships: 6 captured
Island. Sailing out of the bay in line shortlived. Perry re-entered the fight was seriously wounded and his first
ahead, the Americans tacked for hours lieutenant killed. Defenseless against struck.The smaller British vessels
to gain the weather gage. Perry and Niagara’s broadsides, the two ships either followed suit or were pursued
Barclay both sought a conventional and captured attempting to slip away.
battle, in which each ship would place
itself alongside an opponent of similar The battle gave the Americans
firepower and slug it out. However, undisputed control of Lake Erie, and
for the Americans the approach went made a hero of Commander Perry.
badly wrong. Perry placed his flagship
Lawrence alongside Barclay’s flagship The deck was in a shocking predicament … The dead
Detroit, but Lieutenant Jesse Elliot on were strewed in every direction ... it was impossible
to take the wounded below as fast as they felL.

DAVID BUNNELL! 6B:G>86C H6>ADG ! 9:H8G>7>C< I=: H8:C: 67D6G9 LAWRENCE >C =>H B:BD>GH

204 EARLY 19TH-CENTURY BATTLES

the battle of lake champlain

In summer 1814 Sir George Prevost led off Plattsburgh on the morning of briefly unconscious, and a second time had been put out of action and too
a British army from Canada south into September 11, borne up the lake by when the head of a decapitated sailor many men were dead or wounded.
NewYork. He halted outside Plattsburgh, a light northwesterly breeze. It was knocked him across the deck. Downie, Saratoga was in poor shape, being raked
waiting to be joined by a naval force faced by a roughly comparable force less fortunate, was killed when struck by Linnet as well as facing what were left
under Commodore George Downie. of American vessels commanded by by a long gun that had been blown off of Confiance’s guns. But Macdonough
The British naval squadron appeared Master Commandant Thomas its carriage. would not accept defeat and summoned
Macdonough. Macdonough had his a last effort to gain the initiative. His
WAR OF 1812 four main ships—his flagship Saratoga, DESPERATE STRUGGLE starboard batteries, facing the British,
the brig Eagle, the schooner Ticonderoga, were wrecked, but his port guns
BATTLE OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN and the sloop Preble—anchored in a Meanwhile, at the south end of the line, remained unused and largely intact. By
line across Cumberland Bay.They lay Finch was crippled by broadsides from hauling on cables his anchored frigate
Date September 11, 1814 between a shoal and a headland, with Ticonderoga and went aground on Crab was turned around so its port broadside
Location Cumberland Bay, Plattsburgh gunboats in support. Downie advanced Island, but on the American side Preble was brought to bear upon the Confiance.
Result United States victory to attack aboard the newly built took a drubbing from British gunboats The British desperately strove to turn
39-gun frigate Confiance, the most and drifted out of the battle. On the their own frigate but the exhausted
COMBATANTS powerful ship in the battle.With other flank fighting was no less fierce. remnants of the crew could not get the
him were the brig Linnet and two The sloop Chub drifted dismasted into ship around.At the mercy of Saratoga’s
UNITED STATES BRITAIN sloops, the Chub and the Finch, plus the American lines and was boarded, guns, Confiance struck, followed shortly
a dozen gunboats. but in an encounter between the two by the battered Linnet.
COMMANDERS brigs, Eagle and Linnet, the American
Saratoga and Ticonderoga The aftermath of the slaughter was
Thomas Macdonough George Downie were soon engaged in Eagle came off worse.After two handled with ceremonious dignity, the
a ferocious exchange hours’ fighting the fire began British officers handing their swords
FORCES of broadsides in the to slacken. Too many guns to Macdonough only to have them
center of the line. returned as a gesture of respect.As a
GUN, SAIL, AND EMPIRE Ships: 1 frigate, 1 brig, Ships: 1 frigate, 1 brig, Macdonough was Thomas Macdonough result of the battle, Prevost abandoned
1 schooner, 1 sloop, 2 sloops, 12 gunboats temporarily This bronze medal, one of a his invasion of New York and the
10 gunboats disabled twice, once series commemorating the War Americans were able to resist British
when a splintered of 1812, features a bust of claims to Lake Champlain and the
LOSSES boom struck him Thomas Macdonough, hero of Great Lakes in the peace negotiations.
the battle of Lake Champlain.

Men: 52 killed, Men: 84 killed,
58 wounded 110 wounded
Ships: none Ships: 1 frigate, 1 brig,
2 sloops captured

Battle of attrition
Commandant Macdonough’s flagship
Saratoga exchanges broadsides with
HMS Confiance during fierce fighting
on Lake Champlain. The battle was
decided when Saratoga managed to
bring her fresh portside guns against
her exhausted opponent.

THE UNITED STATES AT WAR 205

WEAPONS AND TECHNOLOGY WAR OF 1812 The British put soldiers ashore to
attack the city by land, but this force
congreve rockets BOMBARDMENT OF halted in the face of stiff resistance.At
BALTIMORE 6:30 a.m. on September 13 Cochrane
The British discovered the effectiveness of rockets in war when the weapon began the naval attack.Anchored out
was used against them by the army of Mysore in India in the late 18th century. Date September 13–14, 1814 of range of the fort’s guns, four bomb
Working at the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, William Congreve developed the Forces British: 19 ships; vessels firing mortars kept up a sustained
type that bears his name between 1801 and 1805. Propelled by black powder, Americans: none bombardment, while the rocket ship
Congreve rockets had a range of up to 2 miles (3 km), although accuracy was Losses British: none; Americans: Erebus fired its Congreve rockets
poor and the warhead frequently exploded prematurely. The rockets could be none through a porthole from below deck.
fitted with a variety of warheads, including shrapnel and incendiary, ranging in In the afternoon the ships shifted
size from 3 to 24 pounds. They were used by the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Location Baltimore, closer inshore and came under heavy
Wars, notably at Copenhagen in 1807, and in the bombardment of Baltimore Maryland fire from Fort McHenry. Cochrane
during the 1812 war with the United States—as immortalized in the line eventually had Erebus towed back
of the US national anthem, “And the rockets’ red glare, the After capturing and burning Washington out of range. In foul weather the
bombs bursting in air.” Congreve’s rockets were in August 1814, the British chose bombardment continued through the
employed as weapons during the First Opium Baltimore as their next target.The city night, creating a spectacular pyrotechnic
War, fired by British gunboats to was a shipbuilding center and the home display, but to little practical effect.
destroy Chinese junks. port of privateers raiding British
merchant shipping.The Americans had At dawn Lieutenant Colonel George
Self-propelled missiles no naval force adequate to resist Vice- Armistead had a large stars-and-stripes
The Congreve rocket was improved Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane’s flag raised over the fort, inspiring the
in 1815 with a guide stick fitted to North American Station fleet, but lawyer and poet Francis Scott Key to
the base of the rocket head, rather write the verses that would become the
than along the side, reducing drag. the entrance to the harbor was American national anthem.The British
covered by the guns of Fort gave up the attempt to take Baltimore.
McHenry and blocked by a line
of sunken merchant ships.

WITNESS TO WAR

Lieutenant Colonel George Armistead

COMMANDER OF THE GARRISON AT FORT MCHENRY

BOMBARDMENT OF BALTIMORE

“One of the 24 pounders on the south-west bastion, under the 1550 – 1830
immediate command of Capt. Nicholson, was dismounted by a shell, the
explosion from which … wounded several of his men; the bustle
produced in removing the wounded and remounting the gun, probably
induced the enemy to suspect we were in a state of confusion, as he
brought in three bomb-ships to what I believed to be good striking

distance. I immediately ordered a fire to be opened ... within half
an hour those intruders again sheltered themselves by withdrawing
beyond our reach.We gave three cheers and again ceased firing.”

SECOND BARBARY WAR The Constellation succeeded in
overhauling the Meshuda and her
ACTION OF 17 JUNE broadsides soon inflicted enough
damage to convince Hammidia that
Date June 17, 1815 Algiers was an impossibly distant
Forces Americans: 3 frigates, 6 refuge.The admiral turned his ship
other ships; Algerians: 1 frigate toward Spain, hoping to shelter in
Losses Americans: none; a neutral port.With the sloop Ontario
Algerians: none joining the Constitution, however,
Meshuda was soon closely engaged.
Location Western Decatur then brought his flagship
Mediterranean Guerriere alongside the Algerian ship
and devastated it with point-blank
In March 1815 the US Congress broadsides.The Algerian admiral
authorized the dispatch of a naval force was killed but the crew fought on,
to North Africa, where the Barbary inflicting casualties with musket fire
pirates had resumed attacks on American from aloft. Finally the American sloop
shipping and the capture and ransom Epervier fired broadside after broadside
of American sailors. Commodore into the Algerian ship, persuading the
Stephan Decatur reached Gibraltar survivors to strike the colors.
with a squadron of nine ships in mid-
June. Hearing that Algerian raiders Decatur sailed on to Algiers, whose
were at sea, he immediately set off and bey soon accepted American terms, as
on June 17 had the good fortune to did the rulers of Tripoli and Tunis.The
sight the Meshuda, the 46-gun flagship following year, after the bombardment
of the Algerian admiral Rais Hammidia. of Algiers by an Anglo-Dutch fleet, the
They gave chase as the Algerians raced privateering of the Barbary states was
for their home port, the 38-gun frigate definitively brought to an end.
USS Constellation leading the pursuit.

206 EARLY 19TH-CENTURY BATTLES

wars of independence

AT THE START of the 19th century, South America was under the expertise was essential to their success. Maverick British admiral Thomas
rule of Spain and Portugal. Between 1810 and 1826 a series of Cochrane became a hero of the independence struggle in Chile and Peru,
wars was fought that resulted in independence for these colonies, while a previously undistinguished Irish sea captain,William Brown,
which then fought wars among themselves to define their new borders. earned legendary status in Argentina for his exploits both before and after
Although the land campaigns of Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín independence.The battle of Lake Maracaibo was the final decisive victory
played the leading part in the wars of independence against Spain, naval in the struggle for the independence of Colombia, which briefly comprised
warfare also had a significant impact.The makeshift forces of the republican also Venezuela and Ecuador.The Argentinian defeat at Monte Santiago was
rebels performed remarkably well against the Spanish navy, but imported a key step toward the foundation of Uruguay as a separate country.

URUGUAYAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE CHILEAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE approach to Valdivia from the sea, was 1775–1860
protected by forts and other strongpoints
MONTEVIDEO VALDIVIA mounting some 120 guns and manned thomas
by around 1,600 soldiers. Cochrane,
Date May 14–17, 1814 Date February 3–4, 1820 with little over 300 men under his cochrane
Forces Argentinians: 10 ships; Forces Chileans: 1 ship; Spanish: command and a leaky frigate O’Higgins
Spanish: 13 ships c.1600men as his sole effective warship, decided to BRITISH COMMANDER OF THE CHILEAN FLEET IN
Losses Argentinians: 1 ship Losses Chileans: 7 killed; takeValdivia by a nighttime amphibious THE CHILEAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE
sunk; Spanish: 2 ships sunk, Spanish: 100 killed assault.Achieving complete surprise, the
5 captured Chileans landed in the darkness and Serving in the Napoleonic Wars,
GUN, SAIL, AND EMPIRE Location attacked Fort Ingles, which was swiftly Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald,
Location Off Corral Bay, Chile abandoned by its garrison. In the made his name through bold exploits as
Montevideo, Uruguay confusion Cochrane’s men mingled with a captain of sloops and frigates. His
In Chile’s War of Independence against Spanish soldiers, compounding the progress in his naval career was inhibited
In 1814 the Argentinians, engaged Spain, British admiral Sir Thomas problems of Spanish officers attempting by his involvement in politics and
in an independence war against Spain, Cochrane commanded the Chilean fleet to organize resistance. By the end of criticism of corruption in high places.
decided they needed a naval force in dashing style. He was convinced that the night the four forts on the south In 1814 he was disgraced for alleged
to contest Spanish dominance at sea. the Spanish forces would crumble if side of the bay were in Cochrane’s involvement in stock market fraud.After
William Brown, an Irish-born seaman subjected to unremitting aggression. hands. Utterly demoralized,Valdivia a spell in prison, he
who had recently settled in Argentina, Valdivia was the best defended Spanish itself surrendered shortly afterward. sought employment
was placed in command of the fledgling stronghold in Chile – it had been abroad, serving in
navy. He assembled a force of seven compared to Gibraltar. Corral Bay, the independence
ships, taking as his flagship the frigate wars in Chile,
Hercules.The Argentine navy was Brazil, and Greece.
blooded on March 8 in an attack upon
Isla Martin Garcia, a Spanish stronghold Valdivian fort system
in the mouth of the River Uruguay. These extensive fortifications
Brown then established a blockade of protected a port used by ships
Montevideo, his naval force augmented crossing the Straits of Magellan.
by three armed merchant ships.A
Spanish squadron was in the harbor,
protected by shore batteries. In mid-
May, Brown pretended to lift the
blockade, luring the Spanish ships into
setting to sea, where he forced them
to give battle.The fiercest engagement
occurred on May 16. Brown had his
leg shattered by a cannonball, but
his squadron got by far the better of
the fight.As a result of this naval victory,
Argentina was able to take control
of Montevideo.

VENEZUELAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE commander of a Colombian naval ARGENTINA-BRAZIL WAR Admiral William Brown defeated a
force comprising a corvette, three Brazilian river flotilla at Juncal in
LAKE MARACAIBO brigantines, and a variety of small MONTE SANTIAGO February 1827.The following April he
vessels, entered the lake from the Gulf took the brigs Republic Argentina and
Date July 24,1823 of Venezuela to attack Maracaibo. Date April 7-8,1827 Independencia, plus a corvette and a
Forces Colombians: 22 ships; Crossing the bar into the lake under Forces Brazilians: c.14 ships; schooner, out of his base at Los Pozos,
Spanish: 32 ships the Spanish guns of Fort San Carlos, Argentinians: 4 ships evading a Brazilian blockade by hugging
Losses Unknown one of Padilla’s ships was destroyed Losses Brazilians: none; the coast (the Brazilian ships could not
after running aground.The Spanish Argentinians: 2 ships lost operate in the shallows). But Brown’s
Location Lake sent a squadron under Angel Laborde two brigs ran aground. Captain James
Maracaibo, Venezuela into the lake to pursue Padilla. On July Location Off coast Norton, commanding the Brazilian
24, in a fierce close-quarters mêlée of Argentina blockade squadron, brought in four
Despite the victories of Simón Bolívar, fought more with machetes than with shallow-draft schooners and had a
in 1823 the independence of Colombia cannon, the Spanish were defeated In the war between Brazil and the frigate towed into range to bombard
was still contested by Spain. Spanish despite superior numbers. Maracaibo United Provinces (Argentina and the grounded ships.After a hard fight
forces were holding the key town of was recaptured and Spanish forces in Uruguay) in 1825–28, the Argentinians they were destroyed. Brown’s other
Maracaibo, by the eponymous salt- Colombia laid down their arms. had a naval squadron of small warships. two ships escaped with heavy damage.
water lake. José Prudencio Padilla, Brazil had a far larger navy, but it was
timidly led.Argentinian commander

WARS OF INDEPENDENCE 207

WEAPONS AND TECHNOLOGY

nautical instruments

BY THE 19TH CENTURY navigation at sea had reached a high level of accuracy.
Previously, seamen had mostly kept within sight of shore, depending upon
observation of the sun and stars for orientation. The introduction of the compass
and of instruments such as the astrolabe by Chinese and Arab mariners in medieval
times were major advances on which European navigators systematically built.

TYPES OF INSTRUMENT The observer viewed the Early astrolabe
The compass was a difficult instrument to use at sea because of subtle and star through sights on Thirteenth-century
the right-hand edge navigators use an
astrolabe in the
complex variations between readings of magnetic and true north. A plumb bob hung from Indian Ocean
European mariners had made great progress in adjusting compass the center of the arc
QUADRANT The quadrant was
readings to true north by the end of the 16th century. The The plumb bob marked a primitive instrument for finding
navigator’s other prime instruments were devices such as the the angle of the star the altitude of stars, including
the Sun. It was hard to use
astrolabe, or the more advanced sextant for measuring the Suspension ring accurately on a rolling ship.
altitude of heavenly bodies such as the Pole Star or the

Sun at noon. With the aid of astronomical almanacs The index mirror
is moved until
this allowed him to calculate his latitude—how the Sun appears
on the horizon
far his ship was north or south of the equator. Shade glasses
The index bar
It took until the mid-18th century for The telescope moves the
is pointed at index mirror
longitude to be calculated accurately. the horizon

The alidade Horizon mirror
measures angle
of the star Shade glasses 1550 – 1830

COMPASS The magnetic compass was Arc measures SEXTANT Invented in the
in use in China from the 11th century. one-sixth of a circle mid-18th century, the
It needed skill and experience to use a sextant was a great
compass accurately on oceanic voyages. ASTROLABE The improvement over the
astrolabe was used by astrolabe for measuring
medieval astronomers the altitude of the Sun.
to observe the stars. A
simplified version was
adopted by mariners.

MEASURING LONGITUDE 50˚W 40˚W 30˚W 20˚W 10˚W 0˚W

Until the 18th century calculations of longitude depended on dead reckoning—the At a point in the mid-Atlantic the Atlantic Ocean Prime
measurement of the ship’s speed and direction of travel. This was often wildly ship’s navigator observes the meridian
inaccurate. A more precise calculation required the use of a clock that would height of the Sun to identify local
keep accurate time at sea, but conventional timepieces could not cope with the noon. His chronometer tells him Greenwich
movement of the ship. In response to a reward offered by the British government for that at noon local time it is
solving this problem, clockmaker John Harrison produced a series of chronometers 2:00 p.m. GMT. This means the A ship leaves Lisbon
ship must be 30˚ west, as for every and sails west into the
hour, 15˚ longitude is traveled Atlantic Ocean

of increasing accuracy. His H4, tested on a voyage to the West Indies in 1761–62,

allowed longitude to be calculated to within one nautical mile.

