CHAPTER 1. FROM ANCIENT EGYPT TO THE INTRODUCTION OF
ARTILLERY 1
2. WAR CRAFT OF THE FAR WEST, CENTRAL AFRICA, THE FAR SOUTH, THE PACIFIC AND THE FAR EAST 21
3. THE INTRODUCTION OF ARTILLERY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF WARSHIPS TO THE APPLICATION OF STEAM FOR NAVIGATION 39
4. STEAM AND WARSHIPS 78
5. IRON SHIPS OF WAR. FROM THE INTRODUCTION OF IRON ARMOUR TO BROADSIDE AND TURRET SHIPS 105
6. IRON SHIPS OF WAR (_continued_) 144
7. ARMOURED SHIPS IN ACTION 197
8. BATTLESHIPS AND CRUISERS 241
9. GUNS, PROJECTILES, AND ARMOUR 265
10. WARSHIPS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 285
INDEX 333
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
A Coming Type of Battleship (_Colour_) _Frontispiece_
Greek Bireme _Facing page_ 6
Greek War Galleys ” ” 6
An Ancient Bireme from Basius ” ” 10
One of the Ancient Liburni or Galleys ” ” 10
Roman Galley ” ” 10
Viking Ship found at Gokstad ” ” 14
Fleet Attacking a Fortified Town ” ” 18
Galley of the Knights of Malta ” ” 20
Mediterranean Galley ” ” 20
War Canoes of Indians of the North-West ” ” 22
A “Dug-Out” Canoe of New Guinea ” ” 24
New Guinea Canoes ” ” 24
Stern-posts of Maori War Canoe ” ” 26
A Maori War Canoe ” ” 26
A Lakatoi nearly completed ” ” 28
A Lakatoi under Sail ” ” 28
Canoe from Shortland Island ” ” 30
Diagram of Shortland Island Canoe ” ” 30
War Canoe (Teste Island, New Guinea) ” ” 30
Head-Hunting Canoe from Ysabel ” ” 32
Head-Hunting Canoe from Ysabel: Detail of Bow ” ” 32
The Famous old Chinese Junk _Whang Ho_ ” ” 34
Malay Pirate Proa ” ” 34
Pictures of War Galleys and a Protected Galley, _Kikkosen_ ” ” 36
The _Ataka Maru_ ” ” 36
Sixteenth Century French Ships ” ” 40
A Mediterranean War Galley ” ” 42
Ship of War, 1486-1520 ” ” 42
Embarkation of Henry VIII on the _Great Harry_ ” ” 46
Breech-loading Gun recovered from the wreck of the _Mary Rose_ ” ” 50
The _Ark Royal_ ” ” 52
The _Sovereign of the Seas_ ” ” 54
The _Prince Royal_ ” ” 54
Line of Battleship, 1650 ” ” 58
The _Dreadnought_, 1748 ” ” 60
The _Juno_, 1757 ” ” 60
The _Cornwallis_, 1812 ” ” 64
Guns of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries ” ” 72
Ancient Double Gun ” ” 72
Carronade of Six Diameters ” ” 74
Carronade ” ” 74
Carronade and its Carriage ” ” 74
The _Rising Star_ ” ” 86
The Trial of Screw _v._ Paddle--H.M. Sloops _Rattler_ and _Alert_ towing Stern to Stern ” ” 98
Sectional Model of Russian Man-of-War, 1854 ” ” 106
H.M.S. _Centaur_, _Bulldog_ and _Imperieuse_ engaged with six Russian Gunboats off Cronstadt, 1855 ” ” 106
H.M.S. _Warrior_ ” ” 110
The _Terror_ ” ” 110
H.M.S. _Black Prince_ ” ” 122
The _Bangor_ ” ” 122
The _Merrimac_ before Conversion ” ” 126
The _Merrimac_ as Converted into an Ironclad ” ” 126
The _Monitor-Merrimac_ duel ” ” 130
The _Monitor_ and _Albemarle_ ” ” 134
Federal Gunboat _St. Louis_ ” ” 134
Capture of New Orleans: Attack on Fort Phillip ” ” 142
The _Prince Albert_ as Converted to a Turret Ship ” ” 146
H.M.S. _Minotaur_ ” ” 146
The Foundering of the _Affondatore_ in the Harbour of Ancona ” ” 152
The Wreck of the _Captain_ ” ” 152
H.M.S. _Devastation_ ” ” 162
The Old _Dreadnought_ ” ” 170
The Big Guns of the Old _Dreadnought_ ” ” 170
H.M.S. _Inflexible_ ” ” 176
Russian Circular Monitor _Novgorod_ ” ” 186
The French Iron-plated Ship _Magenta_ ” ” 186
Duel between the _Vesta_ and the _Assar-I-Tewfik_ ” ” 214
