1.
Naval warfare
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Naval warfare is combat in and on the sea, the ocean, or any other major body of water such as a large lake or wide river. Mankind has fought battles on the sea for more than 3,000 years, even in the interior of large landmasses, transportation before the advent of extensive railroads was largely dependent upon rivers, canals, and other navigable waterways. Prior to 1750, materials largely moved by barge or sea vessels. Thus armies, with their exorbitant needs for food, ammunition, the oceanic influences throughout pre-recorded history, and classical works such as The Odyssey underscore the past influences. The Persian Empire – united and strong – could not prevail against the might of the Athenian fleet combined with that of city states in several attempts to conquer the Greek city states. Phoenicias and Egypts power, Carthages and even Romes largely depended upon control of the seas, so too did the Venetian Republic dominate Italys city states, thwart the Ottoman Empire, and dominate commerce on the Silk Road and the Mediterranean in general for centuries. For three centuries, the Northmen raided and pillaged and went where they willed, far into central Russia and the Ukraine, many sea battles through history also provide a reliable source of shipwrecks for underwater archaeology. A major example is the exploration of the wrecks of various warships in the Pacific Ocean, the first dateable recorded sea battle occurred about 1210 BC, Suppiluliuma II, king of the Hittites, defeated a fleet from Cyprus, and burned their ships at sea. In the Battle of the Delta, the Ancient Egyptians defeated the Sea Peoples in a sea battle circa 1175 BC, no written mention of strategy or tactics seems to have survived. Josephus Flavius reports a battle between Tyre and the king of Assyria who was aided by the other cities in Phoenicia. The battle took place off the shores of Tyre, although the Tyrian fleet was much smaller in size, the Tyrians defeated their enemies. The Greeks of Homer just used their ships as transport for land armies and it seems unlikely that all this was the product of a single mind or even of a generation, most likely the period of evolution and experimentation was simply not recorded by history. After some initial battles while subjugating the Greeks of the Ionian coast, the Persians determined to invade Greece proper. The first Persian campaign, in 492 BC, was aborted because the fleet was lost in a storm, attacks by the Greek armies repulsed these. The third Persian campaign in 480 BC, under Xerxes I of Persia, but the defeat on land at Thermopylae forced a Greek withdrawal, and Athens evacuated its population to nearby Salamis Island. The ensuing Battle of Salamis was one of the engagements of history. Themistocles trapped the Persians in a too narrow for them to bring their greater numbers to bear. Aeschylus wrote a play about the defeat, The Persians, which was performed in a Greek theatre competition a few years after the battle and it is the oldest known surviving play
2.
Maritime transport
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Ship transport is watercraft carrying people or goods. Freight transport has been achieved widely by sea throughout recorded history, although the importance of sea travel for passengers has decreased due to aviation, it is effective for short trips and pleasure cruises. Transport by water is cheaper than transport by air, despite fluctuating exchange rates, ship transport can be realized over any distance by boat, ship, sailboat or barge, over oceans and lakes, through canals or along rivers. Virtually any material can be moved by water, however, water transport becomes impractical when material delivery is highly time-critical such as types of perishable produce. Containerization revolutionized ship transport starting in the 1970s, general cargo includes goods packaged in boxes, cases, pallets, and barrels. When a cargo is carried in more than one mode, it is intermodal or co-modal, a nations shipping fleet consists of the ships operated by civilian crews to transport passengers or cargo from one place to another. Ores, Coal, and grains can travel along the rivers of the American midwest to Pittsburgh, professional mariners are merchant seaman, merchant sailor, and merchant mariner, or simply seaman, sailor, or mariners. The terms seaman or sailor may refer to a member of a countrys navy, according to the 2005 CIA World Factbook, the total number of merchant ships of at least 1,000 gross register tons in the world was 30,936. In 2010, it was 38,988, an increase of 26%, statistics for individual countries are available at the list of merchant navy capacity by country. A ships complement can be divided into four categories, the department, the engineering department, the stewards department. Officer positions in the department include but not limited to, Master and his Chief, Second. The official classifications for unlicensed members of the department are Able Seaman. Their time on board is spent learning the operations and tasks of life on a merchant vessel. A ships engineering department consists of the members of a crew that operate and maintain the propulsion. Marine Engineering staff also deal with the Hotel facilities on board, notably the sewage, lighting, air conditioning, on LPG and LNG tankers however, a cargo engineer works with the deck department during cargo operations, as well as being a watchkeeping engineer. Other possible positions include Motorman, Machinist, Electrician, Refrigeration Engineer, engine Cadets are trainee engineers who are completing sea time necessary before they can obtain a watchkeeping license. A typical Stewards department for a ship would be composed of a Chief Steward, a Chief Cook. All three positions are filled by unlicensed personnel
3.