Oscillating weights Sun passes through 90˚
unaffected by sky from east to west
rolling of ship
Marine chronometer
This sea clock was built by John Lisbon
Harrison in 1730–35. It was
At local noon, Sun is
designed to achieve accurate highest in the sky and
crosses imaginary
timekeeping at sea through a north–south line

series of checks and balances. E Calculating longitude
To calculate longitude, navigators used a clock set
Time in Time in N to the time at a fixed location such as Greenwich,
seconds hours England (GMT). If the clock was accurate, the
difference between the time shown by the clock
Time in Calendar and noon corresponded to the number of degrees
minutes dial they had sailed east or west of Greenwich.

W

Ship’s S
position

208 EARLY 19TH-CENTURY BATTLES

later ottoman battles

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE declined during the 18th and 19th fleet. Russian warships entered the Mediterranean for the first time to
centuries as it found itself unable to match the technological defeat the Turks at Chesma in 1770, and got the better of a series of
and organizational progress made by the European powers. engagements in the Black Sea, culminating in the victory at Tendra in
Although still capable of defeating the similarly stagnant Venetians in the 1790—despite simultaneously fighting Sweden in the Baltic.The one-sided
Mediterranean, the Turkish Navy had its weaknesses exposed during the battle of Navarino in 1827, the last fleet engagement of the age of sail,
wars with the expanding Russian Empire in 1768-74 and 1787-91.With completed the humiliation of the once proud Turkish navy.The Ottomans
the aid of foreign naval advisers, the Russians achieved a level of fighting continued to spend heavily on warships—in 1875 they had the third largest
efficiency and tactical flair far superior to that of the timidly led Ottoman navy in the world—but they never again fought a battle at sea.

RUSSO-TURKISH WAR both ships were destroyed in the several Turkish ships of the line were GREEK WAR OF INDEPENDENCE
ensuing conflagration.Admiral destroyed or on fire. Soon the bay was
CHESMA Date July 5–7, 1770 Spiridov escaped, but more than 500 a mass of blazing ships, many set alight
Forces Russians: 9 ships of Russian sailors were killed. by explosions on board their neighbors.
Location Near island the line; Ottomans: c.20 ships The entire Ottoman fleet at Chesma
of Chios, Aegean of the line After this engagement the Turkish was destroyed except for one 60-gun
Losses Russians: 1 ship of the fleet withdrew further into the bay, ship and five galleys captured by the
line; Ottomans: c.19 ships of which was crowded with the ships of Russians.The battle left the Russian
the line the line and a host of frigates, xebecs, navy in command of the Aegean Sea.
galleys, and other smaller craft.The
Russian and British THE BATTLE OF NAVARINO
officers decided to
After war broke out between Imperial attempt a night Date October 20, 1827
Russia and Ottoman Turkey in 1768, attack.A force of Location Off west coast of the Peloponnese
two squadrons of Russian warships four ships of the line, Result British, French, and Russian victory
were sent from the Baltic Sea to the two frigates, a bomb
GUN, SAIL, AND EMPIRE Mediterranean, under the command boat, and four COMBATANTS
respectively of Admiral Grigory Spiridov fireships was put
and Rear Admiral John Elphinston, under the command BRITAIN, FRANCE, OTTOMAN EMPIRE,
one of many British naval officers of Scottish-born RUSSIA EGYPT
serving with the Russian navy. commodore Samuel
Count Alexsei Girgoryevich Orlov, Greig.The force COMMANDERS
an important figure at court, was given advanced into the bay
overall control of the naval force. His at around midnight Edward Codrington Ibrahim Pasha
ultimate mission was to encourage while other ships
a Greek revolt against Turkish rule. targeted shore FORCES
batteries and gave
On July 5, 1770, the two Russian supporting fire. Ships: 22 ships including Ships: 78 ships including
squadrons found a Turkish fleet in
Chesma Bay between the island of The mortars of 10 ships of the line 3 ships of the line
Chios and the Anatolian mainland. the bomb boat and
Lacking confidence in their seamanship, broadsides of the LOSSES
the Turks were anchored in two lines ships of the line
to form a floating battery, the ships soon took their toll Men: 181 Men: c.3,000
in the second line positioned to fire and by the time the Ships: none Ships: 70 ships
through the gaps in the first.Although fireships were sent in,
outnumbered, the Russian ships sailed Victory for the Great Powers
in to attack. Spiridov’s flagship Yevstafy Destruction of the British, French, and Russian ships attack the
closely engaged the Turkish flagship Ottoman fleet Ottoman-Egyptian fleet, anchored three-deep
Real Mustafa, setting its mast on fire. Turkish sailors abandon in a crescent formation at Navarino.
Unfortunately for the Russians the their burning ships during
blazing mast fell onto the Yevstafy and the Russian attack on the
Ottoman fleet at Chesma.

RUSSO-TURKISH WAR Fidonisi in 1788 and the Kerch Strait in pursued vigorously, inflicting significant
July 1790. In September 1790 Ushakov damage on a number of the departing
TENDRA surprised the Turkish fleet at anchor Turkish ships.
off Tendra Island in the Black Sea. He
Date September 8–9, 1790 immediately attacked their rear, seizing The following day Ushakov caught
Forces Russians: 10 ships of the the tactical initiative.The Ottomans had up with two ships of the line. One was
line, 6 frigates; Ottomans: a clear numerical advantage, which easily captured but the other ship, the
14 ships of the line, 8 frigates Ushakov countered by including three flagship of Admiral Said Bey, held out
Losses Russians: none; frigates in his line of battle and for hours despite being surrounded
Ottomans: 2 ships of the line positioning three other frigates alongside by Russian guns.The ship eventually
his ships in the van, to block any Turkish caught fire and exploded before most
Location Off Tendra effort to double the line.The Russians of the 800 crew could be taken off.
Island, Black Sea had the better of the exchange of This victory, costing the Ottomans
broadsides and the Turks, whose ships 1,400 casualties and 733 prisoners,
During the Russo-Turkish War of were copper-bottomed, used their gave the Russians command of the
1787-91, Russia found an inspired superior speed to disengage. Ushakov Black Sea which was confirmed by a
naval commander in Rear Admiral victory at Kaliakria the following year.
Fyodor Fyodorovich Ushakov, who
distinguished himself in victories at

LATER OTTOMAN BATTLES 209

the battle of navarino

In July 1827 Britain, France, and Russia gun frigate, de Rigny’s flagship Sirène. Navarino MOREA
signed the Treaty of London, agreeing Hoping to avoid a prolonged winter
joint action to end the war in Greece, blockade, the admirals agreed on a bold At 2 p.m., October 20, the allies entered Navarino Bay
where Greek nationalists were fighting plan of action: they would sail into the Navarino Bay to help broker peace between the
for independence from the Ottomans. bay and anchor opposite the Ottoman- Greeks and the Turks. However, their approach The Ottoman-Eyptian
The British commander-in-chief in the Egyptian fleet, whose commanders fleet carries 2,000 guns,
Mediterranean, Sir Edward Codrington, would be forced either to implement an was misunderstood as hostile activity by the against the allies’ 1,300
was ordered to demand that both sides armistice or have their fleet destroyed. anchored Ottoman-Egyptian fleet, which
observe an immediate armistice. subsequently opened fire. By 6 p.m., the latter
NO WAY BACK
In September an Egyptian fleet from had all but been destroyed.
Alexandria anchored in Navarino Bay, At 2 p.m. on October 20, Codrington’s
the principal Ottoman naval base in the flagship Asia led two columns of British Sphacteria
Peloponnese. Nominally part of the and French ships into the harbor, with
Ottoman Empire, Egypt had achieved a the Russians following in the rear. It Western flank Codrington’s Turkish flagship
notable degree of modernization under was on the face of it a desperately risky guarded by flagship Asia Fahti Bahri
French influence and its navy was now operation.The allied ships sailed allied frigates
superior to the Turkish fleet.Admiral between shore batteries to anchor in Allies block
Codrington blockaded the harbor and the middle of a horseshoe-shaped Wind enemy fireships
sought assurances that the Egyptian ships formation of Ottoman and Egyptian and corvettes
would not be used against the Greeks. ships, with an onshore wind making any KEY
Nonetheless the ships twice sortied out escape from the bay virtually impossible. 1 British ship of the line N
of the bay and had to be shepherded But the allied commanders’ faith in the 1 French ship of the line
back into port by Codrington. 1 Russian ship of the line Navarino
superiority of their guns and 1 allied frigate
In October Codrington was joined gunnery was well founded. 1 Turkish ship of the line or frigate The allies enter the bay and
by the French admiral Henri Asia anchored with a band 1 Turkish corvette or smaller vessel anchor within the crescent of
de Rigny and the Russian playing on deck, hoping the 1 Turkish fireship the Ottoman-Egyptian fleet
admiral Login Heyden, Ottomans and Egyptians
creating an allied force would not put up resistance. but they lacked both adequate guns and The news of the Ottoman defeat 1550 – 1830
of 10 ships of the training. Codrington’s Asia took on the at Navarino was greeted with joy by
line plus a 60- In fact the fighting started almost Ottoman flagship and an Egyptian 60- the Greeks and with defiance by the
immediately. Conducted at close range gun frigate simultaneously and shattered Ottoman sultan, who declared a jihad
in a crowded harbor, the cannonade both. It was the same story elsewhere: against the infidel.This precipitated
of the allied ships proved fearsomely three-quarters of the Ottoman and a war with Russia, which the Ottomans
effective.The Turks and Egyptians Egyptian ships were sunk by enemy lost, and Greece eventually gained its
fought with courage and determination, gunfire or by their own crews, who set independence.The battle is above all
them on fire or blew them up to avoid remembered as the last major naval
Smoothbore naval gun them falling into enemy hands. encounter of the sailing ship era.
Smoothbore naval guns remained
in use until late in the 19th
century. They were superseded
by rifled breech-loaders.

1830 − 1918

STEAM AND STEEL



212 STEAM AND STEEL

I F ADMIRAL HORATIO NELSON had returned from the grave to view the navies of 1914,
he would have been confronted by a startling technological metamorphosis. During a period
of only occasional naval warfare, fragile wooden sailing ships with cannon firing broadsides
of solid shot had been replaced by warships built of steel, powered by steam, and armed with huge
turret-mounted rifled guns firing explosive shells. It was a transformation that had cost vast sums of
money, reflecting the importance accorded to navies in a world of competing imperial powers—
valued as much for prestige as for use in war. The outbreak of World War I in 1914 belatedly gave
steam-and-steel warships a chance to show their paces in a global conflict.

STEAM AND STEEL NEW SHIPS battleships, which replaced ships of the line as
the fleet’s capital ships. Frigates were supplanted
Funnels and masts The usefulness of a steam engine for making a by cruisers, designed for duties such as convoy
Until the 1870s steam warships were built with masts and vessel independent of the wind was obvious in escort and commerce raiding. The development
sails because of concerns about the unreliability of steam the early 19th century, but the first steam boats of torpedoes led to the introduction of light
engines. These warships of the Argentinian navy are in were only suitable for rivers, lakes, and coastal torpedo boats and also of the torpedo-boat
action on the River Paraguay during the bloody War of the waters. Steam gunboats were in use by the 1820s, destroyer—soon shortened to “destroyer”—
Triple Alliance (1864–70). but it was not until the 1860s that the new which defended larger ships against torpedo
face of naval warfare began to emerge. The attack and served as a form of torpedo boat
introduction of the first ocean-going steam itself. When submarines emerged as submersible
warships—although fitted with sails as a torpedo boats, the basic outline of a new kind
supplementary form of propulsion—more of fleet was complete.
or less coincided with the development of naval
guns firing explosive shells and the use of iron 1850 British cannon
cladding to protect wooden hulls from this In the mid-19th century Royal
augmented firepower. This Navy warships were still
revolution in warship design, armed with muzzle-loading
which threw up numerous cannon firing solid shot and
strange configurations and mounted on wooden carriages.
combinations, eventually settled Within 20 years such guns
down with the Royal Navy’s were obsolete.
Devastation of 1873, a
screw-driven steamship with
an iron hull, armor, no masts
or sails, and guns mounted in
turrets instead of broadside.
Devastation set the style for

STEAM AND STEEL 213

SM ARTENING UP and unpleasant conditions deep inside the Inspecting a torpedo 1830 – 1918
ship. Armor plating left even less chance for These British sailors are inspecting a self-propelled
Crews changed as well as ships. The press-gang air or natural light below decks than previously, torpedo. Whether deployed on small torpedo boats or
disappeared and was replaced either by the although the introduction of electricity was submarines, self-propelled torpedoes challenged the
signing up of volunteers for long-term service, a boon. Fire was less of a hazard than on dominance of big-gun battleships.
or short-term conscription as part of a wider wooden ships and there were no falls from
system of universal military service. It became rigging. But there were disturbing losses of increasing range but lost none of their savagery.
standard practice for navies to have uniforms warships to explosions, a consequence of New munitions produced new wounds,
for their men. The old idea of training officers problems with coal stocks or boilers, or with especially flash burns that proved a major source
and men through practical experience at sea the new propellants and high explosives that of casualties in World War I. Officers could
from boyhood died out. The United States set sometimes proved unstable. Taking on coal no longer afford to stand exposed on an open
up the Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1850; was back-breaking manual labour, and the need deck swept by the blast of explosions and shards
the Japanese established a cadet academy at for it limited ships’ tactical flexibility, requiring of steel. The old wooden ships had been hard
Etajima; and even the tradition-bound British breaks from action to replenish fuel stocks from to sink in battle, however much punishment
felt obliged to create a Royal Naval College coaling ships or to put in at coaling stations. they took, but a steel ship might go to the
at Dartmouth in the early 20th century. Special In war, engagements were fought at ever bottom in minutes, especially if a magazine
training ships came into use for ratings. Men was hit, taking most of the crew with her.
were still taken on board at a young age and
given a hard time, with lots of caning and
flicking with ropes. In general, naval punishment
remained harsh, although milder than in the
18th century. The German navy was atypical
in still flogging its conscript ratings in 1914.
But discipline in some ways became far more
rigorous than before, with meticulous regard for
details of personal appearance and the cleanliness
and painting of ships. Harassment over such
relatively minor matters, along with complaints
over pay and conditions, caused occasional
outbreaks of mutiny below decks. Officers in
general tended to become more remote from
the men than in Nelson’s day. Victorian and
Edwardian navies were acutely class-conscious
and promotion from the ranks was virtually
non-existent.

STEA MING TO WAR

Coal-fired engines meant a new breed
of engineers and stokers appeared on board,
keeping the machinery going in often difficult

214 STEAM AND STEEL

STEAM AND STEEL Very pistol European powers, later joined by the United Civil war ironclads
Invented in 1877 by American naval States and Japan, to bully less developed The American Civil War was one of the first conflicts in
officer and ordnance expert, Edward Very, nations into submission. “Sending in which ironclad steamships went into battle. These Union
the Very pistol became the most common the gunboat” became the answer to most gunboats and mortar boats are bombarding Confederate
type of flare gun for signalling at sea. popular assertions of anti-imperialism. fortifications on the Mississippi.
But steamships also necessitated imperial
GUNBOAT DIPLOM ACY conquest, as the ships’ frequent need for dominance, not only through the Royal Navy
refueling with coal required a global naval but also through the overwhelming size of its
Steam gunboats received their baptism of merchant fleet and the output of its shipyards.
fire in a scattering of conflicts around the world power to possess secure coaling stations around By the 1890s, however, Britain’s naval pre-
from the 1820s to the 1860s—from the Opium the world. Its later replacement with oil led eminence was being increasingly contested,
War through the Crimean War to the Britain to put a high value upon controlling even though world trade continued to be
American Civil War, which exhibited the Iraqi oilfields during World War I. carried mostly in British ships. The influential
strengths and limitations of their varieties. writings of the American naval historian Alfred
A complex relationship developed between R ISING NAVAL POWER S Mayer Mahan voiced a widespread view that
the evolution of these steam warships and the a nation’s global standing depended upon the
rampant imperialism of the 19th century. These Growing rivalry between the imperialist strength of its navy. In an era of global
new technologies increased the ability of the powers gave the impetus to accelerating naval competition, naval expansion became a popular
programs from the late 19th century. Up to that cause promoted by jingoistic nationalists, even
point Britain enjoyed unparalleled maritime

1839 1843 1855 Case shot 1871
This case or canister
Start of First Opium War Launch of French floating shot from the Launch of first
between Britain and Great Britain, batteries bombard American Civil War,
Kinburn; first complete with small mastless turret ship,
China, an early instance first ocean- ironclads used iron balls, was similar
of European ”gunboat going screw- in battle HMS Devastation
imperialism” propelled ship to grapeshot.

1830 1840 1850 1860 1870

Powder horn 1853 1854 1859 1866
This early 19th-century
American powder horn was Start of Crimean War. First strategic France launches first Battle of Lissa between
carried by marines and sailors First naval use of use of naval Austria and Italy is first
for loading muskets and pistols. mines by seagoing ironclad sea battle between
exploding shells at Russians at armored ships
Sinope; race between Kronstadt warship La Gloire
shell and armor begins

STEAM AND STEEL 215

in countries with no tradition of maintaining
large fleets, such as the United States and
Germany. Thus a global naval arms race
gathered momentum. America and Japan
in particular embarked on major naval
construction programs, followed by Germany.
By 1914 the French had become the world’s
fifth-ranking naval power. The United States
flexed the muscles of its new navy in a one-
sided war with Spain in 1898, and then proudly
sent the “Great White Fleet” around the world
in 1907–09 in a pageant of American seapower.
But it was the Russo-Japanese war of 1904–05
that provided the first thorough test of the new
steam-and-steel navies. At the battle of Tsushima
the Japanese were triumphant in a fleet
encounter consciously inspired by Trafalgar,
yet contested by ships capable of a speed of 16
knots with guns engaging effectively at a range
of over 3 miles (5 km).