Russian Torpedo Boats on the Danube in the Russo-Turkish War ” ” 214
U.S. Ram _Katahdin_ ” ” 222
The U.S. Dynamite-Gun Boat _Vesuvius_ ” ” 224
The _Maine_ entering Havana Harbour ” ” 224
The Spanish Battleship _Pelayo_ ” ” 230
U.S. Battleship _Texas_ ” ” 232
U.S. Battleship _Iowa_ ” ” 232
The Russian Battleship _Tsarevitch_ after the Fight off Port Arthur ” ” 236
Effects of Japanese Shells on the _Gromoboi_ ” ” 236
The Japanese Battleship _Asahi_ ” ” 240
The Russian Battleship _Navarin_ ” ” 240
H.M.S. _Victoria_, Firing 110-ton Gun ” ” 244
H.M.S. _Victoria_, Showing 110-ton Guns ” ” 244
H.M.S. _Majestic_ ” ” 248
H.M.S. _King Edward VII_ ” ” 250
H.M.S. _Lord Nelson_ ” ” 250
The German Dreadnought Cruiser _Von der Tann_ ” ” 254
Russian Cruiser _Rurik_ ” ” 258
Russian Cruiser _Rossia_ ” ” 258
H.M. Cruiser _Indomitable_ ” ” 260
H.M.S. _Liverpool_ ” ” 260
French Cruiser _Ernest Renan_ ” ” 262
French Cruiser _Danton_ ” ” 262
4-inch Breech-loading 40-Calibre Gun and Mounting for Torpedo Boat Destroyers ” ” 266
12½-pounder Quick-firing 50-Calibre Gun and Mounting ” ” 266
Heavy Gun unmounted ” ” 270
6-inch Breech-loading 50-Calibre Gun completed and with Mounting ” ” 270
Projectiles and Charges used in the British Navy ” ” 274
12-inch Breech Mechanism (Closed and Open) ” ” 278
Interior of a Barbette showing 12-inch Gun, H.M.S. _Cæsar_ ” ” 278
The 12-inch Guns of H.M.S _Neptune_ ” ” 282
A Torpedo, discharged from a Destroyer, travelling by its own Engines towards an Armoured Battleship ” ” 286
The Holland Submarine ” ” 290
The Goubet Submarine ” ” 290
British Submarine A.13 ” ” 296
The British Submarine C.22 ” ” 296
Submarine D.1 with Wireless Telegraph Mast ” ” 298
Launch of U.S. Submarine _Narwhal_ ” ” 298
French Submarine “X” ” ” 298
The _Transporter_ ” ” 300
U.S. Gunboat _Paducah_ ” ” 300
First Torpedo Boat Built for the Norwegian Government ” ” 302
H.M. Torpedo Boat _Lightning_ ” ” 302
H.M. Torpedo Boat No. 79, Built in 1886 ” ” 302
H.M.S. _Vulcan_ ” ” 302
High Speed Sea-going Torpedo Boat Propelled by Internal Combustion Engines ” ” 304
U.S. Destroyer _Lawrence_ ” ” 304
Stern View of H.M.S. _Sylvia_ ” ” 306
H.M.S. Torpedo Boat Destroyer _Swift_ ” ” 308
H.M.S. _Wear_ ” ” 308
H.M.S. Torpedo Boat Destroyer _Tartar_ ” ” 310
H.M. Torpedo Boat Destroyer _Maori_ ” ” 310
U.S. Scout _Salem_ ” ” 312
U.S.S. _Maine_ ” ” 312
H.M.S. _Dreadnought_ ” ” 314
H.M.S. _Neptune_ ” ” 318
H.M. Super-Dreadnought _Colossus_ ” ” 318
The Brazilian Battleship _Minas Geraes_ ” ” 322
U.S.S. _North Dakota_ ” ” 324
INTRODUCTION
When or where the first warship was built is unknown, so also is the campaign in which it was employed. A war with naval usages of any sort cannot have been fought until the aggressor had some means of transporting the spoil across the water. From the raft to the fire-hollowed canoe was but a step, and having accomplished so much, the ingenuity of the naval architects of the period found scope in making improvements, gropingly, slowly, but none the less surely. The development of ships used for warlike purposes, as well as of ships designed as implements for fighting, forms a most attractive branch of study in its relation to the evolution of empires, no less than that of civilisation. Nor is the interest any the less if the attention be confined simply to the consideration of the development of the ships as ships of war.
