1.
Firth of Forth
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The Firth of Forth is the estuary of the River Forth in Scotland, where it flows into the North Sea, between Fife to the north and Lothian to the south. It was known as Bodotria in Roman times, in the Norse sagas it was known as the Myrkvifiörd. Geologically, the Firth of Forth is a fjord, formed by the Forth Glacier in the last glacial period, the Kincardine Bridge, the Clackmannanshire Bridge, the Forth Road Bridge and the Forth Bridge carry traffic across the firth. Queensferry Crossing, alongside the Forth Road Bridge, was expected to open in 2016 but has since been delayed until May 2017. From 1964 to 1982, a tunnel existed under the Firth of Forth, the shafts leading into the tunnel were filled and capped with concrete when the tunnel was closed, and it is believed to have filled with water or collapsed in places. In July,2007, a passenger service completed a two-week trial between Portobello, Edinburgh and Kirkcaldy, Fife. The trial of the service was hailed as an operational success. It was estimated the service would decrease congestion for commuters on the Forth road, despite the initial success, the project was cancelled in December,2011. Historic villages line the Fife shoreline, Limekilns, Charlestown and Culross, established in the 6th century, the firth is important for nature conservation and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The Firth of Forth Islands SPA is home to more than 90,000 breeding seabirds every year, there is a bird observatory on the Isle of May. The youngest person to swim across the Firth of Forth was 13-year-old Joseph Feeney, in 2008, a controversial bid to allow oil transfer between ships in the firth was refused by Forth Ports. SPT Marine Services had asked permission to transfer 7.8 million tonnes of oil per year between tankers, but the proposals were met with determined opposition from conservation groups
2.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
3.
Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
4.
Naval fleet
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A fleet or naval fleet is a large formation of warships, which is controlled by one leader and the largest formation in any navy. A fleet at sea is the equivalent of an army on land. Fleets are usually, but not necessarily, permanent formations and are assigned to a particular ocean or sea. Most fleets are named after that ocean or sea, but the convention in the United States Navy is to use numbers. A fleet is normally commanded by an admiral, who is also a commander in chief. Most fleets are divided into squadrons, each under a subordinate admiral. Those squadrons in turn are divided into divisions. In the age of sail, fleets were divided into van, centre and rear squadrons, in more modern times, the squadrons are typically composed of homogeneous groups of the same class of warship, such as battleships or cruisers. Since many smaller navies only contain a single fleet, the term the fleet is often synonymous with the navy, multinational fleets are not uncommon in naval history. For example, several nations made up the Holy League fleet at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, in modern times, NATO has formed standing combined fleets and operations from several national navies such as Operation Active Endeavour. Modern fleets combine surface warships, submarines, support ships and ship-based aircraft to conduct operations at sea. Generally understood to be the water, or oceanic, green water or littoral versus the brown water or coastal/riverine forces. The fleets of larger navies are usually divided into smaller numbered or named fleets based on geographic operating areas or on administrative groupings of same type ships, modern fleets are usually administrative units. Typically, individual task forces are formed to conduct specific operations, list of fleets Media related to Fleets at Wikimedia Commons
5.