BIG SHIPS A ND SNEAK Y DEVICES production. The main threats to these great Super-dreadnought 1830 – 1918
ships—that naval commanders were well aware The Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth was an oil-fired
Early 20th-century navies were involved in an of—were mines and torpedoes. These were batteship launched in 1913. With 15in guns and a top
arms race that led to every ship launched being relatively cheap weapon systems against which speed of 23 knots, she far surpassed the battleship
bigger and more heavily armed than the last. ships had little protection. Dreadnought, launched only seven years earlier.
The intense rivalry between Britain and
Germany, in particular, triggered an astounding When the long-awaited Great War came into the North Sea. While the one full-scale
burst of naval construction, which proved one in 1914, the mighty fleets disappointed naval encounter between the British and German
of the main causes for Britain entering World enthusiasts, avid for a repeat of the Battle of fleets at Jutland in 1916 was indecisive,
War I on the side of France. Trafalgar. Just as in the land war on the Western commerce raiding, in the form of U-boat
front, the new maritime technology favored attacks on merchant shipping, almost crippled
The race started in 1906 when the Royal defensive tactics. The threatening presence of Britain’s war effort. By the end of World War I,
Navy’s HMS Dreadnought set a new standard for submarines and mines militated against the with experiments in flying aircraft off ships
battleships. However, the Dreadnought was soon bold, aggressive use of large warships. Even becoming more successful and techniques
surpassed by the oil-fired super-dreadnoughts, when sailing with a defensive screen of of submarine and anti-submarine warfare
such as Conqueror, while cruisers put on weight destroyers, battleships and battlecruisers proved becoming ever more sophisticated, a new
to become battlecruisers, faster ships with more vulnerable to these devices. The Royal Navy’s profile of naval war was emerging that was
powerful guns. These mighty ships attracted Grand Fleet spent much of the war out of U- no longer dependent on ships engaging with
huge public and press interest possibly in part boat range, only occasionally risking a foray another at close quarters.
because of the great expense involved in their

1889 1894 1904 1914 1916 1918

Triple-expansion Battle of Yalu River; Japanese attack Start of World War I: The battle of Jutland Germany surrenders
Japan defeats China between Britain and following military
engines fitted in First Sino-Japanese Russian fleet at the first aircraft carrier Germany is the only collapse and mutiny
War (1894–95) battle fought between in the navy
in British battleships Port Arthur laid down dreadnought battleships

1880 1890 1900 1910 1920

1880s 1898 1906 Line-throwing gun 1915
This was used by German U-boats to
Following the example of Admiral von Tirpitz HMS Dreadnought is fire a mooring line to another ship. Sinking of passenger ship
Britain’s Royal Navy, the begins expansion of the first “all-big-gun” SS Lusitania by German
use of rifled breech-loaders German navy, triggering U-boat helps to bring the
becomes widespread arms race with Britain battleship with all- US into the war
in modern navies turbine propulsion

216 STEAM AND STEEL

new navies of europe

NAVIES PLAYED A MARGINAL ROLE in European warfare for most of the
19th century, and sea battles were few. In the Crimean War of 1854–56 sea
power was essential in enabling Britain and France to install armies in the
Black Sea, but the Russian navy refused to come out and fight.The battle
of Lissa in 1866 was fascinating as a ramming combat between ironclads,
but irrelevant to the outcome of the war between Austria and Italy. In the
Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 French naval superiority was impotent to
offset the dominance of the Prussian army.Yet navies were central to European
states’ view of themselves as great powers and competition between nations
provided the impetus for rapid innovation in warship design and naval
armament.When new countries wanted to assert their status—Italy, unified
in the 1860s, and Imperial Germany after 1871—they inevitably built fleets.

STEAM AND STEEL Siege of Sevastopol BR ITISH PR EDOMINA NCE British—a race Britain’s industrial superiority
The largest naval operation in the early years of steam ensured she would easily win. The success of
power was the Anglo-French expedition to the Black Sea Britain’s Royal Navy enjoyed an overwhelming the Monitor in the American Civil War put
in the Crimean War. Some 89 warships and 300 transports dominance at sea, but the British nonetheless European navies in a flurry in the 1860s and led
were sent to besiege the Russian naval base at Sevastopol. had to respond to developments in naval to a brief fashion for ramming as a style of
technology if they were to stay ahead. In the combat. Gunports and broadsides were
The power of naval guns mid-19th century the transition from wood gradually supplanted by turret guns, and sails
With their powerful long-range guns, warships were often and sail to steam and steel brought a period of were somewhat reluctantly abandoned—the
used to bombard targets on shore. Here, the British paddle experimentation as designers and strategists Royal Navy battleship Devastation launched in
sloop Bulldog joins in the attack on the Russian fort at juggled with the new technological possibilities. 1871 was the first all-steam capital ship.
Bomarsund in the Baltic during the Crimean War. Emperor Napoleon III’s France at first led the
way with the construction of the battleship By the 1880s warship design was settling
Gloire in 1859, the first ocean-going ironclad down, but an arms race between the major
warship, sparking a brief naval race with the European powers was beginning. Fear of the

217

WEAPONS AND TECHNOLOGY

early naval steam engines

Screw propulsion The standard propulsion system for early steamships expansion engines, with three cylinders instead 1830 – 1918
As the design of blades improved through was a paddle wheel driven by a double-acting steam of one, led to a major improvement in efficiency.
the 19th century with greater understanding engine (see below). Steam entered the cylinder Whereas Warrior’s engine needed 5 lb (2.2 kg) of coal
of the physics involved, the propeller totally alternately on the left and right, pushing the piston to generate one horsepower for an hour, the triple-
superseded the paddle wheel. forward and back. The first ironclad battleships—the expansion engine of the British pre-dreadnought
French Gloire of 1859 and British Warrior of 1861— Canopus in 1899 needed only 1.7 lb (0.75 kg). In the
combined naval strength of France and Russia combined double-acting engines with screw early 20th century Charles Parsons’s steam turbine
led Britain to formally adopt the “two-power propellers. In the 1880s the introduction of triple- would take steam propulsion to its peak of efficiency.
standard.” The Naval Defence Act of 1889
decreed that the Royal Navy should always be Steam travels Steam enters cylinder, Piston rod
strong enough to defeat any other two navies, along pipes pushing piston
and pledged vast sums of public money to the
construction of new battleships and cruisers. Closed valve Paddle wheel
But Germany was to provide the real challenge
to British naval superiority from the 1890s, Forward stroke Boiler Open valve Piston rod pushes
when it placed its expanding industrial power Steam exits the boiler and crankshaft
behind a massive shipbuilding programme enters the cylinder through Coal fire Closed Open valve
under Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz. the open valve on the upper heats boiler valve
left (the valve on the right is Exhaust steam
IMPERIAL ASSERTION closed), pushing the piston Condenser enters condenser
forward. Exhaust steam is
Sea travel became far more secure in the second pushed out of the cylinder
half of the 19th century after the great powers by the piston and enters
formally renounced privateering and most the condenser.
piracy was quelled. As the arm of the world’s
dominant shipbuilding and commercial power, Boiling water
the Royal Navy took the lead in charting turns to steam
the seas—a major project that led to safer
navigation for all—and the suppression of the Backward stroke Closed valve Steam enters cylinder
slave trade. But European dominance of the The valve on upper left closes through opposite valve,
oceans was most often experienced by the rest and the valve on the right pushing piston back
of the world as straightforward bullying. This opens, so the steam now
was seen at its worst in the mistreatment of enters the cylinder at the far Open valve
China by Britain and France from the 1840s end and pushes the piston
to the 1880s. As long as European powers did back. The exhaust steam now
not fight one another, however, there was little enters the condenser through
chance for the expensive steam fleets to show the open valve on the left.
their worth in battle.
Closed valve

Open valve Piston rod pulls
crankshaft
Water condensed from
steam returns to boiler

218 NEW NAVIES OF EUROPE

european wars:

from sail to steam

DURING THE PERIOD from 1850 to 1870, navies struggled to adapt command of the sea was essential to their land operations, but the allies had
their tactics as the switch was made to steam power, ironclad ships, less success than hoped with the naval bombardment of land fortifications.
and rifled guns firing explosive shells.There were few chances for In the 1860s Prussian ambitions to rule Germany and Italian aspirations
the European powers to experiment with new technology in action. In to nationhood provoked a series of wars in which sea power was marginal.
1854 Britain and France went to war against Russia in support of Ottoman Nonetheless there were a couple of intriguing naval battles.The encounter
Turkey.Although known as the Crimean War, this conflict was fought in at Heligoland was the last significant conflict between wooden ships, and the
the Baltic as well as the Black Sea. Confronted by the world’s two leading battle between Austrian and Italian fleets at Lissa was a remarkable instance
naval powers, Russia refused to commit its fleet to battle.Anglo-French of the brief fashion for ramming as the prime means of attack.

CRIMEAN WAR six battleships and mounted a total CRIMEAN WAR Russian naval sword
of 720 guns, some of them the new Though originally designed
SINOPE Paixhans guns that fired explosive SEVASTOPOL FORTS as a boarding weapon, by
shells.This overwhelming weight of 1860 the naval sword was
Date November 30,1853 firepower devastated the Turkish ships Date October 17, 1854 only used when going ashore
Forces Russians: 11 ships; in an hour, in a battle fought at anchor. Forces British and French: or on ceremonial occasions.
Ottoman Turkish: 12 ships Only one Ottoman vessel escaped 27 ships
Losses Russians: none; Ottoman destruction, a steam-powered auxiliary Losses British and French: Admiral Ferdinand Hamelin,
Turkish: 11 ships sunk under an English captain. British and 340 casualties; Russians: was to destroy the forts at
French public opinion responded to 1,100 casualties the harbor mouth.They
STEAM AND STEEL Location Sinope, the attack (a legitimate act of war) with deployed a mix of steam and
northern Turkey outrage.The battle was denounced in Location Sevastopol, sailing ships of the line, the
the press as the “massacre at Sinope” Crimea latter moved into position by
A month after the Russian and and offered the pretext for Britain and small steamers used as tugs.
Ottoman Empires had gone to war, France to enter the war against Russia. The siege of the Russian naval base In a long-range exchange of
a powerful Russian naval squadron of Sevastopol was the gruesome fire with the shore batteries,
under Admiral Pavel Nakhimov centerpiece of the Crimean War.The the unarmored wooden
attacked an British and French fleets landed some ships proved excessively
Ottoman force of 50,000 troops in September 1854 vulnerable to the Russians’
seven frigates and to besiege the city on land.The sea shells and red-hot shot,
five smaller ships in approach to Sevastopol Harbor ran up several being forced to leave
harbor at Sinope. a narrow creek, the mouth of which the line. Fort Constantine
Nakhimov’s was guarded by forts Constantine and suffered severe damage
squadron included Alexander and blocked by five ships when a magazine exploded,
of the line and two frigates sunk there but the shore batteries were
Exploding shells by the Russians. On October 17 still firing when the Allied
Nakhimov’s warships a combined land and sea attack on fleet withdrew to lick its
open fire on the Turkish Sevastopol was attempted.The task wounds.The long siege
fleet in an action that, of the British and French fleets, under lasted until September 1855,
with its use of exploding Vice Admiral James Dundas and Vice when Sevastopol was finally
shells, saw an end to the taken by Allied land forces
era of unarmored ships. Sevastopol besieged after heavy loss of life.
A map of the siege of Sevastopol as it was on June
18, 1855. The Allied fleet enters the harbor to the
north, while Russians flee from ruined fortifications.

SECOND SCHLESWIG WAR Each side had two wooden-hulled
steam-powered screw frigates: the
HELIGOLAND Danish Niels Juel and Jylland, and the
Austrian Schwarzenberg and Radetzky.
Date May 9, 1864 The Danish steam corvette Heimdall
Forces Danish: 2 frigates, also took part in the fighting.The
1 corvette; Prussians and hostile squadrons first steamed past one
Austrians: 2 frigates, 3 gunboats another on opposite tacks shelling
Losses Danish: none; Prussians furiously, then maneuvered to follow
and Austrians: 1 frigate badly a parallel course, Suenson’s Niels Juel
damaged taking on Tegetthoff ’s Schwarzenberg
Location Off Heligoland, while Jylland and Heimdall engaged
North Sea Radetzky.After more than two hours’
fighting, Schwarzenberg burst into
In 1864 Denmark fought Prussia and flames. Unable to continue fighting,
Austria over control of the duchies of Tegetthoff fled for neutral British
Schleswig and Holstein.The Danes, who territorial waters around Heligoland.
were superior to the Prussians at sea, The Danes had also suffered damage,
blockaded ports in northern Germany especially to Jylland, and withdrew for
with a squadron under Commodore repairs. Both sides claimed a victory,
Edouard Suenson. Captain Wilhelm the Danes having inflicted heavier
von Tegetthoff took a small Austrian casualties but the Austrians having
squadron to the North Sea to break succeeded in lifting the blockade.
the blockade. It encountered Suenson’s
force on May 9 off the island of
Heligoland, then a British possession.

219

Ramming contest
The obsolete Austrian wooden battleship Kaiser
rams the Italian ironclad steam frigate Re di
Portogallo at Lissa. It was one of the last
times a ram was used in combat.

the battle of lissa AUSTRO-ITALIAN WAR

In 1866 Italy went to war with Austria Tegetthoff had the weaker force, but he Once at close quarters the Austrians 1830 – 1918
in alliance with Prussia. From an Italian hoped to compensate by breaking the fought with outstanding skill.Tegetthof ’s
point of view the main aim of the war battle into a mêlée in which his ships ship Erzherzog Ferdinand Max rammed THE BATTLE OF LISSA
was to free Venice from Austrian rule. might win individual duels. He arranged two ironclads, Re d’Italia (twice) and
On July 20 an Italian fleet under Count his fleet in a V formation, advancing Palestro, as well as battering them with Date July 20, 1866
Carlo di Persano was preparing to land toward the Italians with the ironclads close-range gunfire. Re d’Italia was Location Adriatic, off Croatia
troops on the island of Lissa, then part in the van. Due to a confusion of orders, gouged open below the waterline by Result Austrian victory
of the Austrian Empire.An Austrian the Italians ended up in a ragged line Tegethoff ’s second ramming attack and
fleet under Wilhelm von Tegetthoff with ironclads and wooden ships sank in two minutes. Palestro eventually ITALY COMBATANTS
was sent to prevent the landings. interspersed and a large gap between exploded, killing most of its crew who AUSTRIA
the van and the center.Toward this gap had gallantly refused a chance to
Occurring at a transitional time in Tegetthoff gratefully plunged, braving abandon ship. Meanwhile, the large COMMANDERS
naval technology, the battle was fought the Italian broadsides that decapitated Austrian wooden battleship Kaiser,
by a mix of ironclads and wooden ships, one of his captains but otherwise under Captain Anton von Petz, engaged Carlo di Persano Wilhelm von Tegetthoff
all with both steam propulsion and sails, caused only limited damage. no less than four ironclads in the
and most with guns in broadside. Italian rear.Von Petz lost his stem and
bowsprit ramming the Re di Portogallo
and had his smokestack and mainmast FORCES
shot off, but successfully withdrew his
Lissa Austrian wooden Italians reform line crippled ship from the battle. For his Ships: 12 ironclads, Ships: 7 ironclads,
ships in rear north of Austrians victory,Tegetthoff justly became an 10 wooden steamships 7 wooden steamships
On July 20, 1866,Tegetthoff ’s fleet of Austrian national hero.
wooden ships and ironclads halted the LOSSES
Austrians’ landing on Lissa, approaching
the enemy fleet in an arrow formation. Erzherzog Men: 660 casualties Men: 176 casualties
After breaking through the Italian line, Ferdinand Ships: 2 ironclads Ships: none
Max rams
a mêlée ensued in which each fleet Re d’Italia
attempted to ram the other.
1827–1871
Wooden ship Kaiser rams Gap in Italian
armored ship Re di Portogallo line utilized by wilhelm von tegetthoff
Austrians who
Adriatic Sea Palestro break through COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE AUSTRIAN NAVY
with ease
KEY Commissioned as an officer in the Austrian navy in 1849,
Re di Portogallo Tegetthoff had no chance to show his talents as a naval
1 Italian armored ship, stage 1 commander in combat until the war with Denmark in
1 Italian armored ship, stage 2 Italian flagship
1 Italian wooden ship, stage 1 Affondatore 1864. His spirited engagement of a Danish squadron
1 Italian gunboat, stage 1 at Heligoland was hailed in Austria as an
1 Austrian armored ship, stage 1 Italians landing on Lissa outstanding naval feat and he was raised from
1 Austrian armored ship, stage 1 captain to rear admiral.As commander-in-chief
1 Austrian wooden ship, stage 1 halted by approach of N of the Austrian navy in 1866, his bold attack
upon the Italian fleet at Lissa contrasted vividly
Austrian fleet with the poor performance of Austrian land
forces, which were crushed by Prussians.
ISLAND OF
LISSA

Lissa

220 WEAPONS AND TECHNOLOGY

shot to shell Swivel guns

until the 19th century naval cannon fired varieties of Heavy mortar
solid shot. Explosive shells—hot shot filled with gunpowder
—were employed in land warfare, but they were thought
unsafe for use at sea. From the 1830s, navies adopted shells
as part of their munitions.The introduction of iron armor
on warships around 1850 made solid shot obselete—it
simply bounced off the cladding. By the 1880s rifled breech
loading guns firing high-exposive shells had become standard.

