An Encyclopedia of Naval History

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Like the frigate (but smaller) was the corvette, and below it came the sloop of war, usually employed as a dispatch vessel. e., cruisers, destroyers, and battleships; and (3) those that fight mainly with underwater weapons such as mines, torpedoes, and depth charges, i. A large modern navy includes aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, frigates, submarines, minesweepers and minelayers, gunboats, and various types of support, supply, and repair ships, as well as naval bases and ports. It is a glimpse into a bygone world, captured shortly before the beginning of the Dreadnought naval arms race that foreshadowed the calamity of the First World War. Their rise was closely connected with the power struggles for control of the Greek archipelago and Italy and trade in the Mediterranean Sea.

By this time the oared single sail ‘long ship’ or galley, still predominant in northern waters and the Mediterranean, was ceding place to wider-beamed and higher-sided vessels, furnished with fore and stern castles. Britain's place in the ‘Viking World’ was rendered most definitive through the person of Cnut (1016–35). In the meantime, General George Washington (1732–1799) announced he had taken command of three armed schooners under Continental authority and planned to intercept any British supply ships near Massachusetts . Tactics changed to make full use of large ships, which could continuously fire heavy broadsides and resist enemy gunfire. Wellington's logistical back-up had been prefigured, however modestly, by the first wintering of a British fleet in the Mediterranean in 1694–5; but few developments in Britain's Atlantic economy were more spectacular than the doubling of her exports to the Caribbean after 1808, following the Anglo-Spanish entente.Sometimes we discover new information that changes what we know about an object, such as who made it or used it.

Over nine hundred articles written by leading historians examine all aspects of maritime history, including naval history, shipbuilding, biographies of major figures, navigation and scientific instrumentation, maritime art and literature, commerce and economics, and international law. Guns and specialized warships were expensive, and only states were able to make major naval investments. Up to about 1500 the Ottoman and Venetian navies increased in size during the struggle for control of Greece.Finally, from the 1540s to the 1570s, the great contest between Spain and the Ottomans led to a dramatic increase in the galley navies.

The Naval Warrant Officer's Journal suggested that the book be on every ship, and in 1902 said that it should be available to every naval officer.

The English and the Dutch fought several intense battles for control of the Channel and the North Sea. M.'s, ships of war and forces by sea, wherein, under the good Providence of God, the wealth, safety, and strength of the Kingdom is so much concerned’ (Preamble to Naval Discipline Act, 1661); ‘Fishermen, yachtsmen … river boatmen … manned their craft with volunteer crews and rushed them to the assembly point, although they did not then know for what purpose they were required’ (Admiralty communiqué, The Times, 4 June 1940). King, or overlord, also in Denmark (1019) and Norway (1028), no English monarch had such distant dominions again until Charles II in the later 17th cent. In addition, topics such as the everyday life of ship crews, the most important waterways and ports and the role of logistics are also included. Thus the English victory was that of a new conception of naval battle: the English ships refused to let the Spanish ships get close enough for boarding and pounded them with guns of superior firing capability.