Battle of Jutland
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The battle unfolded in extensive maneuvering and three main engagements, from 31 May to 1 June 1916, off the North Sea coast of Denmarks Jutland Peninsula. It was the largest naval battle in that war and the only full-scale clash of battleships, Jutland was the third fleet action between steel battleships, following the smaller but more decisive battles of the Yellow Sea and Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War. Jutland was the last major battle fought primarily by battleships in world history, germanys High Seas Fleet intended to lure out, trap, and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, as the German naval force was insufficient to openly engage the entire British fleet. This formed part of a strategy to break the British blockade of Germany. Meanwhile, Great Britains Royal Navy pursued a strategy of engaging and destroying the High Seas Fleet, thereby keeping German naval forces contained and away from Britain and they stationed submarines in advance across the likely routes of the British ships. The German plan had been delayed, causing problems for their submarines. On the afternoon of 31 May, Beatty encountered Hippers battlecruiser force long before the Germans had expected, in a running battle, Hipper successfully drew the British vanguard into the path of the High Seas Fleet. Fourteen British and eleven German ships sank, with loss of life. The British lost more ships and twice as many sailors but succeeded in containing the German fleet, however, the British press criticised the Grand Fleets failure to force a decisive outcome, while Scheers plan of destroying a substantial portion of the British fleet also failed. Finally, the British strategy of denying Germany access to both the United Kingdom and the Atlantic did succeed, which was the British long-term goal, subsequent reviews commissioned by the Royal Navy generated strong disagreement between supporters of Jellicoe and Beatty concerning the two admirals performance in the battle. Debate over their performance and the significance of the battle continues to this day, with 16 dreadnought-type battleships, compared with the Royal Navys 28, the German High Seas Fleet stood little chance of winning a head-to-head clash. The Germans therefore adopted a divide-and-conquer strategy, in January 1916, Admiral von Pohl, commander of the German fleet, fell ill. He was replaced by Scheer, who believed that the fleet had used too defensively, had better ships and men than the British. On 25 April 1916, a decision was made by the German admiralty to halt indiscriminate attacks by submarine on merchant shipping and this followed protests from neutral countries, notably the United States, that their nationals had been the victims of attacks. Instead, he set about deploying the submarine fleet against military vessels and it was hoped that, following a successful German submarine attack, fast British escorts, such as destroyers, would be tied down by anti-submarine operations. If the Germans could catch the British in the expected locations, the hope was that Scheer would thus be able to ambush a section of the British fleet and destroy it. A plan was devised to station submarines offshore from British naval bases, the battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz had been damaged in a previous engagement, but was due to be repaired by mid May, so an operation was scheduled for 17 May 1916. At the start of May, difficulties with condensers were discovered on ships of the battleship squadron
6.
John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe
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Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, GCB, OM, GCVO, SGM, DL was a Royal Navy officer. He fought in the Anglo-Egyptian War and the Boxer Rebellion and commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 during the First World War. Jellicoe later served as First Sea Lord, overseeing the expansion of the Naval Staff at the Admiralty and the introduction of convoys and he also served as the Governor-General of New Zealand in the early 1920s. He was made a midshipman in the steam frigate HMS Newcastle in September 1874 before transferring to the ironclad HMS Agincourt in the Mediterranean Fleet in July 1877. Promoted to sub-lieutenant on 5 December 1878, he joined HMS Alexandra, flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet, as signal sub-lieutenant in 1880. Promoted to lieutenant on 23 September 1880, he returned to HMS Agincourt in February 1881, Jellicoe qualified as a gunnery officer in 1883 and was appointed to the staff of the gunnery school HMS Excellent in May 1884. He joined the turret ship HMS Monarch as gunnery officer in September 1885 and was awarded the Board of Trade Silver Medal for rescuing the crew of a steamer near Gibraltar in May 1886. Promoted to commander on 30 June 1891, Jellicoe joined the battleship HMS Sans Pareil in the Mediterranean Fleet in March 1892. He transferred to the battleship HMS Victoria in 1893 and was aboard when it collided with HMS Camperdown and was wrecked off Tripoli in Lebanon on 22 June 1893 and he was then appointed to the new flagship, HMS Ramillies, in October 1893. Promoted to captain on 1 January 1897, Jellicoe became a member of the Admiraltys Ordnance Committee and he was badly wounded during the Battle of Beicang and told he would die but confounded the attending doctor and chaplain by living. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath and given the German Order of the Red Eagle, 2nd class, centurion returned to the United Kingdom in August 1901, and was paid off the following month, when Captain Jellicoe and the crew went on leave. Promoted to rear admiral on 8 February 1907, he pushed hard for funds to modernise the navy, supporting the construction of new Dreadnought-type battleships and Invincible-class battlecruisers. Dreyers improvements in gunnery fire-control systems, and favoured the adoption of Dreyers Fire Control Table, Jellicoe arranged for the output of naval ordnance to be transferred from the War Office to the Admiralty. Jellicoe was appointed second-in-command of the Atlantic Fleet in August 1907 and he was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order on the occasion of the Kings Review of the Home Fleet in the Solent on 3 August 1907. He advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on the Coronation of King George V on 19 June 1911 and he became Second Sea Lord in December 1912. At the start of the First World War, the First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, removed Admiral George Callaghan, Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet. Jellicoe was promoted to admiral on 4 August 1914 and assigned command of the renamed Grand Fleet in Admiral Callaghans place. He was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 8 February 1915, Jellicoe commanded the British Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916, the largest clash of dreadnoughts, albeit an indecisive one
7.