OFFSHORE BOMBARDMENT BOMB-KETCH Bore hole used Thick shell
Bombarding targets on shore has always been a major application of ships’ guns. In land These were developed to carry heavy to prime shell walls designed
warfare, mortars and howitzers were developed for the bombardment of besieged towns and naval mortars. Here the mortar for explosion
fortresses. These were guns firing in a high arc, using “bombs” or explosive shells as their projects through a hatch in the deck on impact
munitions. The French navy was the first to develop vessels designed to mount mortars in the to deliver its bombardment.
1680s, and was soon imitated by other navies. These bomb galiots or bomb ketches were built
with reinforced structures to cope with the forces released by the guns. To avoid the danger of EXPLOSIVE SHELL
keeping stores of explosive shells on a vessel that had guns firing, the shells were usually carried A bore hole was used to fill the shell
by tenders that accompanied the bomb vessels. with a small charge of gunpowder,
which would then be detonated via
Explosives shells a time-delay fuse.
fired in a high arc
STEAM AND STEEL
Mortar mounted on
a reinforced deck

SHELL CUTAWAY
Firing the shell ignited a slow-burning fuse
set into the bore hole, which then ignited the
gunpowder. A wooden plug, or sabot, kept the
fuse centered in the barrel during shell loading.

Sabot Solid shot, usually
an iron ball

SHIP VERSUS SHIP GUN DUELS SOLID SHOT
In the age of sail, guns on warships had a limited range. While an 18th century cannon could Before shells, shot was mainly used for
fire traditional solid shot up to 1 mile (1.6 km), its flat trajectory (the most accurate part of its penetrating heavy structures, in set-piece
flight) was about 656 ft (200 m). Just to be sure of the shot, however, vessels would frequently engagements. It had a formidable effect
close to half that distance before opening up with huge broadsides. Different navies employed on personnel, guns, and equipment.
different tactics in gun engagements. The Royal Navy, for example, preferred to shoot into the
enemy’s hull to kill men or sink the craft, while the French Navy frequently concentrated on
masts, sails, and rigging in an attempt to hinder a ship’s maneuverability.

Ships’ rigging, Small shot Canister lid
often targeted
in broadside Metal canister,
engagements designed to
rupture on firing
Solid shot fired
directly into the CANISTER
enemy’s hull The metal canister here would
rupture as it left the muzzle of
the cannon, allowing the small
shot inside to continue in a wide
formation against enemy personnel.

221

GUN FOUNDING Granulated EXPLOSIVE SHELL
explosive This explosive shell from the mid-19th
As the power requirements of cannon increased over the centuries, guns required century was designed to be fired from a
Bore hole for new generation of breech-loaders, in this
corresponding strengthening to cope with the greater pressures on the breech. The search time fuse case a 12-pounder with a rifled barrel.

for the best cannon-founding method produced two main variants during the 18th and Small metal Metal membrane
shot between powder
19th centuries—bore drilling and Rodman casting and shot prevents
early explosion
(here seen applied to a Dahlgren Gun). Drill

BORE DRILLING Compression
The bore-drilling method was pioneered
during the mid-18th century, and was a Solid metal
major improvement over the earlier hollow- gun barrel
casting method (casting the gun around
a solid core, which was then removed). In Explosive
bore drilling, the barrel was cast in one solid tendency
piece. Then the bore of the gun was drilled
out of the metal. The problem with bore Bore drilling Tension
drilling was that the gun cooled from the The bore of the gun is Cooling from outside,
outside in, creating weaknesses in the gun’s drilled from one piece compression causes an
structure through an outer tension in the of solid metal. explosive force.
metal. This would then place limitations on
the power and range of the gun.

RODMAN CASTING Cold water pumped Thick metal SHRAPNEL SHOT
Rodman casting was designed by Thomas through the barrel casing This early shrapnel shell featured a hollow
Jackson Rodman, an American artilleryman. cavity filled with small metal balls. The shell
Rodman overcame the problems of bore- Compression would explode in the air and throw out a
drilled guns by casting the cannon over an lethal cloud of anti-personnel shot.
inner cooling core. This consisted of a cast Hollowed out
iron tube, closed at one end but with inflow/ gun barrel
outflow valves at the other, a design that
allowed the operator to pump a constant Implosive SHRAPNEL SHELL 1830 – 1918
flow of cooling water through the tube. The tendency A mid-19th-century shrapnel
result was that the gun cooled from the shell used in a rifled muzzle-
inside out, meaning that each successive Rodman core Compression loader. It worked on a time fuse
layer of metal that cooled contracted onto The water-filled core Cooling from inside, and exploded in flight, creating
the one beneath it. The subsequent barrel cools the gun from compression causes an an airburst effect over an enemy.
was held together by compression rather inside out. an implosive force.
than tension, making the gun much stronger Shrapnel
and capable of taking heavier charges.
Shell cap holds
DAHLGREN BATTERY red dye
Designed by American naval officer John A.
Dahlgren, the bulbous breech of the Dahlgren HIGH-EXPLOSIVE SHELL
gun allowed shells to be fired at a higher A modern naval shell with a
velocity and, consequently, much farther. high-explosive filling made
from a mixture of TNT and
beeswax. The shell’s red cone
contains dye to help identify
which ship had fired the shell.

Shell contains TNT and
beeswax (TNT/BWX)

222 NEW NAVIES OF EUROPE

gunboat imperialism

THE TRADITION OF “sending in a gunboat” to intimidate a non- power on a global scale in the 19th century. By using their navies, these
European state was established by Britain in its first Opium War imperialist European states could often achieve their objectives by limited
with China from 1839 to 1842.The flat-hulled steam-powered punitive actions, without the need for costly campaigns of conquest. Non-
iron boats became a symbol of European imperialism because of their European countries sometimes courageously resisted intimidation—the
unique effectiveness in penetrating Asian or African rivers and coastal reverse suffered by the British at the hands of the Chinese at the Dagu forts
waters that otherwise might have offered some shelter from European naval in 1859 was a reminder that the outcome of battle was never inevitable. But
power.Yet it was the overall strength of their fleets, rather than any specific most encounters were one-sided, European fleets crushing technologically
type of vessel, that allowed Britain and France in particular to project inferior opposition with arrogant and ruthless efficiency.

The Nemesis
The experimental gunboat Nemesis (far right)
destroys a Chinese war junk with a Congreve
rocket in Anson’s Bay, 1841. Also armed with
32lb and 6lb guns, she played an outstanding
part in the reduction of China’s defenses
during the First Opium War.

STEAM AND STEEL

FIRST OPIUM WAR ports.There were further clashes with
junks, but the most decisive operations
FIRST OPIUM WAR involved the experimental gunboat
Nemesis.A flat iron-hulled steam-
Date 1839–1842 driven paddleboat, commanded
Forces British: 16 sailing ships, by William Hall, Nemesis
4 steam ships, 1 iron gunboat; could negotiate the
Chinese: unknown. shallow waters of
Losses Unknown Chinese rivers,
landing troops
Location and bombarding
Southern China strongpoints.
Defeat in the war
In November 1839, tensions arose forced the Chinese to
between the British East India Company cede Hong Kong to
and Chinese officials, who were Britain and open its
attempting to stop the import of ports to British traders.
opium through Canton (Guangzhou).
This led to open hostilities when HMS Nimrod
Chinese war junks exchanged fire with The 18-gun sixth-rate sloop Nimrod,
the frigate Volage and sloop Hyacinth. launched in 1828, was commanded by
The British government sent a force Joseph Pearse during the First Opium War.
of warships and troop transports to
blockade Canton and other Chinese

GUNBOAT IMPERIALISM 223

Hammer strikes Nipple for percussion cap Percussion pistol
percussion cap Percussion pistols shared the same
SECOND OPIUM WAR design as flintlocks, but had a different
Ramrod for firing mechanism. The hammer struck a
ATTACK ON THE loading cartridge cap containg an explosive that
lit the charge in the barrel.
DAGU FORTS Lanyard for to tackle the iron stakes, hauling them
attaching gun out with the power of their steam became a slaughterhouse, only nine
Date June 25, 1859 to belt engines.The gunboat Plover, where of her 40 crew still functioning.The
Forces British: 2 gun vessels, Hope had raised his flag, became gun vessel Cormorant and gunboats
9 gunboats; Chinese: shore and a chain stretched across trapped between the first and second Kestrel and Lee were also sunk; an
batteries the narrow channel.The forts’ guns line of obstacles and was battered by attempt by marines to storm the forts
Losses British: 4 ships; were protected by thick earth ramparts. fire from the shore guns. Hope was was a costly failure.The surviving boats
Chinese: unknown among the wounded as the boat withdrew in the evening.This was an
The night before the unusual reverse for the Royal Navy
Location Peiho River, assault on the forts, Hope which was avenged the following
northern China sent a party to blow up the year when an Anglo-French force
obstacles in the river, but it sacked Beijing.
On October 8, 1856, the Chinese had little success. In the
authorities stopped and searched a morning, the nine gunboats
merchant vessel, Arrow, that was later and two larger gun vessels
alleged to have been flying the British headed into the river mouth
flag. On this flimsy pretext Britain on the flood tide. Under the
launched a punitive action against guns of the forts only a few
China, soon abetted by France. On hundred yards away, they had
May 20, 1858, a dozen British and
French gunboats bombarded the Dagu Bombardment of Canton
forts at the entrance to Peiho River, In December 1857, during the Second
placing Tientsin and Beijing at their Opium War, British and French
mercy. The Chinese were forced to warships bombarded, and then
sign another humiliating peace treaty. occupied, the port of Canton.

But the Qing government did not 1830 – 1918
implement the treaty in full.The next
year, the British sent another naval
force to Peiho River, under Rear
Admiral James Hope.This time the
Chinese were better prepared.They
had blocked the river in front of the
forts with three lines of obstacles,
including iron stakes in the riverbed

occupation would go further
to proclaim our power and
accomplish our ends.

LORD PALMERSTON! 6JI=DG>O>C< I=: D88JE6I>DC D; 7:>?>C<

ANGLO-EGYPTIAN WAR was the future admiral of the fleet John WEAPONS AND TECHNOLOGY
Fisher. Seymour chose the center-
BOMBARDMENT OF battery ironclad Invincible as his flagship. gatling gun
ALEXANDRIA
The British opened fire on the Patented by American inventor Richard Jordan Gatling in 1862, the Gatling gun
Date July 11–13, 1882 Egyptian forts at 7:00 a.m. on July 11. was an early machine gun that found favor with the British Royal Navy. It had
Forces Britain: 15 ships; The shore guns returned fire and the multiple barrels rotated by a hand-operated crank. As each barrel came round a
Egyptians: shore batteries action continued for the next ten and cartridge automatically dropped into place and the gun fired. By this method the
Losses None a half hours. Invincible and the corvette gun could achieve an effective rate of fire of 400 rounds a minute. The Royal
Penelope, which advanced into the Navy adopted the Gatling gun as an ideal weapon to repel boarders. It was never
Location harbor, both took hits, as did Inflexible, employed in this role, but Gatling guns were fired against Egyptian forts during
Alexandria, Egypt but the ships’ armor provided good the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882, and Naval Brigades used them on land in
protection and casualties were light. various colonial wars. They were superceded by Gardner guns in the late 1880s.
In 1882 a government took power The Egyptians, by contrast, suffered
in Egypt opposed to Anglo-French grievously under the fire of the big Magazine containing 240 Ten rotating
dominance of the country. In June naval guns, losing about a quarter of rounds barrels
there were riots in Alexandria and their defending force.The shore guns
many foreign residents took refuge on were silenced the following morning. Barrels fire in lower right-
British and French warships offshore. hand position
The Egyptians set about reinforcing Hand crank
the forts defending the port. British operates firing .65-caliber Gatling gun
admiral Sir Frederick Seymour mechanism This ten-barrel version of the
interpreted this as a hostile act and Gatling gun was adopted by the
issued an ultimatum.The French Elevation wheel British Royal Navy in 1875.
dissociated themselves, leaving the
Royal Navy to fight alone.The British Wheel for
had a varied force of ironclads, including turning gun
the giant turret ship Inflexible, the most
powerful warship afloat, whose captain

Naval gun mounting

224 NEW NAVIES OF EUROPE

SINO-FRENCH WAR the Battle of foochow

THE BATTLE OF FOOCHOW In search of an Asian empire, France government had embarked on a policy cruisers (the most powerful ships in his
was extending its influence over of “self-strengthening,” which aimed to squadron) at the mouth of the Min
Date August 23, 1884 Vietnam, traditionally regarded by modernize its army and navy with the River, where they played no part in
Location Fuzhou, southern China the Chinese as under their suzerainty. help of European experts.The condition the subsequent battle. One armored
Result French victory In 1883 the French took control of of the Fukien Fleet revealed how limited cruiser, Triomphante, and three
Tonkin, the area of Vietnam closest the progress had been. Most of its few unprotected cruisers—D’Estaing,
COMBATANTS to the Chinese border, after a French steamships had unarmored wooden Villars, and Dugay-Trouin—anchored
naval squadron commanded by Rear hulls. Its only large-caliber guns were opposite the gunboat ChenWei and two
FRANCE CHINA Admiral Amédée Courbet blockaded carried by its two Rendel gunboats, Chinese wooden warships.The smaller
the Vietnamese capital, Hue.Although “flatiron” coastal defense vessels which French ships moored further up river,
COMMANDERS France and China officially remained provided a platform for one 10in gun where the rest of the Chinese fleet,
at peace, Chinese troops were sent to apiece.Antiquated sailing junks still including the flagship Yang Wu and
Amédée Courbet Zhang Peilun fight the French in Vietnam. made up a large part of the fleet. the flatiron gunboats, were clustered.

FORCES In August 1884 Courbet, promoted IMPERIAL POWER At 1:56 p.m. on August 23 the
to vice admiral, took his squadron of French opened fire without warning.
Ships: 8 ships, Ships: 11 warships north to the Chinese port of Because France and China were at Together Triomphante and the three
2 torpedo boats Foochow (Fuzhou). Lying on the Min peace, the French were permitted to unprotected cruisers mounted over
River, this was the base of the Fukien anchor their warships in the Min River 40 guns, most of larger caliber than the
LOSSES Fleet, one of China’s four regional among the ships of the Chinese fleet Chinese guns.They made short work
navies.After a series of humiliating and various other European vessels. of Chen Wei and the two wooden ships.
Men: 5 killed Men: 521 killed defeats by European forces, the Chinese Courbet kept two of his three armored On the face of it, the French ships up
Ships: none Ships: 9 sunk

STEAM AND STEEL He was very careful not to shed
French blood. His battles were
highly organized, worked out in
advance ... with so r are a precision

PIERRE LOTI! ;G:C8= H6>ADG 6C9 LG>I:G! 9:H8G>7>C< 69B>G6A 8DJG7:I

GUNBOAT IMPERIALISM 225

river faced a more difficult task. But WEAPONS AND TECHNOLOGY Lubrication Low-pressure Steam
the Chinese flagship was lost within system cylinder inlet valve
minutes of the start of the action.The compound engine
French had equipped two small steam
launches with spar torpedoes (mines Early steam engines had a single cylinder. A simple compound steam
hung on long poles projecting from
their bows). One of these exploded engine is fitted with two cylinders, the first using the high-pressure
against Yang Wu’s hull, sinking the
vessel.The flatiron gunboats were also steam from the boiler and the second exploiting the lower pressure
sunk by the fire of French guns. Some
Chinese ships ran aground attempting steam emitted from the first cylinder as exhaust. Invention of
to flee up river.The sailing junks
proved perfectly useless. In an hour the first truly practical two-cylinder compound steam engine
every Chinese ship in Foochow had
been sunk or disabled and the arsenal is attributed to Scottish engineer William McNaught in 1845,
and docks were ablaze.
but compound engines did not begin to be used at sea until Piston
News of this display of imperial
naval power was greeted with joy by the 1860s. “Compounding” greatly improved the efficiency High-pressure
a jingoistic French public.Vietnam was cylinder
secured for France after some harder of maritime engines. By increasing the distance ships could
fighting on land. Courbet died the Piston
following year, ensuring his elevation travel without refueling, compound engines made steam
to the status of a French national hero.
France’s first dreadnought, lanched in vessels effective for oceanic travel. By 1880 they were almost
1913, would bear his name.
universal in new-built ships. Over the following decade
Unequal contest
French armored cruisers rain destruction triple-expansion engines (with three cylinders) began to
down upon the wooden Chinese vessels
at Foochow. All of the Chinese ships were come into use. During the 19th century innovations in steam-
destroyed, while the French lost none.
engine design were usually Engine with two cylinders
pioneered by merchant The second cylinder of a compound
vessels, naval development engine uses steam that escapes from
following in their wake. the first. Each cylinder drives a piston.

THIRD ANGLO-BURMESE WAR Min was allowing his country to slip King Thibaw was slow to organize his 1830 – 1918
under French influence.To forestall defenses. In principle the river was
IRRAWADDY RIVER the French they launched a military defended by shore batteries and forts.
expedition to take over the country. At Minhla, boats were to be sunk in
Date November 16–28 ,1885 the navigable channel as blockships,
Forces British: c.50 river boats Major General Harry Prendergast forcing the British to halt under the
Losses British: none; Burmese: was sent from Madras to the Burmese guns of a fort on the river bank. In
unknown border with an army and naval force practice there was little resistance.The
numbering some 9,000 men.They blockships were never sunk and the
Location Irrawaddy could not advance on land through shore positions were overrun by British-
River, Burma the Burmese jungle, but the Irrawaddy Indian troops and naval brigades with
River offered a clear highway from the support of devastating fire from the
Britain fought three wars against the the Bay of Bengal to the royal capital armed steamers.Wherever the guns of
kingdom of Burma in the 19th century, of Mandalay.The British-owned the steamships were trained upon the
the first in 1823–26, the second in 1852, Irrawaddy Flotilla Company provided shore, the Burmese swiftly surrendered,
and the third in 1885.The first two river steam boats and pilots for the their defeat completed by the fall of
wars ended in compromise, but the expeditionary force. Prendergast had Mandalay on November 28.
third was followed by the annexation brought with him 24 Maxim guns,
of Burma.The 1885 war was rooted the first ever appearance of these belt- Snider-Enfield rifle, 1860
in colonial rivalry between Britain fed machine guns in military service. This breech-loading precussion-cap rifle was
and France.The British government They were mounted on steamers to adopted by the British forces in 1866 and was
suspected that Burmese King Thibaw provide formidable firepower. used during the Third Anglo-Burmese War.