In this book I am endeavouring to describe, clearly and briefly, the main features of the progress in warship building among the different peoples of the world, from the earliest recorded times onward. The greater attention is paid to modern warships, and the story of their development is narrated with an avoidance of abstruse technicalities, so that any reader of average intelligence and education may be able to obtain a clear understanding of the steps by which that wonderful creation, the modern navy, and especially the British Navy, has come into being.
Whether my readers belong to the bluest of the “blue water” school; whether they advocate two British keels to one possessed by any possible combination of foreign powers as the irreducible minimum below which the British fleet shall not go; whether they take a more moderate view, founded, as they believe, on the power of the nation to pay for its fleet, and the ability of other nations to pay for their fleets, in which case the ability of some other nations to borrow money to have their best vessels built in British yards must not be lost sight of; or whether my readers belong to the other extreme and believe that any and every British fleet is too powerful and that the time is coming when the Imperial cheek shall be turned to the envious smiter: whatever be their political and social faiths, the fact remains that the fleet in being is the sole guarantee of this nation’s safety, and that the payments for the several warships and the personnel of the Navy are but so many premiums for insuring the defence of the country and the maintenance of the inviolate integrity of these islands. Whether the money has always been spent to the best advantage is a point upon which experts differ, and is outside my intention to consider. But I hope to show something of the types of vessels provided, and, incidentally, to indicate how engineering skill and profound science have been devoted to the evolution of the modern ship of war.
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The earliest known employment of a warship dates back, according to the present computations of Egyptologists, some six thousand years B.C.; but discoveries yet to be made may cause that estimate to be revised, for the more the scientific investigation of ancient Egypt is pursued, the greater is the tendency to date events more remotely still. All that is known of this ship is that it existed, and that it saw service as escort to a trading expedition on the Nile.
The first naval engagement of which we have any definite knowledge was fought near the mouth of the Nile about 1000 B.C. The ships held only a few men each and were propelled by rowers, and so little dependence was placed on their sails that the latter were furled to be out of the way during the actual fighting.
For hundreds of years oars were the chief means of propulsion, the sails only being availed of when the wind was very favourable. To increase the speed of the vessels, bank after bank of oars was added until ships carrying as many as eighteen banks are averred to have been constructed--though the evidence of the correctness of the statement is a long way from being conclusive--and one historian even goes to the length of asserting that a ship having forty banks of oars was built, but this may be disbelieved. For the most part, ships having two, three, or four banks were preferred for war purposes, because of their handiness.
Greater ships were afterwards built and improvements made in the shape and size of the sails and spars used, and the number of masts was increased.
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Meanwhile in the Far North a seafaring nation was proving its worth. The wild men of the wilder North, the Danes, the Scandinavian Vikings--turbulent, adventurous and fierce, to whom fear was a word unknown--animated by the virile yet mystic mythology of the North, and inspired by the love of conquest and travel, now began to play their part in the world’s naval history. The Vikings produced the “long ship,” the “serpent,” daring in conception, marvellous in construction, possessing wonderful qualities as a sea-boat, fast under sail or oar, and of a beauty of outline and shape hardly to be excelled even now. Such were the vessels in which the Danes invaded England, and by building vessels as good as those of the Danes, and some rather better, King Alfred repulsed the invaders and implanted in the English that “habit of the sea” they have never lost. But the lesson of the Norsemen was destined to lie dormant for many a long year. Although the Romans had introduced the “long ship” for war purposes--so-called because it was longer in proportion to its beam than the merchant ships--the Mediterranean shipbuilders preferred as a whole to retain the heavy hull, and the form they believed best suited to their needs upon the tideless sea. Slave power was cheap, and was to be had for the trouble of capturing, and for many centuries oar-driven galleys were preferred over any vessel dependent upon sails only, and were to be found in the Mediterranean as late as the beginning of the nineteenth century.
As ships of greater size were provided in the Middle Ages, huge erections in the shape of castles were added at the bow and stern: great, unwieldy craft which contemporary historians likened to floating islands. The Venetian and Genoese republics elevated the art of constructing oared galleasses to its highest, and ere long Spain took the lead in producing warships with dimensions and power of armament which made her the chief maritime power of the world.