Blockade
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A blockade is an effort to cut off supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions and it is also distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually directed at an entire country or region, rather than a fortress or city. While most blockades historically took place at sea, blockade is still used on land to prevent someone coming into a certain area. A blockading power can seek to cut off all maritime transport from and to the country, although stopping all land transport to. Blockades restrict the rights of neutrals, who must submit for inspection for contraband. In the 20th century air power has also used to enhance the effectiveness of the blockade by halting air traffic within the blockaded airspace. Close patrol of hostile ports, in order to prevent naval forces from putting to sea, is referred to as a blockade. When coastal cities or fortresses were besieged from the landward side, most recently, blockades have sometimes included cutting off electronic communications by jamming radio signals and severing undersea cables. Following the British naval victory at Quiberon Bay, which ended any hope of a major invasion of the British Isles. This began to starve French ports of commerce, further weakening Frances economy, hawke took command of the blockading fleet off Brest and extended the blockade of the French coast from Dunkirk to Marseilles. The British were able to take advantage of the Navys position to develop plans for landings on the coast. However, these plans were abandoned, due to the formidable logistical challenge this would have posed. The Union blockade of ports was a major factor in the American Civil War, as was the failure of the U-boat blockade in World War I. Julian Corbett and Admiral Mahan emphasized that naval operations were chiefly to be won by decisive battles, a close blockade entails placing warships within sight of the blockaded coast or port, to ensure the immediate interception of any ship entering or leaving. It is both the most effective and the most difficult form of blockade to implement, in a distant blockade, the blockaders stay well away from the blockaded coast and try to intercept any ships going in or out. This may require more ships on station, but they can usually operate closer to their bases and this was almost impossible prior to the 16th century due to the nature of the ships used. A loose blockade is a close blockade where the ships are withdrawn out of sight from the coast. The object of loose blockade is to lure the enemy into venturing out, British admiral Horatio Nelson applied a loose blockade at Cádiz in 1805
4.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
5.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
6.
Privateer
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A privateer was a private person or ship that engaged in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Captured ships were subject to condemnation and sale under prize law, a percentage share usually went to the issuer of the commission. Since robbery under arms was common to trade, all merchant ships were already armed. During war, naval resources were auxiliary to operations on land so privateering was a way of subsidizing state power by mobilizing armed ships, the letter of marque of a privateer would typically limit activity to one particular ship, and specified officers. Typically, the owners or captain would be required to post a performance bond, in the United Kingdom, letters of marque were revoked for various offences. Some crews were treated as harshly as naval crews of the time, some crews were made up of professional merchant seamen, others of pirates, debtors, and convicts. Some privateers ended up becoming pirates, not just in the eyes of their enemies, william Kidd, for instance, began as a legitimate British privateer but was later hanged for piracy. The investors would arm the vessels and recruit large crews, much larger than a merchantman or a vessel would carry. Privateers generally cruised independently, but it was not unknown for them to form squadrons, a number of privateers were part of the English fleet that opposed the Spanish Armada in 1588. Privateers generally avoided encounters with warships, as such encounters would be at best unprofitable, for instance, in 1815 Chasseur encountered HMS St Lawrence, herself a former American privateer, mistaking her for a merchantman until too late, in this instance, however, the privateer prevailed. The United States used mixed squadrons of frigates and privateers in the American Revolutionary War, the practice dated to at least the 13th century but the word itself was coined sometime in the mid-17th century. England, and later the United Kingdom, used privateers to great effect and these privately owned merchant ships, licensed by the crown, could legitimately take vessels that were deemed pirates. The increase in competition for crews on armed merchant vessels and privateers was due, in a large part, because of the chance for a considerable payoff. Whereas a seaman who shipped on a vessel was paid a wage and provided with victuals. This proved to be a far more attractive prospect and privateering flourished as a result, during Queen Elizabeths reign, she encouraged the development of this supplementary navy. Over the course of her rule, she had allowed Anglo-Spanish relations to deteriorate to the point where one could argue that a war with the Spanish was inevitable. By using privateers, if the Spanish were to take offense at the plundering of their ships, some of the most famous privateers that later fought in the Anglo-Spanish War included the Sea Dogs. In the late 16th century, English ships cruised in the Caribbean and off the coast of Spain, at this early stage the idea of a regular navy was not present, so there is little to distinguish the activity of English privateers from regular naval warfare
7.