David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty
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Admiral of the Fleet David Richard Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO, PC was a Royal Navy officer. He is remembered for his comment at Jutland that There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today, after two of his ships exploded. Later in the war he succeeded Jellicoe as Commander in Chief of the Grand Fleet and he then followed Jellicoes path a second time, serving as First Sea Lord—a position that Beatty held longer than any other First Sea Lord in history.75 each. Beatty was born into an Anglo-Irish family at Howbeck Lodge in the parish of Stapeley, near Nantwich, Cheshire, Katrine had fair hair and blue eyes, soft wide lips, and overall an air of command. Beattys father was 6 ft 4 in tall, dark haired with big hands, both David and his elder brother Charles were short, about 5 ft 5 in with small hands and feet. Charles was fair haired taking after his mothers features, whereas David had more the look of his father, David Longfield resigned from the regiment on 21 November 1865, with the honorary rank of Captain. He took up residence with Katrine in Cheshire and in 1869 sold his commission, David Longfield was unable to marry Katrine until Katrine had obtained a divorce on 21 February 1871, after the birth of their first two sons. Beattys birth certificate recorded his mothers surname as Beatty, and his parents eventual marriage at St Michaels Church in Liverpool was kept secret, Beattys early education concentrated on horsemanship, hunting and learning to be a gentleman. Beatty had a relationship with his elder brother Charles, who became his ally against their oppressive. They remained close throughout life, so much so that the only time Beatty felt despair was at his brothers death, Beatty later wrote to his wife about Charles, we lived together, played together, rode together, fought together. His brothers would join the British Army, but early on young David developed an interest in ships. In 1881 Beattys grandfather died and David Longfield succeeded to the 18th century mansion, Borodale, outside Enniscorthy, after retiring from the army David Longfield established a business training horses first in Cheshire and then at The Mount, near Rugby, Warwickshire. On inheriting and following the death of his wife at The Mount, Beatty was educated at Kilkenny College and in 1882 entered Burneys Naval Academy at Gosport, which was a crammer for boys wishing to take the entrance examinations for the Royal Navy. Beatty joined the Royal Navy as a passing into the training ship HMS Britannia tenth out of ninety-nine candidates in January 1884. During his two years at Britannia, moored at Dartmouth, he was three times for various infractions. He passed out of Britannia eighteenth out of the remaining cadets at the end of 1885. Beattys letters home made no complaint about the living conditions in Britannia, and generally he was extrovert, even aggressive. However, he understood how far he could transgress without serious consequences, Beatty was, in February 1886, instead appointed to HMS Alexandra, flagship of Admiral the Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Victorias second son, who was Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Squadron
8.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
9.