ANGLO-ZANZIBAR WAR the British wished to suppress.The cruiser Racoon.The Zanzibar navy
political crisis that led to war came on consisted of a single British-built
ZANZIBAR August 25, 1896, when the sultan died. armed yacht, Glasgow, which was
The succession to the sultanate of anchored in front of the palace.
Date August 27, 1896 Britain’s preferred candidate, Hamad
Forces British: 5 ships; Zanzibar bin Muhammed, was preempted by Rawson presented an ultimatum:
rebels: 1 armed yacht Hamid bin Thuwaini’s nephew Khalid if Bargash didn’t surrender by 9:00 a.m.
Losses British: none; Zanzibar bin Bargash, who established himself in on August 27, the Royal Navy would
rebels: 1 yacht sunk the royal palace with several thousand open fire.The bombardment began at
armed followers in what amounted to 9.02 a.m.The Glasgow was soon sunk
Location Zanzibar, off a coup d’état.The Royal Navy had two and the royal palace and harem were
east coast of Africa ships at Zanzibar, the third-class cruiser pulverized.After some 40 minutes of
Philomel and the gunboat Thrush.These destruction by the naval guns, Bargash
The Anglo-Zanzibar conflict of 1896 were joined by the sloop Sparrow and a fled to seek refuge at the German
was the shortest war in recorded body of Royal Marines was put ashore. consulate and his followers raised the
history and the ultimate exercise of Rear Admiral Harry Rawson then white flag.Around 500 people lay dead
“gunboat diplomacy.” The island of arrived on board the Cape Station amid the ruins of the royal buildings.
Zanzibar was a British protectorate, its flagship St George, a thoroughly modern Hamud bin Muhammed became sultan
sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini accepting first-class cruiser with 9.2in main and, out of gratitude to the British,
the advice of a British resident.There armament, accompanied by the torpedo abolished the slave trade. Zanzibar was
was, however, tension over Zanzibar’s also obliged to pay the cost of the war.
persistence with slave trading, which

226 STEAM AND STEEL

the americas at war

FROM A BROAD PERSPECTIVE of world naval history, the 19th century in
the Americas is important as the period when the United States began its
emergence as a major naval power.This development was slow to occur,
however. Until the last decade of the century, naval operations in the
Americas were on a relatively modest scale, whether involving the United
States or not. Naval power played a significant role in the American Civil
War of 1861 to 1865, and that conflict provided a test-bed for new
technologies such as iron armor and turret guns.Yet naval encounters never
involved more than a handful of ships. Some intriguing naval battles were
also fought in the seas and rivers of Southern America. But it was the
creation of the “New Navy” of the United States from the 1880s that was
to give the continent its first world-class fleet.

STEAM AND STEEL An easy victory LIMITED FORCE would not have impressed even one of the lesser
On April 25, 1898, the American Asiatic squadron under European powers. At the outbreak of the Civil
Admiral Dewey destroyed the Spanish squadron in For much of the 19th century Americans simply War in 1861 the US Navy comprised some
Manila Bay, without losing a single man during the battle. saw no need for substantial naval forces. The 90 vessels, mostly of indifferent quality and
Here Dewey delivers the order “You may fire when United States was not seriously threatened by condition. The conflict was the occasion for
ready, Gridley,” from the bridge of his flagship Olympia. external enemies and Britain’s dominant Royal improvisation on both sides, the South showing
Navy saw to it that the seas were safe for particular ingenuity and boldness in taking on a
Fighting far from home merchant shipping. The United States did make naval struggle for which it could hardly have
The successful Confederate raider Alabama met her end a gesture toward the imperialist use of naval been worse prepared. The Union government
on June 19, 1864, off Cherbourg, France, when she was power with the dispatch of a squadron under converted a host of steam merchantmen to naval
tracked down by the USS Kearsarge. French and English Commodore Matthew Perry to intimidate use and instituted a blockade of Southern ports.
spectators watched the uneven contest between the Japan in 1854, but Perry’s four paddle steamers
Confederate wooden cruiser and her armored foe.
Percussion caps
Loading a round into a handgun
in the Civil War era still
required a separate cartridge,
ball, and percussion cap.

227

Armored ironclads, monitors, and river paddle GLOBAL NAV Y Colt Navy revolver 1830 – 1918
steamers fought one another in coastal waters and The Model 1961 Navy, a streamlined version of
along the Mississippi. The South bought cruisers Once the Civil War ended, the monitors, a successful model that had appeared a decade
from British shipyards to act as commerce ironclads, converted merchantmen, and cruisers earlier, was used throughout the Civil War.
raiders and used them to great effect. It deployed were sold off, mothballed, or scrapped.
tethered mines, “torpedo boats” with explosive American naval power was allowed to run American industry was creating the technological
devices on long spars, and proto-submarines down as the country concentrated on opening and financial basis for a major fleet and for
such as the Hunley, which sank the steam sloop up the West through railroad building and the overseas imperial expansion. In 1883 Congress
Housatonic in Charleston Harbor in February defeat of Native American tribes. authorized the building of the United States’ first
1864. But the naval dominance of the North three steel cruisers, the starting point for an
was never seriously challenged. In 1879, when the United States considered accelerating program that would create the New
intervening in the War of the Pacific between Navy. An ideology for this modern force was
Chile and Peru, it was unable to do so because supplied by historian Alfred Thayer Mahan,
it had no warships to match Chile’s British- who argued that naval power was the key to
supplied battleships. Yet the rapid growth of global domination and thus essential for the
United States if it was to take its rightful place
among the world’s great powers.

When the United States went to war with
Spain in 1898, a conflict triggered by an
accidental explosion on board the US battleship
Maine in Havana Harbor, it gave the New Navy
a chance to flex its muscles against distinctly
inferior European opposition. After crushing
victories at Manila Bay and off Cuba, the United
States came out of the war with a permanent
involvement in the Philippines and a string of
island bases for its Pacific fleet, as well as assured
dominance in the Caribbean. When President
Teddy Roosevelt sent the “Great White Fleet”
to show the Star and Stripes on a world tour in
1907, it included 16 battleships. The United
States had arrived as a serious naval power.

228 THE AMERICAS AT WAR

the american CIVIL war

THE WAR FOUGHT in 1861–65 between the 11 Confederate Gettysburg NEW
secessionist states of the South and the Union forces of the United
States government (the North) was fueled by their opposing views ILLINOIS INDIANA OHIO JERSEY
on slavery.Although largely decided on land, naval warfare also played a
part.The Union, by far the stronger in naval terms, established a blockade Booneville Washington
of the Southern coast.The South used fast ships to run the blockade and MISSOURI
commerce raiders to attack Northern shipping at sea. Small flotillas of Saint Louis WEST Fredericksburg Hampton
paddle-wheel steamers fought for control of the major rivers. Occurring at Springfield Louisville Roads
a transitional point in naval technology, the war spawned a variety of Dec 13,1862
experimental craft, from proto-submarines—used by the South to challenge VIRGINIA Richmond Mar 8–9,1862
the blockade—to ironclad “monitors.” Overall, the Union had the better of
the conflict at sea, as on land, because of superior resources of every kind. Perryville Petersburg Fort Monroe
KENTUCKY
VIRGINIA Norfolk Jun 26–
Jul 2,1862
Mississippi
Plum Run Bend TENNES SEE Nashville N. CAROLINA
Chattanooga SavSa . CAROLINA Fort
May 10,1862 Hatteras
Shiloh Tennessee Fort Macon
Memphis Aug 29,1862
Apr 26,1862
Jun 6,1862
ARKANSAS

MISSISSIPPI Atlanta nnah Charleston Harbour

ALABAMA Charleston Feb 17,1864

LOUISIANA Vicksburg A labama GEORGIA Fort Sumter

Jul 4,1863: Fort Pulaski Apr 12–14,1861

City falls after long siege, Apr 12,1862

The american civil war 1861–1865 giving Union control of

TEXAS whole length of Mississippi
and splitting Confederate-held

KEY Baton Rouge territory in two Fort

The naval war began with the Union states 1861 New Orleans Pickens
Confederates’ bombardment of Confederate states 1861
Fort Sumter in April 1861. From State border Union blockade Fort Jackson Fort Mobile Bay ATLANTIC
then on, the war centered on the Union front line December 1861 Union attack/ landing St. Philip OCEAN
Union blockade of the ports and Union front line December 1863 Aug 5,1864
its attempts to take the forts Union fort Union victory New Orleans
along the Mississippi. When the Confederate fort Confederate victory
latter fell, the Confederate States Inconclusive battle Apr 22,1862
were effectively cut in half.
N FLORIDA

0 km 150 300 Gulf of
0 miles 150 Mexico

300

STEAM AND STEEL the Forcing of the mISSISSIPPI forts

A major strategic objective of the Union mouth of the Mississippi and up the raiding the obstacle and opening a small CSS Governor Moore and CSS Jackson,
in the early stages of the war was to river past the Confederate strongholds navigable passage.Through this gap the cottonclads (gunboats with bales
wrest control of the lower Mississippi of Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip.The Union ships began to pass in single file. of cotton as armor) succeeded in
River from the Confederates. In Confederates had blocked the river At 3:40 a.m. the moon rose and more ramming USS Varuna.The oddest
February 1862 Flag Officer David at the line of the forts with sunken than a hundred guns opened up from vessel in the battle, CSS Manassas,
Farragut was entrusted with the capture hulks linked by a chain. In principle the forts upon the sloops and gunboats a cigar-shaped ironclad ram, carried
of New Orleans. He was to take a task Farragut’s unarmored sloops would be revealed below.The Union mortars out a series of attacks before she ran
force, the West Gulf Blockading stopped by this obstacle and pulverized provided counter-fire upon the aground and was destroyed by fire from
Squadron, across the sandbars at the by the forts’ heavy guns. batteries; a rag-tag assemblage of the steamer USS Mississippi. On April
Confederate gunboats behind the 25 the Union squadron steamed into
AMERICAN CIVIL WAR RUNNING THE GAUNTLET barrier joined in the firing; and rafts New Orleans.The fall of the city was
heaped with burning pitch and pine a major blow to the Confederacy.
Farragut had 19 barges mounting were released to float down on the Farragut was rewarded with the rank
mortars capable of firing shells of Yankees’ wooden ships.The ships in of rear-admiral—the first officer in
up to 200 lb. He also had transports the center and rear of Farragut’s file the US Navy so designated.
carrying 15,000 troops to attack forts took a heavy battering from the forts’
on land if needed.The mortars began guns, but only one was disabled and
their bombardment on the morning of two others forced to turn back.
April 18. More than a thousand shells a
THE MISSISSIPPI FORTS day raining down on the forts caused
much damage, but showed no signs of
Date April 18–24, 1862 silencing their guns. Farragut decided
Location Mississippi River, near New Orleans to force a passage regardless.
Result Union victory
In the early hours of April 24, in
COMBATANTS total darkness, his 17 sloops and
gunboats weighed anchor and
CONFEDERACY UNION steamed up river toward the
barrier.Two gunboats had
COMMANDERS earlier succeeded in

John K Mitchell David G Farragut Pennant
This pennant
FORCES belonged to the
Confederate navy
Ships: 12 vessels Ships: 8 steam sloops, 9 vessel CSS McRae,
including 2 ironclad rams gunboats, 19 mortar which fought Farragut’s fleet at
schooners the Mississippi forts. Each star
represents a Confederate state.
LOSSES

Men: 782 dead and Men: 37 killed, 149
wounded wounded
Ships: 13 Ships: 1

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 229

AMERICAN CIVIL WAR or two guns and an iron prow.They
lacked iron cladding but had cotton
PLUM RUN BEND bales functioning as light armor.

,U Date May 10, 1862 Steaming up river, Montgomery’s
Forces Union: 7 ironclad cottonclads encountered the Union
Location Near gunboats, 1 wooden gunboat, ironclad Cincinatti, one of the paddle-
Memphis, Tennessee 16 mortar boats; Confederacy: wheel gunboats known as “Pook’s
8 cottonclad gunboats Turtles” after their designer Samuel
Losses Union: 2 gunboats; Pook. Steaming through Cincinatti’s
Confederacy: none broadsides, three of the cottonclads
rammed the gunboat, which sank in
In May 1862 Union forces advancing shallow water.Another ironclad, AMERICAN CIVIL WAR Battle of the ironclads
down the Mississippi were threatening Mound City, was also sunk by ramming, Union ironclad gunboats fire salvos into the
Memphis. In their path lay Fort Pillow. settling half-submerged on a sandbar. MEMPHIS Confederate fleet, bringing a swift end to
Union mortar boats, defended by As more Union gunboats rushed to the the battle of Memphis.
ironclad gunboats, bombarded the fort. scene, the Confederates withdrew. Date June 6, 1862
Captain James E. Montgomery of the Forces Union: 5 ironclad Montgomery’s cottonclads, victors of
Confederate River Defense Fleet The skirmish at Plum Run Bend gunboats, 4 rams; Plum Run Bend, steamed out to meet
commanded a small flotilla of paddle gave a welcome boost to Confederate Confederacy: 8 cottonclads them, watched by a crowd of Memphis
steamers that had been converted into morale but failed to affect the course Losses Union: none; residents ready to cheer a Confederate
fighting rams by the addition of one of the river war. Fort Pillow was Confederacy: 7 ships triumph. But it was not to be.
abandoned within a month.
Battle at Fort Pillow Union rams, captained by Charles
Plum Run Bend demonstrated how steam Ellet and his brother Alfred, collided
propulsion had restored the effectiveness with the van of the Confederate force at
of the old galley tactic of ramming. 15 knots.Two cottonclads were holed
and crippled.The Union ironclad
Location Memphis, gunboats followed, firing salvoes that
Tennessee sank one Confederate vessel and disabled
three others.After two hours’ fighting,
the passing of forts jackson and After their losses at Plum Run Bend the Confederate fleet had ceased to 1830 – 1918
st. philip was one of the most in May 1862, the Union was convinced exist, losing 180 men and only one
of the need for rams in river warfare. ship escaping down river. Charles
Charles Ellet, a civil engineer, had been Ellet was the only casualty on the
tasked with building a ram fleet. He Union side. Memphis was occupied
strengthened nine river tug boats for and stars and stripes raised over the
ramming, crewed them with riverboat Confederate city.
men, and put them under the command
of himself and his relatives. Four of
Ellet’s rams, together with five ironclad
“Pook’s Turtles,” steamed down the
Mississippi toward Memphis,Tennessee,
on June 6.There Captain James

awful sights i ever saw ... Mississippi Forts Mississippi

DAVID FARRAGUT, JC>DC ;A6< D;;>8:G! LG>I>C< >C =>H B:BD>GH After a week-long barrage of the forts by Third division
Union mortar schooners, Farragut’s plan of Union
Moonlit battle came to fruition on April 20, when an gunboats
Farragut’s flagship Hartford runs the opening was made in the barrier crossing
gauntlet of Confederate incendiaries, the river.The Union ships then had to pass USS Hartford
forcing a passage up the Mississippi. the forts, which together mounted 139 guns, leads center
division of Union
39 howitzers, and 25 mortars. gunboats

USS Varuna

Chain barrier USS Mississippi
supported by eight
Confederate hulks Flag-gunboat
USS Cayuga
Confederate battery
defends chain barrier Gap opened by
Union gunboats

Fort Jackson

KEY Confederate armored
ship Louisiana
Union corvette
Confederate
Union gunboat or Fort steamers include
mortar schooner St. Philip ironclads and
cottonclads
Confederate armored ship

Confederate armed steamer

Confederate hulk Confederate
ram Manassas
Confederate battery N

230 THE AMERICAS AT WAR

US CIVIL WAR the battle of Mobile Bay

CHARLESTON HARBOR US CIVIL WAR By the fourth year of the Civil War, The leading Union monitor was
Mobile,Alabama, was one of only two Commander Tunis Craven’s Tecumseh.
Date April 7, 1863 THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY Confederate ports still successfully As Buchanan’s ships opened fire from
Forces Union: 7 monitors, challenging the Union naval blockade ahead, Craven maneuvered to engage
2 ironclads; Confederacy: none Date August 5, 1864 (the other being Savannah, Georgia). Tennessee.Veering to port, Tecumseh
Losses Union: 1 ironclad sunk Location Mobile Bay, Gulf of Mexico In August 1864 Union forces under struck a mine (or “torpedo”), triggering
Result Union victory Admiral David Farragut sought to a massive explosion.The monitor
Location Charleston, close this avenue for blockade-runners capsized and sank, taking Craven and
South Carolina COMBATANTS by taking control of Mobile Bay. more than 90 of the crew to the bottom.
For a moment the Union squadron
In preparation for an attack upon the UNION CONFEDERACY As the fog lifted around 6:00 a.m. came to a halt under the fire of the
Confederate port of Charleston, Rear on August 5, Farragut’s squadron fort’s guns, as captains hesitated to press
Admiral Samuel Francis du Pont’s South COMMANDERS crossed the bar at the entrance to forward for fear of mines. Farragut’s
Atlantic Blockading Squadron attempted the bay on the flood tide. His four resolve saved the day.With the famous
to overcome the defenses of Charleston David Farragut Franklin Buchanan armored monitors led the way, cry “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed
harbor by naval bombardment. Seven steaming to starboard of his wooden ahead!” the Union admiral ordered his
monitors and the ironclads New Ironsides FORCES ships to protect them from the fire flagship forward through the mined
and Keokok crossed the harbor bar on of Fort Morgan’s batteries. Meanwhile, channel, followed without further loss
April 6, 1863, but poor visibility delayed Ships: 4 monitors, 14 Ships:1 ironclad, 3 Confederate admiral Franklin Buchanan by the rest of the squadron.
the attack until the following morning. wooden steamships gunboats brought Tennessee (an unwieldy
The Confederate defenses were ironclad ram) and three unarmored Although facing
excellently prepared.The channel into LOSSES gunboats up to block the channel into overwhelming odds,
the harbor was blocked with obstacles the bay.The Union ironclads began Buchanan gallantly
and “torpedoes” (mines), while the Men: 315 Men: 35 casualties, 123 a vigorous exchange of fire with Fort refused to accept
gunners in Fort Sumter and Fort Ships: 1 ironclad captured Morgan, creating such smoke that defeat. Tennessee’s
Multrie had taken measures to ensure Ships: 1 ironclad and 2 Farragut had to climb the mainmast of guns did a great
that their fire was accurate and deadly. gunboats captured his flagship, the screw-sloop Hartford, deal of damage to
The monitor Weehawken was first to to see what was happening. Union ships and
open fire on the forts with her
STEAM AND STEEL Dahlgren guns, but she was soon Battle of the ironclads
taking hits on her armor, as well as Commander David G. Farragut (far right)
having a torpedo explode beneath her. stands in the rigging of his sloop-of-war
The unfortunate Keokuk found herself Hartford. In the foreground, a gun crew
swept into the van on the flood tide. readies a Dahlgren gun to fire point-
Her experimental armor (she was blank at a Confederate ironclad.
dubbed a “tinclad”) was quickly holed.
In all, the shore batteries fired 2,200
shots, achieving 440 hits, while the
ships only managed to fire 154 shots
before retiring for the day. Keokuk sank
the following morning and the assault
on the forts was abandoned.