Spanish treasure fleet
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Passengers and goods such as textiles, books and tools were transported in the opposite direction. The West Indies fleet was the first permanent transatlantic trade route in history, similarly, the Manila galleons were the first permanent trade route across the Pacific. Spanish ships had brought goods from the New World since Christopher Columbuss first expedition of 1492, the Spanish government started a system of convoys in the 1560s in response to the sacking of Havana by French privateers. The main procedures were established after the recommendations of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, the treasure fleets sailed along two sea lanes. A secondary route was that of the Manila Galleons or Galeón de Manila which linked the Philippines to Acapulco in Mexico across the Pacific Ocean, from Acapulco, the Asian goods were transhipped by mule train to Veracruz to be loaded onto the Caribbean treasure fleet for shipment to Spain. To better defend this trade, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and Álvaro de Bazán designed the model of the galleon in the 1550s. Spain controlled the trade through the Casa de Contratación based in Seville, by law, the colonies could trade only with the one designated port in the mother country, Seville. Maritime archaeology has shown that the quantity of goods transported was sometimes higher than recorded at the Archivo General de Indias. Spanish merchants and Spaniards acting as fronts for foreign merchants sent their goods on these fleets to the New World, some resorted to contraband to transport their cargoes untaxed. The Crown of Spain taxed the wares and precious metals of private merchants at a rate of 20%, Spain became the richest country in Europe by the end of the 16th century. The flow of precious metals also made many traders wealthy both in Spain and abroad, the increase in gold and silver on the Iberian market sometimes caused high inflation in the 17th century, affecting the Spanish economy. As a consequence, the Crown was forced to delay the payment of some major debts, by 1690 some of these lenders could no longer offer financial support to the Crown. The Spanish monopoly over its West and East Indies colonies lasted for two centuries. The economic importance of exports later declined with the drop of production of the American precious metals mines, however, the growth in trade was strong in the early years. Numbering just 17 ships in 1550, the fleets expanded to more than 50 much larger vessels by the end of the century, by the second half of the 17th century, that number had dwindled to less than half of its peak. The Spanish trade of goods was sometimes threatened by its colonial rivals who tried to seize islands as bases along the Spanish Main and in the Spanish West Indies, however, the Atlantic trade was largely unharmed. The English acquired small islands like St Kitts in 1624, expelled in 1629 they returned in 1639, French pirates established themselves in Saint-Domingue in 1625, were expelled only to return later and the Dutch occupied Curaçao in 1634. In 1739, British Admiral Edward Vernon raided Portobello, but in 1741 his campaign against Cartagena de Indias ended in defeat with heavy losses of men and ships
8.
Prize (law)
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Prize /praɪz/ is a term used in admiralty law to refer to equipment, vehicles, vessels, and cargo captured during armed conflict. The most common use of prize in this sense is the capture of an enemy ship, in the past, the capturing force would commonly be allotted a share of the worth of the captured prize. Nations often granted letters of marque that would entitle private parties to capture enemy property, usually ships. At the outset, prize taking was all smash and grab like breaking a window, but by the fifteenth century a body of guiding rules. Grotiuss seminal treatise on international law published in 1604 called De Iure Praedae Commentarius was an advocates brief justifying Dutch seizures of Spanish, grotius defends the practice of taking prizes as not merely traditional or customary but just. Prize law fully developed between the Seven Years War of 1756–63 and the American Civil War of 1861–65 and this period largely coincides with the last century of fighting sail and includes the Napoleonic Wars, the American and French Revolutions, and Americas Quasi-War with France of the late 1790s. Fortunes in prize money were to be made at sea as vividly depicted in the novels of C. S. Forester, during the American Revolution the combined American naval and privateering prizes totaled nearly $24 million, in the War of 1812, $45 million. Prize cases were among the most complex of the time, as the disposition of vast sums turned on the fluid Law of Nations, and difficult questions of jurisdiction and precedent. One of the earliest U. S. cases for instance, a captured American privateer captain, 20-year-old Gideon Olmsted, shipped aboard the British sloop Active in Jamaica as an ordinary hand in an effort to get home. Olmsted organized a mutiny and commandeered the sloop, but as Olmsteds mutineers sailed their prize to America, a Pennsylvania privateer took the Active. Olmsted and the disputed ownership of the prize, and in November 1778 a Philadelphia prize court jury came to a split verdict awarding each a share. But Pennsylvania authorities refused to enforce the decision, asserting the Continental Congress could not intrude on a prize court jury verdict. Olmsted doggedly pursued the case for decades until he won, in a U. S, when a privateer or naval vessel spotted a tempting vessel—whatever flag she flew or often enough flying none at all—they gave chase. Sailing under false colors was a ruse, both for predator and prey. The convention was a vessel must hoist her true colors before firing the first shot, firing under a false flag could cost dearly in prize court proceedings, even result in restitution to the captured vessels owner. Officers restrained the crew to prevent pillaging defeated adversaries, or pilfering the cargo known as breaking bulk. That is, instead of destroying her on the spot as was their prerogative, on land this would be extortion and the promise to pay unenforceable in court, but at sea it was accepted practice and the IOUs negotiable instruments. While on her mission as a ship she was immune to recapture so long as she proceeded directly on her errand, promptly returned