HMS King George V (1911)
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HMS King George V was the lead ship of her class of four dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the early 1910s. She spent the bulk of her assigned to the Home and Grand Fleets. After the war, King George V became flagship of the Home Fleet, the ship evacuated refugees during the Great fire of Smyrna in September 1922 before returning home at the beginning of 1923. King George V was reduced to reserve and used as a ship until late 1926 and was sold for scrap later in the year in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. The King George V-class ships were designed as enlarged and improved versions of the preceding Orion-class battleship, King George V had an overall length of 594 feet 4 inches, a beam of 89 feet 1 inch and a draught of 28 feet 8 inches. She displaced 25,420 long tons at load and 27,120 long tons at deep load, by 1918. Her crew numbered 869 officers and ratings upon completion and 1,114 in 1916, the ships of the King George V class were powered by two sets of Parsons direct-drive steam turbines, each driving two shafts, using steam provided by 18 coal-burning Babcock & Wilcox boilers. The turbines were rated at 27,000 shaft horsepower and were intended to give the battleships a speed of 21 knots, during her sea trials on 4 November 1912, King George V reached a maximum speed of 22.4 knots from 33,022 shp. She had a range of 5,910 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots. Like the Orion class, the King George Vs were equipped with 10 breech-loading 13. 5-inch Mark V guns in five hydraulically powered twin-gun turrets, the turrets were designated A, B, Q, X and Y, from front to rear. Their secondary armament consisted of 16 BL 4-inch Mark VII guns, eight of these were mounted in the forward superstructure, four in the aft superstructure, and four in casemates in the side of the hull abreast of the forward main gun turrets, all in single mounts. Four 3-pounder saluting guns were also carried, the ships were equipped with three 21-inch submerged torpedo tubes, one on each broadside and another in the stern, for which 14 torpedoes were provided. The King George V-class ships were protected by a waterline 12-inch armoured belt that extended between the end barbettes and their decks ranged in thickness between 1 inch and 4 inches with the thickest portions protecting the steering gear in the stern. The main battery turret faces were 11 inches thick, and the turrets were supported by 10-inch-thick barbettes, by October 1914, a pair of 3-inch anti-aircraft guns had been added. The torpedo nets were removed in 1915–1916, approximately 80 long tons of additional deck armour was added after the Battle of Jutland and a medium-length rangefinder was added atop the conning tower. Around the same time, the ship was modified to use a kite balloon, by April 1917, the 4-inch guns had been removed from the hull casemates as they were frequently unusable in heavy seas. The casemates were plated over and some of the compartments were used for accommodations and that same year, the spotting top was enlarged and the foremast was fitted with full-sized tripod legs to handle the additional weight. Her stern torpedo tube was removed in 1917–1918 and flying-off platforms were fitted on the roofs of B and Q turrets during 1918
10.
HMS Thunderer (1911)
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HMS Thunderer was the fourth and last Orion-class dreadnought battleship built for the Royal Navy in the early 1910s. She spent the bulk of her assigned to the Home. After the Grand Fleet was dissolved in early 1919, Thunderer was transferred to back to the Home Fleet for a few months before she was assigned to the Reserve Fleet. The ship was converted into a ship for naval cadets in 1921. While being towed to the scrapyard, Thunderer ran aground, the ship was refloated, in recognition of these improvements, the class was sometimes called super-dreadnoughts. The ships had a length of 581 feet, a beam of 88 feet 6 inches. They displaced 21,922 long tons at load and 25,596 long tons at deep load as built. Her crew numbered 738 officers and ratings when completed in 1912 and 1,107 in 1917, the Orion class was powered by two sets of Parsons direct-drive steam turbines, each driving two shafts, using steam provided by 18 coal-burning Babcock & Wilcox boilers. The turbines were rated at 27,000 shaft horsepower and were intended to give the battleships a speed of 21 knots. During her sea trials 0n 5 March 1912, Thunderer reached a speed of 20.8 knots from 27,427 shp. The ships had a range of 6,730 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots. The Orion class was equipped with 10 breech-loading 13. 5-inch Mark V guns in five hydraulically powered twin-gun turrets, the turrets were designated A, B, Q, X and Y, from front to rear. Their secondary armament consisted of 16 BL 4-inch Mark VII guns and these guns were split evenly between the forward and aft superstructure, all in single mounts. Four 3-pounder saluting guns were also carried, the ships were equipped with three 21-inch submerged torpedo tubes, one on each broadside and another in the stern, for which 20 torpedoes were provided. The Orions were protected by a waterline 12-inch armoured belt that extended between the end barbettes and their decks ranged in thickness between 1 inch and 4 inches with the thickest portions protecting the steering gear in the stern. The main battery turret faces were 11 inches thick, and the turrets were supported by 10-inch-thick barbettes, a prototype fire-control director was installed sometime before November 1912, on a platform below the spotting top. In 1914 the shelter-deck guns were enclosed in casemates and by October 1914, additional deck armour was added after the Battle of Jutland in May 1916. Around the same time, a pair of guns were removed from the aft superstructure
11.