US CIVIL WAR

ALABAMA VS KEARSARGE

Date June 19, 1864
Forces Confederacy: 1 steam
sloop; Union: 1 steam sloop
Losses Confederacy: 1 ship
sunk; Union: none

Location Off
Cherbourg, France

The Confederate steam sloop Alabama
was a highly successful commerce raider.
Commanded by Captain Raphael
Semmes, she sank more than 60
merchant ships. On June 14, 1864 she
was trapped in the French port of
Cherbourg by the Union sloop Kearsarge
under Captain John Winslow. Five days
later Semmes boldly came out to fight.
The engagement lasted 70 minutes.
The two ships steamed in opposite
directions in narrowing circles,
pounding one another with shot and
shell. Kearsarge was armored with iron
chains; Alabama was not. Holed and
taking water, Alabama struck shortly
before sinking. Semmes was among
the 38 men saved by a private yacht.

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 231

Shot after shot was seen to strike, Mobile Bay
and shells to explode ... but their
sides being heavily protected ... no In attacking the port of Mobile, the
vital blow could be inflicted. Union fleet faced every kind of defense

GENERAL RICHARD L PAGE! 8DBB6C9:G D; ;DGI BDG<6C the Confederates could muster, from
stakes protecting the shallows to floating
mines, an ironclad ram, and the heavy

guns of forts Gaines and Morgan.

Fort Powell Mobile Bay

A row of stakes
blocks the shallows

proved a tough opponent to overcome. Buchanan, himself wounded, at last Union troops land After the battle, the
Three of the Union screw-sloops, ordered a white flag flown from the on Dauphin Island Union fleet joins the army
including Farragut’s Hartford, rammed battered, disabled ironclad, bringing on August 3 and bombarding Fort Gaines
the Confederate leviathan, but suffered the battle of Mobile Bay to a close. attack Fort Gaines
more damage than they caused.The Confederate squadron
monitors Chickasaw and Manhattan Over the following weeks, Union DAUPHIN ISLAND is swiftly destroyed Confederate
moved in to fire their heavy guns at army and naval forces captured the forts Fort Gaines ram Tennessee
point-blank range, finally succeeding in at the mouth of the bay, completing
blowing a hole in Tennessee’s armor. the blockade of Mobile, which itself Gulf of Mexico Sunken Union
stayed in Confederate hands. ship Tecumseh
KEY
Wooden Union ships Fort Morgan
1 Union monitor approach in pairs,
1 Union wooden steamship lashed together N
1 Union wooden gunboat
1 Confederate armored ship Farragut’s ironclads,
1 Confederate wooden gunboat on landward side,
Stake barrier attack Fort Morgan
Mine barrier

1801–1870 1830 – 1918

david g.

farragut

THE FIRST ADMIRAL OF THE US NAVY

Tennessee-born David Farragut was a
midshipman in the US Navy aged nine,
and, during the 1812 War with Britain,
commanded a prize vessel at the age
of 12. He saw further action in the
Mexican War of 1846–48.Although
born and bred a southerner, in the
Civil War he opted for the Union and
distinguished himself in the running of
the forts to New Orleans in 1862.The
assault on Mobile Bay, in 1864, was his
finest hour. He was rewarded with the
title of admiral in 1866, the first man
to hold that rank in the US Navy.

FORCING OF THE MISSISSIPPI FORTS

On April 24, 1862, Commodore Farragut of the
United States Navy sent his West Gulf Blockading
Squadron of nine gunboats, eight steamboats, and
several mortar vessels up the Mississippi to wrest
New Orleans from Confederate control. The city
fell peacefully, but Farragut’s squadron endured a
vicious bombardment from the Confederate
strongholds, forts Jackson (left) and St. Philip.



234 THE AMERICAS AT WAR

Point-blank range
Monitor (right) opens fire with one of its Dahlgren
guns at point-blank range. The Virginia’s barbette
is riddled with damage, and its smokestack is
shattered. It also takes fire from Union frigates.

Crew of USS Monitor
The Monitor had a crew of 59 officers and
men, some of whom are gathered here on its
deck. A gunner stands on the turret, which
houses two 11in Dahlgren smoothbores.

STEAM AND STEEL

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 235

the battle of hampton roads

Faced with overwhelming Union naval response to rumors that the Union, himself was shot in the leg—the limb US CIVIL WAR
superiority and a blockade of its coasts, too, had an ironclad—one that might was later amputated. Before handing
the Confederacy sought salvation in resist Virginia’s guns. Virginia’s captain, over command, he angrily ordered his BATTLE OF HAMPTON ROADS
new technology: ironclad warships. 61-year-old Franklin Buchanan, had gunners to fire on Congress with heated
Building upon the half-burned hull orders to effect “prompt and successful iron shot, setting it aflame. Date March 8–9, 1862
of the steam frigate USS Merrimack, action.”Without hesitation he set his Location Off Sewell’s Point, Virginia
captured at Gosport in the first days of course directly for the wooden frigate By the end of the day yet another Result Inconclusive
the Civil War, the Confederates created USS Cumberland. Steaming inexorably Union frigate, Minnesota, was aground
a ship completely covered down to the forward, immune to Cumberland’s and at Virginia’s mercy.The ironclad, COMBATANTS
waterline in 4in (102mm) thick iron broadsides, Virginia smashed its ram into now under Lieutenant Catesby ap
plates. On March 8, 1862, this sinister, the frigate’s hull.As Cumberland sank, Roger Jones, retired to rest its crew, UNION CONFEDERACY
ungainly fighting machine, renamed the ironclad was almost dragged to the intending to finish the job the following
CSS Virginia, steamed out from Norfolk bottom, disengaging at the expense of day.This it would undoubtedly have COMMANDERS
Navy Yard to challenge the Union snapping the ram. Virginia’s next victim done but for the timely arrival (for the
frigates blockading the Hampton Roads. was USS Congress. Deliberately run Union) of an even stranger vessel.Aware John L. Worden Franklin Buchanan,
aground to escape ramming, the frigate of the Confederates’ progress with Samuel D. Green Catesby ap R. Jones
HISTORIC ENCOUNTER provided target practice for Virginia’s Virginia, the Union had indeed rushed
gunners. Congress eventually struck its to complete its own revolutionary FORCES
Although it carried 12 assorted guns colors but Virginia’s acceptance of the ironclad. USS Monitor, towed south
(four rifles, two howitzers, and six surrender was interrupted by fire from from New York, with no time for sea Ships: 1 ironclad, Ships: 1 ironclad,
Dahlgren smoothbores), Virginia’s chief Union soldiers on shore. Buchanan trials and an inexperienced crew, 5 wooden frigates 2 wooden warships,
weapon was an iron ram, created in reached the Hampton Roads on the 1 gunboat

during the action they cheered and cheered again. LOSSES
their coolness and skill were the more remark able
from the fact that the great majority of them Men: 261 killed, Men: 7 killed,
were under fire for the first time. 108 wounded 17 wounded
Ships: 2 frigates Ships: none
LIEUTENANT CATESBY AP ROGER JONES, LG>I>C< D; =>H 8G:L 67D6G9 VIRGINIA
1830 – 1918

236 THE AMERICAS AT WAR

1821–1877 The duel that followed the next day, key
when Virginia steamed out and found
catesby ap jones Monitor defending Minnesota, may rank CONFEDERATE FLEET
as the oddest in naval history. For four 1 Confederate ironclad
CONFEDERATE NAVY LIEUTENANT hours the two ships blasted at one ship: CSS Virginia
another at close range, producing little
Born in Fairfield,Virginia, Catesby ap Roger Jones more than dents in their iron armor. 1 Confederate steam
(“ap” meaning “son of ” in Welsh) was appointed Visibility was poor for commanders gunboat
midshipman in 1836 and served extensively at sea, and gunners on both ships. Monitor
suffered problems with its turret, which UNION FLEET
becoming a lieutenant in 1849. In the 1850s he had to be kept permanently rotating, 1 Union ironclad ship:
was involved in the development of naval firing as it turned. Virginia had the USS Monitor
weapons, and served as an ordnance officer disadvantage of aV-shaped hull (Monitor
was flat-bottomed) and at one point 1 Union frigate or other
aboard Merrimack when she began service in ran aground, refloating with a supreme wooden warship
1856. He became a Confederate Navy effort of her overstretched engines.
Lieutenant in 1861, and converted Merrimack Ramming proved as ineffectual as firing only solid shot at Virginia’s upper
gunfire.A shell exploded on the eye- works, claiming that firing explosive
into the ironclad Virginia, taking temporary slit of Monitor’s cramped pilothouse, shells beneath the waterline would
command of her at the battle of Hampton and its captain, John L.Worden, was have sunk the Confederate ship.
Roads. He was killed in 1877 in a feud burned in the face and blinded. But Nevertheless, neither ironclad survived
between his and another man’s children. his first officer, Samuel D. Green, the year. Virginia was scuttled by her
continued the fight, and in the commander in May 1861 when the
STEAM AND STEEL night of March 8–9. She was a semi- that permitted large amounts of afternoon Virginia withdrew to port. course of the land battle forced the
submerged armored raft designed by explosives to be used without fear of Confederates to abandon Portsmouth.
Swedish engineer John Ericsson, driven the guns exploding (and gave them a Over the following two months Monitor, which was never truly
by Ericsson’s novel marine screw, soda-bottle shape), the pair aboard Virginia made occasional sorties into seaworthy, sank on December 31 while
and topped by a revolving iron gun Monitor being of a higher caliber than Hampton Roads, but the epic duel under tow in an Atlantic gale.
turret containing two 11 in smoothbore the two aboard Virginia. Unlike her was not repeated. Both sides claimed
Dahlgren guns.The latter had opponent, which was simply a wooden victory, but with the blockade still Duel in Hampton Roads
reinforcing muzzle swells intact, the strategic balance remained Virginia (right) fires its 7 in stern and casement
ship dressed in iron, Monitor was in the Union’s favor.When he heard guns, while Monitor fires its 11-in turret equivalents.
Flattened shot the first truly semi- of the engagement, Monitor’s designer Virginia’s use of molten shot enhanced the need for
One of the shots fired at submersible warship, John Ericsson criticized the crew for ships to be made of iron.
Virginia by Monitor having all of her features
flattened on impact with underwater save for
the former’s thick armor— the turret and a tiny
Merrimac being the Union pilothouse up front.
name for the Virginia.

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 237

Cumberland Congress

The Virginia rams and sinks the NEWPORT Shoals St. Lawrence
Union frigate Cumberland
before firing on the Congress, NEWS Minnesota
which later explodes.
Roawoke
Virginia
Union frigate USS Minnesota
runs aground while sailing
into Hampton Roads

While Virginia engages the Union The Virginia moves to attack the
squadron, several ships of the grounded Minnesota, before retiring
James River Squadron slip past the for the night past Sewell’s Point
Union gun batteries to the safety
of Sewell’s Point SEWELL’S Shoals
POINT

Shoals

The first day

On the morning of March 8, 1862, Confederate
ironclad CSS Virginia steams into Hampton Roads
in an attempt to break the Union blockade. The
Virginia sinks two Union frigates before retiring
under the protection of the guns at Sewell’s Point.

NEWPORT NEWS Shoals The Virginia and the
Monitor duel for several
Congress Minnesota hours before Virginia
runs aground
Monitor
The Monitor takes up
Monitor vs Virginia During the night the Union a position behind the
ironclad Monitor arrives at Virginia and pours fire into
During the night, Union ironclad USS Monitor Hampton Roads. The next the grounded ironclad
arrives at Hampton Roads. The next morning, as the morning it moves to intercept
Virginia steams out to finish off the damaged Union Virginia as the ironclad moves Shoals
frigate Minnesota, the Monitor and the Virginia to finish off the Minnesota
meet in the first clash of the ironclad warships. ironcl ad Deadlock
Virginia’s consorts obey After freeing herself from the shoals, the
the call to come to the aid Virginia attempts to ram the Monitor. With neither
of the grounded ironclad ironclad able to cause significant damge to the other,
the ships finally withdraw. The inconclusive battle
NEWPORT NEWS leads to a standoff lasting several months.

Shoals When the Monitor withdraws,
Virginia steams toward Minnesota
Minnesota for a final attack, before
abandoning the attempt due
Congress Monitor to falling water levels

The Monitor takes advantage Virginia
of her shallower draft to retire to
the safety of the shallow waters

A lucky shot from Virginia’s
guns enters the Monitor’s
pilothouse, wounding the
ship’s commander
Lieutenant John L. Worden

Pulling herself free from the
shoals, Virginia attempts to
ram and board the Monitor

Seeing Virginia free herself
from the shoals, Virginia’s
consorts retire to safety under
the guns of Sewell’s Point

HAMPTON ROADS Shoals

238 THE AMERICAS AT WAR

spanish and

latin-american conflicts

FROM THE 1840s to the 1890s the countries of Central and South Maine in Havana Harbor—an event that was almost certainly an accident,
America fought a number of wars that involved naval action. but which was blamed by the Americans on the Spanish authorities, thus
None of the naval conflicts was contested on a large scale, but providing the former with a pretext for war.Two one-sided naval battles, at
some were of technical interest, providing a testing ground for the latest Santiago de Cuba and Manila Bay, to a large degree determined the war’s
naval technology—as when the first sinking of a warship by a torpedo took outcome.As a result of the conflict the United States effectively replaced
place during the Chilean Civil War of 1891.The war that broke out between Spain as the imperial power in Cuba and the Philippines.At the same time,
Spain and the United States in 1898, however, marked a major historical the naval battles confirmed the terminal decline of the Spanish navy and
transition.The war was precipitated by the explosion of the battleship the emergence of the United States as a potentially major naval power.