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In England, owing to alternate periods of stimulation and neglect by the authorities, the progress of shipbuilding was spasmodic. The roughness of the waters round our coasts, and along the Atlantic coasts of France, the Low Countries and North Western Europe, caused greater dependence to be placed in small vessels having good sea-going qualities and using sail whenever possible. The _Great Harry_ was begun in the reign of Henry VII. and finished in the reign of his uxorious successor, and is interesting as indicating that shipbuilders in England were even then able to turn out a sea-going vessel superior to anything afloat. Henry VIII. established royal shipbuilding yards at Woolwich and Deptford, and thus founded the modern navy, but few warships for the King’s service were built there in his time, and during his reign and for many a long year after it was the custom to hire merchant vessels and arm them--if they were not already armed to protect themselves against pirates--to augment the national fleet. Religious, no less than national, rivalry contributed, albeit unconsciously, to the development of the efficacy of the warship as a fighting unit. The enmity between Britain and Spain culminated, in Elizabeth’s reign, after a series of daring attacks by reckless Englishmen upon the Spanish fleet in preparation for the great attack upon England, in the dispatch of the Armada. Hawkins and one or two others foresaw that the advantage would lie with the fleet which could be most effectively manœuvred. The disparity between the Armada and the British fleet was not so great as many writers have represented, either in the size or number of the vessels; but the British vessels on the average were smaller, faster, and better handled; in other words, efficiency told against sheer weight of numbers. This was the last great sea-fight on the ocean in which oared ships took part; they were no match for their smaller and more speedy sailing antagonists.
Structurally, most of the vessels of this time, the larger especially, were disfigured by high sterncastles, but early in the seventeenth century this encumbrance and many others had disappeared. Thence to the nineteenth century the development of warships was marked mainly by continual increases in their size, improving their form of hull and, consequently, their speed and buoyancy; augmenting their sail area and perfecting the square-rigged system; and adding to the number of gun decks and the number of guns carried; until the grand wooden three-deckers swept the seas in all their ponderous pride and majesty. Ships of the line of various ratings played their part, and were ably seconded by frigates, brigs, cutters, sloops and bomb-ketches. All these were in vogue less than a century ago, and though not forgotten, are looked upon as historical and romantic and interesting curiosities.
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In the weapons, no less than in the ships, the changes have been marvellous. For many centuries after ships were adopted for war, the fighting was done by soldiers carried aboard them. The human machines, the rowers, had to attend exclusively to their oars, for on them the safety or success of the fighting men depended. The main idea was to get to close quarters and fight hand to hand with javelin or sword, spear or battleaxe; bows and arrows were used when possible, and missiles hurled by hand were not despised. The ram, in various forms, affixed to the bows in such a manner as to strike the enemy’s ship below or above the water-line, or both, was used with fearful effect in many a stubbornly fought engagement.
The introduction of artillery in the fourteenth century marked the beginning of the first great revolution in naval warfare, and the changes in the projectiles have been no less extraordinary than those in the guns.
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The next great revolution was the introduction of the steam-engine. Its adoption in the British Navy in 1832 marked the beginning of the end of the sailing warship. Her last grim battle against inexorable fate was fought with the same doggedness which had distinguished her in many an encounter with her nation’s enemies; but the superiority of steam over sail was recognised. Temporising measures, a patched-up peace, as it were, lasted for a few years while the steam engine was employed as an auxiliary. Sail power, however, had reached its apotheosis so far as warships were concerned. Engineers, animated by practical common sense and ignoring romantic associations, improved their engines, so that the steam power was no longer the assistant of sail, but its associate, and was quick in attaining the position of chief partner and showing that sails could be dispensed with altogether. The Crimean War sounded the knell of the wooden battleship as well as of the paddle-wheel war steamer. The former gave place to the iron-clad vessel, and the latter was supplanted by the screw-propelled ship. The power of artillery had shared in the application of scientific knowledge and benefited accordingly. The great battle between the maker of armour plates and the maker of guns and projectiles had begun. Iron, the conqueror of wood, had but a short reign. Where iron was used a few years ago, steel is now invariably employed. The thoroughness of the victory is shown by the fact that in the whole of the British Isles not one iron vessel, large or small, was built in 1909 for war or commerce.
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The years 1905 and 1906 saw two of the most important steps forward in the history of warships, for they included the adoption of the turbine principle of warship propulsion and the “Dreadnought” principle of armament. The progress of the last fifty years, culminating in the _Dreadnoughts_, has been wonderful; already designs of vessels intended to relegate them to second place are under consideration.
Type after type of battleship, cruiser, scout, gunboat, destroyer and torpedo-boat has followed in rapid succession of late years, and submarines have become an accomplished fact. He would be a foolish man who would prophesy that the end is in sight.
There is nothing more marvellous in the world’s history than the tremendous development in marine engineering, in warship construction, in explosives, in armament, and in projectiles that has taken place in the latter half of the nineteenth century, and especially in the last twenty-five years.
WARSHIPS AND THEIR STORY