HMS Monarch (1911)
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HMS Monarch was the second of four Orion-class dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the early 1910s. She spent the bulk of her assigned to the Home. After the Grand Fleet was dissolved in early 1919, Monarch was transferred to back to the Home Fleet for a few months before she was assigned to the Reserve Fleet, the ship was listed for disposal in mid-1922, but was hulked for use as a stationary training ship. In late 1923 Monarch was converted into a ship and was sunk in early 1925. In recognition of these improvements, the class was sometimes called super-dreadnoughts, the ships had an overall length of 581 feet, a beam of 88 feet 6 inches and a deep draught of 31 feet 3 inches. They displaced 21,922 long tons at load and 25,596 long tons at deep load as built. Her crew numbered 738 officers and ratings upon completion and 750 as of 1914, the Orion class was powered by two sets of Parsons direct-drive steam turbines, each driving two shafts, using steam provided by 18 Yarrow boilers. The turbines were rated at 27,000 shaft horsepower and were intended to give the battleships a speed of 21 knots, during her sea trials on 9 December 1911, Monarch reached a maximum speed of 21.9 knots from 32,277 shp. The ships had a range of 6,730 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots. The Orion class was equipped with 10 breech-loading 13. 5-inch Mark V guns in five hydraulically powered twin-gun turrets, the turrets were designated A, B, Q, X and Y, from front to rear. Their secondary armament consisted of 16 BL 4-inch Mark VII guns and these guns were split evenly between the forward and aft superstructure, all in single mounts. Four 3-pounder saluting guns were also carried, the ships were equipped with three 21-inch submerged torpedo tubes, one on each broadside and another in the stern, for which 20 torpedoes were provided. The Orions were protected by a waterline 12-inch armoured belt that extended between the end barbettes and their decks ranged in thickness between 1 inch and 4 inches with the thickest portions protecting the steering gear in the stern. The main battery turret faces were 11 inches thick, and the turrets were supported by 10-inch-thick barbettes, in 1914 the shelter-deck guns were enclosed in casemates and a fire-control director was installed sometime in 1914, before August, on a platform below the spotting top. By October 1914, a pair of 3-inch anti-aircraft guns had been installed, additional deck armour was added after the Battle of Jutland in May 1916. Around the same time, three 4-inch guns were removed from the aft superstructure and the ship was modified to operate kite balloons, a flying-off platform was mounted on B turrets roof and extended onto the gun barrels during 1917–1918. A high-angle rangefinder was fitted in the superstructure by 1921. Monarch, named after a ship of the line, Monarque
12.