Texan sailing ships TEXAS-MEXICAN WARS by the ironclad steamer Moctezuma.
Sailing ships of the Texan navy head Commanded by Commodore Thomas
for the Yucatán Peninsula, where CAMPECHE Marin, the Mexican ironclads were
they engage and defeat the steam mostly manned by British officers and
ships of Mexico at Campeche. Date April 30 and May 16, 1843 crews.The Texans had only wooden
Forces Texans, Yucatáns: 4 sailing sailing ships, including Moore’s flagship,
STEAM AND STEEL ships; Mexicans: 2 ironclads, the sloop-of-war Austin, and the brig
4 sailing ships Wharton. Joined by two schooners of
Losses none the Yucatán navy, Moore met the
Mexican steamships off Campeche on
Location Bay of April 30.The two-hour running battle
Campeche, Mexico was indecisive, but the Texans broke
through the blockade and entered
In 1843 Texas was a self-declared Campeche for rest and repairs.
republic whose independence was
not recognized by Mexico.The Texan Over the next two weeks the Texan
navy was in poor shape, its crews sailing ships had long-range guns added
unpaid and mutinous. Its commander, to their armament, for they had had
Commodore Edwin Ward Moore, difficulty closing with the steam-driven
sought to fund the navy by selling its ships. On May 16 Moore led his ships
services to Yucatán, also fighting for out of Campeche to renew battle.This
independence from Mexico. In April time the fighting lasted three hours.
1843 Moore sailed from New Orleans Austin was badly damaged, but the
for the Yucatán port of Campeche, Texan broadsides caused far heavier
under blockade by the Mexican navy. casualties.The Texans had the better
of the two encounters, justifying the
Mexico had recently bought the description of Campeche as the only
British-built, iron-hulled, paddle-wheel battle in which sail defeated steam.
frigate Guadalupe, the largest iron ship
in the world. Guadalupe was supported

CHINCHA ISLANDS WAR Peruvian armament totaled around WAR OF THE PACIFIC trapped between the Peruvian shore
90 guns, including some very heavy batteries and Huascar, and although
CALLAO shore guns in armored emplacements. IQUIQUE most of her crew were killed or
On the morning of May 2, the Spanish wounded, her captain,Arturo Prat,
Date May 2, 1866 ships advanced within range and a Date May 21, 1879 refused to surrender.When Huascar
Forces Spanish: 14 warships; ferocious gun duel began; it lasted six Forces Chilians: 1 corvette, rammed the corvette, Prat led his
Peruvians: 5 warships, c.60 shore hours.The Spanish vessels received many 1 schooner; Peruvians: surviving crew in an attempt to board
guns hits, especially Numancia, deliberately 1 armored frigate, 1 monitor the monitor. He was killed on its deck
Losses Spanish: none; Peruvians: positioned by Mendez Nuñez in the Losses Chilians: 1 corvette; with a blow from an ax. Meanwhile,
unknown place of greatest danger. More than 40 Peruvians: 1 armored frigate Covadonga fought a skilful running battle
Spanish officers and men were killed with Independencia, exploiting its shallow
Location and a further 160 were wounded, Location draft to lure the Peruvian ship into
Callao, Peru including the admiral. But the Spanish Iquique, Peru going aground. Covadonga was then
had the better of the duel, silencing able to batter Independencia with her
In the 1860s relations between Spain almost all the shore guns with their During the war between Chile and
and its former colonies Peru and Chile more skilful shooting.There were some Peru in 1879, the Chilean navy left guns.The Peruvians scuttled
deteriorated into open warfare after 600 Peruvian casualties, including the two obsolescent wooden steamships, the ship while Covadonga
the Spanish seized Peru’s guano-rich minister of war Juan Galvez, killed the corvette Esmeralda and escaped southward. On
Chincha Islands.Admiral Casto Mendez in the destruction of an armored the schooner Covadonga, balance, the battle was
Nuñez steamed from Spain on board strongpoint.The Spanish squadron blockading the Peruvian a victory for Chile.
the newly built ironclad Numancia to subsequently left for the Philippines, port of Iquique.There
take command of a Spanish squadron leaving the bombardment without they were surprised by Battle hero
off the coast of Chile. He bombarded consequence. Returning home to Spain, two Peruvian This medal commemorates the
the port of Valparaiso in February 1866, Numancia became the first ironclad ironclads, the death of Chilean captain Arturo
then moved north to Peru, choosing to circumnavigate the globe. armored frigate Prat, who died boarding the
the fortified naval base at Callao as his Independencia and the Peruvian monitor Huascar.
target.The Spanish fleet had 245 guns monitor Huascar.
on board, arranged in broadside.The Esmeralda became

SPANISH AND LATIN-AMERICAN CONFLICTS 239

the battle of santiago de cuba

When war broke out between the Cervera chose the morning American medal SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
United States and Spain in April 1898, of July 3 for the attempt. He Commemorating the destruction of
Spanish admiral Pascual Cervera was had the good fortune of the Spanish fleet at Santiago de Cuba, BATTLE OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA
ordered to protect his country’s West selecting the morning when this medal shows a broadside view of
Indian colonies from American attack. Admiral Sampson, aboard the USS Brooklyn under steam. Date July 3, 1898
This was a poor decision, for the forces armored cruiser NewYork, Location Off Santiago de Cuba
at Cervera’s disposal were inadequate was heading off to meet with the battleship Texas. But Result American victory
to confront the battleships of the US US Army commanders. New Brooklyn was soon engaging
“New Navy”—deficiencies ranging York was far from its blockade Maria Teresa, which sought to COMBATANTS
from faulty boilers to missing guns station when, at around 9:30 hold off the enemy as the
and dud ammunition. Nevertheless, a.m., the Spanish were UNITED STATES SPAIN
Cervera anchored his squadron of spotted steaming out of other ships slipped away.
armored cruisers and destroyers at harbor, with Cervera’s The battle quickly COMMANDERS
Santiago de Cuba, where it was swiftly flagship, the cruiser Infanta
blockaded by the Americans. Maria Teresa, leading the line. degenerated into a debacle William T. Sampson Pascual Cervera y
for the Spanish. Cervera’s Winfield Scott Schley Topete
The commander of the American Cervera’s only hope lay in speed. flagship was battered by
Atlantic Squadron,Admiral William T. In principle, the Spanish ships had Brooklyn’s guns and ran FORCES
Sampson, had no intention of attacking a fair chance of outrunning the aground.Another armored cruiser,
the Spanish in harbor, where they were blockade force once they were clear. Vizcaya, valiantly dueled with Brooklyn Ships: 4 battleships, Ships: 4 armored
defended by shore batteries and mines, In Sampson’s absence, command of and the battleship Texas for over an 2 armored cruisers, cruisers, 2 destroyers
leaving Cervera with the slim hope the American squadron devolved to hour, until it too was grounded. 2 torpedo boats
that bad weather might interrupt the Commodore Winfield Scott Schley Oquendo was disabled and scuttled.
blockade. By July, however,American aboard the armored cruiser Brooklyn. The Spanish destroyers succumbed to LOSSES
land forces were also threatening As the Spanish steamed southward the battleships Iowa and Indiana, and of
Santiago, so the Spanish admiral made close to the shore, Schley maneuvered NewYork hurrying to join the action. Men: 1 dead, 1 wounded Men: 474 casualties,
the decision to attempt a breakout. so radically that he nearly collided with Only the cruiser Cristóbal Colón broke Ships: none 1,800 taken prisoner
the blockade, but was overhauled by Ships: 6
Oregon after a 50-mile (80km) chase.

Santiago de Cuba Spanish leave N nothing can be expected of
harbor in line
Caught between the encroaching American Torpedo boats Furor ahead formation this expedition except the total 1830 – 1918
army and the blockading ships of the and Pluton sink
CUBA destruction of the fleet or its
American Atlantic Squadron, the Spanish
ships under Admiral Pascual Cervera Santiago de Cuba hasty and demor alized return.

attempted to break out of Santiago de Cuba SPANISH ADMIRAL PASCUAL CERVERA, BEFORE THE BATTLE OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA
on July 3, 1898.The ensuing battle lasted
less than four hours. Spanish wreck
The Spanish unprotected cruiser Reina Mercedes
Vizcaya Oquendo Flagship Infanta Indiana was one of the ships trapped by the American
runs aground runs aground Maria Theresa Flagship blockading force in Santiago de Cuba. It was sunk
runs aground New York during a bombardment on 6 June 1898.
Colón chased
and runs Brooklyn Oregon
aground

Texas Iowa

Caribbean Sea KEY

1 US battleship, stage 1 1 Spanish armored cruiser, stage 1
1 US battleship, stage 2 1 Spanish armored cruiser, stage 2
1 US armored cruiser, stage 1 1 Spanish torpedo boat, stage 2
1 US armored cruiser, stage 2

240 THE AMERICAS AT WAR

WEAPONS AND TECHNOLOGY SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR

breech-loading guns

In the mid-19th century the breech-loading rifled cannon began THE BATTLE OF MANILA BAY
to replace the muzzle-loader, which took longer to load, was difficult
to clean, and could mistakenly be double-loaded, as happened aboard Date May 1,1898
HMS Thunderer in 1879, causing terrible loss of life. But breech-loaders Location Off Cavite, Philippines
had dangers of their own, and only became reliable with the invention Result American victory
of the interrupted screw and the French-designed De Bange obturation
system. The former allowed the breech to be opened and closed
quickly, while the latter created an airtight seal, preventing dangerous
propellent gasses escaping through the breech when firing.

Interrupted screw COMBATANTS
This features a screw thread that has
sections cut away lengthwise. This allows UNITED STATES SPAIN
the breech block to be fully inserted into the
barrel before being quarter-turned shut. Sealing the breech COMMANDERS
Both the interrupted
Section of screw and the obturator George Dewey Patricio Montojo y
thread cut pad are visible in the breech Pasaron
away of this gun aboard HMS Ganges.
FORCES

Ships: 6 warships, Ships: 7 warships
3 support vessels

Mushroom-shaped spindle De Bange obturation LOSSES
in center of breech block The explosion of the propellent
Interrupted grooves Rubber obturator pad presses against rubber pad throws pressure against a Men: 9 minor casualties Men: 381 men killed or
in barrel walls accept absorbs compression mushroom-shaped spindle in the Ships: none wounded
sections of thread from of spindle and expands Explosion applies center of the breech block. This Ships: 7 ships lost
interrupted screw against gun barrel walls pressure to spindle forces the spindle against a
rubber obturator pad, which
Breech block Handle to insert or expands, sealing the breech.
BREECH OPEN withdraw screw

STEAM AND STEEL A quarter-turn Breech block
of handle turns
screw Interrupted
screw

BREECH CLOSED Direction of shell

SPANISH AND LATIN-AMERICAN CONFLICTS 241

the battle of manila bay

On April 27, 1898, Commodore allotment. Dewey’s mission was to where a battle would have caused many there had been reports that the channel
George Dewey, commanding the US attack Spain’s fleet in the Philippines, civilian casualties. Instead, he anchored was mined and defended by shore
Asiatic Squadron anchored in Mirs Bay, which, it was correctly assumed, would off Cavite NavalYard, in shallow water batteries.Their presence was revealed
China, received a cable from Navy stay inshore, depending on land batteries, so that his sailors would have a better when a support vessel’s smokestack
Secretary John D Long:“War has for defence against the better-armored, chance of survival when their ships sank. flared with fire, but this brought only
commenced between the United States heavier-gunned American ships. Defeating the Americans was not an a brief exchange with guns on El
and Spain. Proceed at once to Philippine Spanish admiral Patricio Montojo objective; for Montojo the fight was Fraile island. By 1:00 a.m. Dewey’s
islands.” Dewey had been expecting originally planned to anchor in Subic for the honor of the Spanish Empire. squadron was safely inside Manila Bay.
this order, but his preparations had Bay, north of Manila, but as shore
been hampered by logistical problems. batteries had negligently not been On the night of April 30, on board The battle between the two ill-
The nearest US base was in California, mounted there, he instead awaited the the protected cruiser Olympia, matched naval squadrons began after
and his cruisers had only 60 percent of Commodore Dewey led his squadron dawn.After finding only merchant
their optimum ammunition supply— Americans in Manila Bay. Humane into Boca Grande channel, steaming ships at Manila, Dewey led his cruisers
even less than the standard peacetime and defeatist, Montojo chose not in column with all but stern lights toward Cavite in line ahead, a leadsman
to fight in front of Manila, extinguished.Tension was high, for calling the depth at Olympia’s bow.

the storm of shot and shell launched 1830 – 1918

against the Spaniard was destructive

beyond all description.

J.L. STICKNEY, LIEUTENANT ABOARD OLYMPIA, IN A NEWSPAPER ARTICLE, 1898

Flagship Olympia
The protected cruiser USS Olympia,
Commodore George Dewey’s flagship, leads
the US battle line in a turn under fire in
Manila Bay. American gunnery hammered
Spanish ships and shore batteries.

242 THE AMERICAS AT WAR

The Spanish battery on Sangley Point At 7:35 a.m. Dewey received had been fired, while the report had key
and Montojo’s ships opened fire while US FLEET
still well out of range.Aware of his the startling news that his 5in suggested only 15 rounds per
shortage of shells, Dewey waited half 1 cruiser (armored)
an hour before giving the laconic order guns were running short of 5in gun remained.American
to Olympia’s captain “You may fire 1 steam gunboat
when ready, Gridley.”The American ammunition. He signaled for casualties were also minimal; (armored)
cruisers steamed back and forth on
a course parallel to the static Spanish a withdrawal to the center of nine men had been injured, SPANISH FLEET
line, battering the enemy ships
successively with port and starboard the bay. His surprised crew and one, Chief Engineer 1 cruiser
guns. By the fifth pass, just after 7:00
a.m., the Americans, peering through were told this was a halt Randall, had died of heart 1 gunboat
dense smoke, saw little sign that their (armored)
guns were having any great effect.And for breakfast, and took the failure when the fleet had
indeed their fire was woefully inaccurate,
99 out of 100 shots missing their target, chance to rest and eat. entered the bay.
the increased range of contemporary
guns having outstripped techniques for At 11:15 a.m., led by the
aiming. Nonetheless, Montojo’s ships
had taken appalling punishment. FINAL PHASE cruiser Baltimore, Dewey’s

During the break, the squadron returned to finish

smoke cleared, and the dire the job.With little resistance

condition of the Spanish they pummeled the ships

ships was revealed; most and shore batteries into

had been fatally mauled. Anniversary medal surrender. In the afternoon,
And to make matters This commemmorative medal the Americans anchored
worse, the Americans’ shows a port-bow view of off Manila and entertained
ammunition turned Dewey’s flagship Olympia. Spanish sightseers gathered
out to be plentiful; only Battle-ready, she has flags on the waterfront with the

15 rounds per 5in gun flying from her mainmast. music of their bands.

America in the ascendant
The second American assault on the Spanish
fleet, made after the “breakfast break,”
saw the end of Spanish imperial power in
the Pacific. The battle also marked the birth
of America as a global power.

STEAM AND STEEL

SPANISH AND LATIN-AMERICAN CONFLICTS 243

The a mericans ar r ive Guns of Cavite
fortifications and
After taking fire from the Spanish battery on Spanish fleet open
El Fraile island, the Americans head for Manila. fire at 5:15 a.m.
Finding no Spanish warships there, they continue
to the port of Cavite where the Spanish fleet is Marques del Duero
waiting. The engagement begins at 5:15 a.m.

Olympia Finding no Spanish ships
at Manila, Americans
head for Cavite

Baltimore Isla de Luzon
Reina Cristina
Americans open
fire at 5:40 a.m. Cavite

Raleigh Don Juan de Austria

Isla de Cuba

Sangley Point

Petrel American ships at 200 yd First pass Castilla
Concord (180 m) intervals maintain Don Antonio de Ulloa
Boston speed of six to eight knots

Second pass

Third pass

BAY OF MANILA

br eak fast br eak At 7:30 a.m. Americans fear Americans come in as close Stricken Reina 1550 – 1830
they are low on ammunition as water depth allows Cristina scuttled
After five passes, which effectively destroy and break off attack
the Spanish fleet, Dewey breaks off the attack,
fearing he is low on ammunition. Meanwhile, the
Spanish flagship Reina Cristina is scuttled, and
Montojo transfers his flag to the Isla de Cuba.

Fifth pass Cavite

Sangley Point Unknown to Americans,
Spanish fleet already
Fourth pass destroyed when Dewey
breaks off attack

American’s withdraw to BAY OF MANILA
count ammunition and
have “breakfast break”

spain defeated Gunboat Petrel Spanish fleet ablaze
reconnoitres and and sinking
After a four-hour break, the Americans return. reports Spanish
A report by the Petrel is followed by a second fleet destroyed Cavite
American attack, this time led by the Baltimore. The
remaining Spanish vessels are destroyed and the Forces on Cavite
guns of the Cavite fortifications are silenced. surrender after
shots from Petrel
At 11:15 a.m. Americans Baltimore leads
return, realizing they second attack, shelling
have more ammunition Sangley Point
than was believed
Sangley Point

BAY OF MANILA

244 STEAM AND STEEL

rise of the imperial

japanese navy

JAPAN’S IMPERIAL NAVY had an extraordinarily brief lifespan. Created in the
late 1860s and first blooded in battle against China in 1894, it grew to be the
world’s third greatest naval force before abruptly ceasing to exist after the total
defeat of Japan in 1945.The Imperial Navy was conceived as part of a wider
project to modernize Japan and challenge the supremacy of the European
powers and the United States. Its great victory over the Russian navy at Tsushima
in 1905 was a stunning rebuff to prevailing assumptions of white racial
superiority.The Imperial Navy embodied both Japan’s impressive ability to
adopt Western technology and its own warrior tradition, which gave Japanese
forces their particular spirit of disciplined, sometimes fatalistic self-sacrifice.

STEAM AND STEEL An archetypal hero in a modern setting BOR N OF HUMILIATION strong central government under Emperor
Japanese artists were quick to commemorate the navy’s Meiji and the crushing of the samurai clans
exploits in the Sino-Japanese War. Here, Lieutenant When Commodore Matthew Perry anchored who opposed this. Japan then embarked on a
Commander Sakamoto of the Akagi, a gunboat that fought four American steam warships off Edo— breakneck rush to modernization in order to
at Yalu River, gestures defiantly at the Chinese. modern-day Tokyo—in July 1853, Japan had no take on the West on its own terms.
national navy with which to repel this foreign
Triumph of the new navy intrusion. Its defenselessness was soon exploited, During the civil strife surrounding the Meiji
The first serious test for the Imperial Japanese as the United States was joined by Britain, Restoration, an ad-hoc Imperial Navy was
Navy came when it took on a Chinese fleet at France, and the Netherlands in bullying a created from assorted ships of samurai clans
the battle of Yalu River in 1894. The Japanese country for whose traditions they had no respect.
cruisers sank five enemy ships, without In 1863 the British Royal Navy bombarded the
suffering the loss of a single vessel. Japanese city of Kagoshima, and the following
year an international force shelled rebels opposed
to foreign influence at Shimonoseki. These
humiliations set in train a process of upheaval
in Japan that resulted in the restoration of a

245

Officer’s dirk as a major power on the world stage, in WARSHIP TACTICS 1830 – 1918
This ceremonial dagger defiance of Western racial prejudice. The
combines aspects of Western British, worried by the Royal Navy’s inability to crossing the t
and Japanese weapons. Dirks of match combined French and Russian sea power
this kind were worn by officers from in the Pacific, concluded a defensive alliance CONCENTRATING FIRE
the time of the Russo–Japanese War. with Japan in January 1902. From Britain’s point
of view this was a practical solution to the The naval battles of the 1904-05 Russo-
supporting the emperor. The problem of finding a Pacific naval ally. To the Japanese War demonstrated the new naval
foundations for a modern navy were laid after Japanese it was above all about achieving the tactics of fleet encounters between steam-
the establishment of a Navy Department in right to respect as equals of the West. powered warships with their guns mounted in
1872, which set about creating Western-style rotating turrets.As in the age of sail, ships
naval dockyards, a naval academy, and an Bolstered by the alliance with Britain, in entered battle in line astern and they might
arsenal. At first Japan was totally dependent 1904-05 Japan took on and beat the Russian steam parallel to each other exchanging salvoes.
upon a transfer of technology and skills from the Empire both on land and at sea—beginning the However, the fleet with the faster warships
West. Britain’s Royal Navy provided cadet conflict with a surprise attack on Port Arthur could potentially maneuver to cross in front of
training and British shipyards supplied most of without a declaration of war, an ominous the enemy line, bringing to bear enfilading fire
Japan’s early warships. The Japanese proved prefigurement of Pearl Harbor in 1941. The (directed along the enemy line) from all the
supremely good learners in naval as in other Russo-Japanese War was a triumph for Japan guns of its line simultaneously, while the
matters and the scope of their ambitions was and a proving ground for cutting-edge naval enemy could only reply with its forward guns.
soon apparent. In 1885 Japan took delivery of technology, at least on the Japanese side. The The range of effective fire at this period was
two steel cruisers that were the largest and most war showed the importance of wireless over 3 miles (5 km).The tactic, known in
advanced vessels of their type in the world. By communications, possessed by the Japanese but English as “crossing the T” and in Japanese as
the 1890s Japanese shipyards had begun not by the Russians. It showed the frightful tei sempo, was a textbook ideal aspired to by
delivering home-built armored warships. potential of mines, which sunk battleships on naval commanders the world over, but it was
both sides, and the possible uses of torpedo- rarely put into practice with complete success.
NAVAL POWER firing destroyers. Above all, it showed the
devastating effect of the latest naval guns with Overlapping Overlapping
The ethos of the new Imperial Japanese Navy advanced fire control, delivering concentrated fields of fire fields of fire
was formed through a mix British influence— fire at long range with explosive shells.
Japan’s greatest admiral Togo Heihachiro The ships in the line The leading ship of
consciously modeled himself upon Nelson— The period of peace in Japan after 1905 saw being crossed are the line being crossed
and of the samurai tradition of loyalty to the cutbacks in naval spending, but even so the first able to bring only their is exposed to the
death. Japan was historically inclined to value Japanese-built dreadnought was launched in 1910 leading guns to bear concentrated fire of
its army far above its navy; only the Satsuma and bigger and better warships followed. The each opposing ship
samurai clan had a naval tradition. But the startling reversal of Japan’s naval weakness of The line of fire from
defeat of China at sea in the Sino-Japanese war only half a century before was illustrated in the ships within the Ships at the rear of
of 1894-95 raised the reputation of the Imperial World War I, when Japan was able to help out line is obstructed the line being crossed
Navy at home and abroad. Naval strength its overstretched ally Britain by sending by the ships in front may be too far away
became the key to the acceptance of Japan destroyers to carry out anti-submarine duties in to engage the enemy
the Mediterranean. By then, however, potential
conflicts of interest with Britain and the United
States in the Pacific were already brewing.

246 RISE OF THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY

japanese naval might

THE JAPANESE IMPERIAL NAVY started its life as an ad-hoc force of the stronger naval power. In July 1894 a small-scale naval clash at Asan
mostly wooden steam warships assembled to fight the civil conflict brought China and Japan to open war—as well as causing a diplomatic row
known as the Boshin War, in which Emperor Meiji triumphed over with Britain over the Japanese sinking of a British-crewed ship carrying
Tokugawa loyalists in 1868-69. Over the next two decades Japan founded a Chinese troops.The subsequent Japanese naval victories at the Yalu River
modern navy complete with organizational structures copied from the British and Weihaiwei revealed the gulf between an Asian power that was successfully
and the latest styles of warship from European shipyards.The Chinese had modernizing and one that was not.At the end of the war Russia refused to
also been modernizing their navy and, although European observers were allow Japan to take the Liaodung Peninsula and Port Arthur, which China
sceptical about the ability of either force, they were inclined to see China as had agreed to cede, sowing the seeds for the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05.

BOSHIN WAR hastily assembled, centered on the FIRST SINO-JAPANESE WAR forces at Asan, south of Seoul.At 7:00
French-built ironclad Kotetsu.When a.m. on July 25 the Chinese cruiser
HAKODATE BAY Imperial forces attacked the last ASAN Kwang-yi and the gunboat Tsi-yuen
Tokugawa stronghold at Hakodate, steamed out of Asan Bay toward the
Date May 4–10, 1869 the Tokugawa warships failed to prevent Date July 25, 1894 Japanese ships.The Japanese opened
Forces Meiji: 8 ships; troops from landingand were worsted Forces Japanese: 3 cruisers; fire: Kwang-yi was damaged and forced
Tokugawa: 5 ships in a series of actions.The Tokugawa Chinese: 1 cruiser, 2 gunboats back into the bay; the gunboat ran
Losses Meiji: 1 ship; Tokugawa: schooner Banryu succeded in sinking Losses Japanese: none; Chinese: onto rocks and exploded. Kowshing,
2 ships destroyed, 3 captured the Imperial ship Choyo, but later herself 1 gunboat and 1 transport sunk, a Chinese troop transport flying the
sank.Their steamer Kaiten was also 1 gunboat captured British flag, arrived, accompanied by
Location Hakodate disabled.The Tokugawa rebellion a gunboat.The gunboat surrendered, but
Bay, Hokkaido, Japan Location Off Asan, the Chinese soldiers refused to allow
collapsed after this naval defeat. Korea Kowshing’s British captain to follow suit.
In 1868–69 forces loyal to the Tokugawa The cruiser Naniwa sank the troop
shogunate fought to resist the transfer In July 1894 Japan and China both had transport with heavy loss of life.
of power to supporters of the Emperor troops in Korea.The Japanese protected
Meiji.An Imperial Japanese Navy was
cruisers Yoshino, Akitsushima, and
Naniwa were blockading Chinese

STEAM AND STEEL FIRST SINO-JAPANESE WAR the Japanese cruisers were on flammable paint. Chinese gunnery
average larger and faster than proved inferior, as did the quality
YALU RIVER Portable telescope their Chinese opposite numbers. of their munitions, although they had
A lacquered Japanese telescope The two fleets steamed toward their successes—Admiral Ito’s flagship
Date September 17, 1894 dating from the time of the First one another through the morning, Matsushima, for example, was damaged
Forces Japanese: 10 protected Sino-Japanese War. the Japanese in line-ahead formation by an explosion when a shell ignited
cruisers, 2 other ships; and the Chinese in two lines abreast. ammunition on board. In five hours’
Chinese: 2 battleships, landings were being covered by the fighting, some ships were hit several
10 cruisers, 2 other ships Chinese Beiyang Fleet under Admiral JAPANESE TRIUMPH hundred times.With five ships sunk, by
Losses Japanese: none; Ting Ju ch’ang.The two fleets sighted nightfall the Chinese lay at the mercy
Chinese: 5 ships each other at 11:40 a.m. on the The battle that followed was confused of their enemies. But, exhausted and
morning of September 17, 1894.They and brutal.The Japanese steamed down running out of ammunition,Admiral
Location Off mouth of were of roughly equal strength.The both sides of the Chinese formation, Ito withdrew his fleet short of total
Yalu River, Yellow Sea Chinese had the most powerful vessels pumping shells into the enemy ships. victory.The Chinese suffered some
present, two German-built armored The Chinese armored cruiser TingYuen 850 men killed and had 500 wounded;
The first major battle fought by the turret ships TingYuen and ChenYuen, rolled over and sank; several other Japanese losses numbered 90 killed,
Imperial Japanese Navy occurred which carried 12-in Krupp guns. But Chinese ships were ravaged by fire, about 200 wounded, and not a single
when Admiral Sukeyuki Ito led a fleet apparently rendered vulnerable by Japanese ship was destroyed.
on a sweep through Korea Bay, hoping Japanese naval firepower decorative woodwork and layers of
to interrupt Chinese troop landings at Exotically attired Chinese sailors come
the Yalu River, which marks the border under fire from Japanese warships
between Korea and China.The troop in this fanciful French print showing
the Japanese victory at Yalu River.
WEAPONS AND TECHNOLOGY

torpedoes

The torpedo began life as a static mine. In the second half of the 19th century

navies were seeking methods of moving a mine to strike a ship’s hull. This led

to the spar torpedo, a mine on a long pole projecting from the front of an attack

craft, and the Brennan torpedo, a mine controlled by wires from shore. The first

effective self-propelled torpedo was invented in the 1860s by Robert Whitehead,

a British engineer working on a commission for the Austrian navy. The Whitehead

torpedo had a propeller driven by compressed air and used a pressure gauge attached

to horizontal rudders to keep a constant depth. Self-propelled torpedoes were

unreliable for many decades—most of those fired in the Russo-Japanese war

of 1904–05, for example, failed for one reason or Whitehead torpedo
another—but their potential was quickly recognized, The first effective self-propelled
leading to the development of purpose-built torpedo torpedo, the Whitehead had a

boats and of torpedo-boat destroyers to counter them. range of over 980 ft (300 m).

247

Fierce sea battle at Weihaiwei
A heroic sword-wielding officer of the Imperial
Japanese Navy spurs forward his men as they
fire on a Chinese warship at Weihaiwei.

FIRST SINO-JAPANESE WAR CREW PROFILE

WEIHAIWEI japanese imperial warship

Location Shantung Date January 30–February 1870S TO EARLY 1900S 1830 – 1918
Peninsula, China 12,1895
Forces Japanese: 41 vessels WHEN THE JAPANESE SET OUT to create the Imperial Navy almost from scratch in the 1870s,
including 16 torpedo boats; they received most of their training and ships from Britain. The result was a service in most
Chinese: 2 battleships, 5 cruisers, ways similar to Western navies of the time. All ranks were uniformed and formal discipline
13 torpedo boats such as saluting of officers was strictly enforced. The navy was in the forefront of the
Losses Japanese: none; Chinese: headlong modernization of Japan, well ahead of most of civil society, so it was on board
1 battleship, 2 cruisers, 6 torpedo ship that many Japanese recruits first got to grips with technologies such as steam engines
boats sunk, all others captured and electricity. Discipline was often enforced with slaps or punches, but this was apparently
acceptable to the average Japanese sailor, brought up in an ordered and disciplined society.
After the punishing battle at the Yalu
River, Chinese admiral Ting Ju ch’ang OFFICER CLASS intensive training, with an emphasis on physical
withdrew his fleet to the fortified fitness as well as academic education. Graduates from
harbor at Weihaiwei. Here his turret Commissioned officers were more numerous in the Etajima entered the navy as a self-conscious elite.
ships, cruisers, and torpedo boats were steam era than in the age of sail, and more diverse.
protected by shore guns and a barrier Many were given responsibility for specialist areas, DISCIPLINE AND AUSTERITY
of tethered mines and steel hawsers such as gunnery, engines, or torpedoes. The first wave
across the harbor mouth.The Japanese of Japanese officers was mostly recruited from the Despite holding a high sense of status and personal
fleet arrived at the end of January 1895 Satsuma samurai clan, and the founding ethos of the honor, Japanese officers tended to be frugal and
to blockade the harbor while troops Imperial Navy mingled the samurai tradition with spartan, sleeping on rush mats on the deck. When the
attacked Weihaiwei by land.The weather attitudes and practices learned from Britain’s Royal men had to clean decks barefoot in freezing weather,
was appalling with prolonged blizzards Navy. The Etajima Naval Academy soon became the Admiral Togo would reportedly come on deck
and on several occasions sailors froze to route into the Japanese naval officer corps. Entrants barefoot himself. Obedience and loyalty were highly
death at their posts.The Japanese ships were picked by rigorous nationwide examinations, valued qualities society and transferred well to the
engaged in gun duels with the Chinese with many more applicants than places available. formal hierarchical world of a warship.
shore batteries and warships day and Those who passed were then subjected to four years
night, with no decisive results.
Imperial Japanese officer
Seeing that they would have to enter Smartly uniformed Japanese officers look on as
the harbor, the Japanese carried out well-drilled sailors of the Imperial Japanese Navy
risky minesweeping operations and fire on the Chinese fleet at the Yalu River.
cut one of the steel hawsers.They then
sent torpedo boats into the harbor
several times at night, sinking the
armored turret ship TingYuen and the
cruisers ChingYuen and LaiYuen. In a
desperate gesture,Admiral Ting sent all
his torpedo boats out of the harbor in
a daylight sortie that resulted in all of
the boats being sunk or captured. By
February 12 the Chinese had had
enough of the extreme cold, continual
bombardment, and terrifying night
raids.Admiral Ting sent a surrender
note to the Japanese admiral. Before
the Japanese could take possession of the
enemy fleet, the Chinese admiral
committed suicide. Shortly after, China
sought peace negotiations with Japan.

248 RISE OF THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY

the russo-japanese war

THE RUSSIAN AND JAPANESE EMPIRES went to war in 1904 over N
their rival ambitions in northern China and Korea. In the naval
war, the Japanese were from the outset more aggressively led Beijing 1898: Russia Harbin RUSSIA
and better trained and motivated than their opponents.The Russians also occupies Japanese Vladivostok
suffered from the dispersal of their naval forces—the squadrons in Port MANCHURIA
Arthur andVladivostok never succeeded in joining up, and when the Baltic leased territory Mukden
fleet was sent on an epic voyage around the world to the Pacific in 1905, Mar 1–10,1905
it was crushingly defeated at Tsushima.The victory for an Asiatic over a
European power upset assumptions of white racial superiority. Japan gained Feb 8,1904: Japanese bombard
control of Port Arthur and soon took over Korea.The Japanese were Russian fleet in Port Arthur harbor
confirmed as valuable allies for Britain in the Pacific, while defeat plunged
Russia into the 1905 revolution that the tsarist regime barely survived. QING Port Arthur Dairen
CHINA
Siege of Port Arthur
Feb 1904–Jan 1905

Yellow Sea Sea of
Aug 10,1904 Japan

The russo-Japanese war 1904–1905 Seoul

KOREA
(Japanese
protectorate)

The main areas of operations during the KEY Ye l l o w Tsushima Japanese Sea Honshu
Russo-Japanese War were the Korean Sea May 15,1905 Aug 14,1904
and Liaodong peninsulas, southern Japan
Manchuria, and the seas around Japan Russia Shimonoseki JAPAN Tokyo
and Korea. The Russians were particularly To Russia 1897, to Japan 1905 Hiroshima
keen to control the warm-water Pacific Area leased to Japan 1895 Yokohama
port of Port Arthur—the other main Japanese advance/ landing
Russian port on the Pacific, Vladivostok, Route of Russian Baltic fleet 1905 Kyushu
was inaccessible during winter months. Japanese victory
0 km 200 400
0 miles 200 400

STEAM AND STEEL the battle of port arthur

The Russian First Pacific Squadron in torpedo nets and failed to explode. The inconclusive result to the naval Assault on Port Arthur
harbor at Port Arthur was a potential Once Russian searchlights and guns attack forced the Japanese to mount A line of Japanese battleships steams
threat that Japan decided to eliminate were manned the destroyers found it a prolonged siege of Port Arthur by toward Port Arthur, the bombardment
at the outset of hostilities.Admiral Togo hard to press home further attacks.The both sea and land. However, the arrival from the Russian shore defenses sending
planned to launch a night attack that action was broken off at around 2:00 of the vigorous Russian admiral Stepan up plumes of water around them.
would enjoy total surprise since it would a.m. No Russian ships had been sunk. Makarov to take over command in
precede a declaration of war. Port Arthur put fresh heart into the
THE DAYLIGHT ACTION Russian fleet. Maintaining a blockade
An attack squadron of 10 Japanese over succeeding months the Japanese
destroyers armed with Whitehead The following morning, believing the lost a number of ships to mines. Stepan
torpedoes reached Port Arthur shortly Russian ships were more damaged than Makarov was also a victim of a mine,
after midnight on February 8. Most of they were,Togo led his fleet toward going down on board his flagship
the Russian fleet was lit up, as was the Port Arthur to complete the destruction Petropavlovsk during a rare sortie outside
town behind it. Confusion and terror of the Russian fleet. He was to be Port Arthur on April 13.
followed as torpedoes exploded against disappointed.The Russians remained in
the hulls of the American-built pre- harbor, drawing the Japanese within
dreadnought Retvizan and the protected range of shore guns.A brisk exchange
cruiser Pallada.The battleship Tsesarevich of long-range fire brought further
was also hit. But the operation was less damage to a number of Russian ships,
effective than Togo had hoped. Many but Togo’s flagship Mikasa was also hit.
torpedoes were caught in Russian After an hour the Japanese turned away.

1848–1934

Togo Heihachiro

FLEET-ADMIRAL OF THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY

Born into the Satsuma samurai clan, as a boy Togo
Heihachiro witnessed the bullying of Japan by foreign
naval forces, a humiliation he never forgot. Enrolled in
the fledgling Imperial Navy, he went to Britain for
training in 1871 and brought back an enduring respect
for the traditions of the Royal Navy.Togo first attracted

attention as captain of the cruiser Naniwa in the action
at Asan that opened the war with China in 1894.A
calm and confident commander during the Russo-
Japanese War, victories at theYellow Sea and Tsushima
made him one of the world’s most respected admirals.