HMS Conqueror (1911)
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HMS Conqueror was the third of four Orion-class dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the early 1910s. She spent the bulk of her assigned to the Home. After the Grand Fleet was dissolved in early 1919, Conqueror was transferred back to the Home Fleet for a few months before she was assigned to the Reserve Fleet, the ship was sold for scrap in late 1922 and subsequently broken up. In recognition of these improvements, the class was sometimes called super-dreadnoughts, the ships had an overall length of 581 feet, a beam of 88 feet 6 inches and a deep draught of 31 feet 3 inches. They displaced 21,922 long tons at load and 25,596 long tons at deep load as built. Her crew numbered 752 officers and ratings, the Orion class was powered by two sets of Parsons direct-drive steam turbines, each driving two shafts, using steam provided by eighteen coal-burning Babcock & Wilcox boilers. The turbines were rated at 27,000 shaft horsepower and were intended to give the battleships a speed of 21 knots, during her sea trials on 7 June 1912, Conqueror reached a maximum speed of 22.1 knots from 33,198 shp. The ships had a range of 6,730 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots. The Orion class was equipped with 10 breech-loading 13. 5-inch Mark V guns in five hydraulically powered twin-gun turrets, the turrets were designated A, B, Q, X and Y, from front to rear. Their secondary armament consisted of 16 BL 4-inch Mark VII guns and these guns were split evenly between the forward and aft superstructure, all in single mounts. Four 3-pounder saluting guns were also carried, the ships were equipped with three 21-inch submerged torpedo tubes, one on each broadside and another in the stern, for which 20 torpedoes were provided. The Orions were protected by a waterline 12-inch armoured belt that extended between the end barbettes and their decks ranged in thickness between 1 inch and 4 inches with the thickest portions protecting the steering gear in the stern. The main battery turret faces were 11 inches thick, and the turrets were supported by 10-inch-thick barbettes, in 1914 the shelter-deck guns were enclosed in casemates. By October 1914, a pair of 3-inch anti-aircraft guns had been added, a fire-control director was installed on a platform below the spotting top before May 1915. Additional deck armour was added after the Battle of Jutland in May 1916, around the same time, three 4-inch guns were removed from the aft superstructure. Two flying-off platforms were fitted aboard the ship during 1917–1918, these were mounted on B and X turret roofs, a high-angle rangefinder was fitted in the forward superstructure by 1921. Conqueror, named after a French fire ship, Conqueror, that had captured in 1745, was the seventh ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy. The ship was laid down by William Beardmore and Company at their shipyard in Dalmuir on 5 April 1910 and she was commissioned with a partial crew on 23 November 1912, but was not completed until March 1913, after which the remainder of her crew arrived
13.
Capital ship
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The capital ships of a navy are its most important warships, they are generally the larger ships when compared to other warships in their respective fleet. A capital ship is generally a leading or a ship in a naval fleet. William S. Lind, in the book America Can Win, defines a capital ship as follows, These characteristics define a capital ship, if the ships are beaten. But if the rest of the navy is beaten, the ships can still operate. Another characteristic that defines capital ships is that their opponent is each other. The Mahanian doctrine was applied by the Imperial Japanese Navy, leading to its preventive move to attack Pearl Harbor. Four-deckers suffered in rough seas, and the lowest deck could seldom fire except in calm conditions, third rate,64 to 80 guns. Fourth rate,46 to 60 guns, frigates were ships of the fifth rate, sixth rates comprised small frigates and corvettes. Towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars and into the late 19th century, some larger and this applied mainly to ships resulting from the dreadnought revolution, dreadnought battleships and battlecruisers. In the 20th century, especially in World Wars I and II, typical capital ships would be battleships, all of the above ships were close to 20,000 tons displacement or heavier, with large caliber guns and heavy armor protection. Heavy cruisers, despite being important ships, were not considered capital ships, an exception to the above in World War II was the Deutschland-class cruiser. The Alaska-class cruisers, despite being oversized heavy cruisers and not true battleships/battlecruisers, were considered by some to be capital ships. In regard to design, however, the Kirov is simply a supersized guided-missile cruiser with nuclear propulsion. It took until late 1942 for aircraft carriers to be considered capital ships. The U. S. Navy was forced to rely primarily on its aircraft carriers after the attack on Pearl Harbor sank or damaged eight of its Pacific-fleet battleships. In the 21st century, the carrier is the last remaining capital ship, with capability defined in decks available and aircraft per deck, rather than in guns. Despite their significance to modern fleets, the U. S. Navy has never named aircraft carriers after U. S. states as was the practice when battleships were considered capital ships. Instead, U. S. state names are applied to nuclear submarines while Aircraft Carriers are named after famous Navy personel and presidents, such as Chester W. Nimitz
14.
Scapa Flow
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Scapa Flow is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray, South Ronaldsay and Hoy. Scapa Flow is one of Britains most historic stretches of water - located within the Orkney Islands and its sheltered waters have been used by ships since prehistory and it has played an important role in travel, trade and conflict throughout the centuries - especially during both World Wars. It is currently a world-famous diving location, with the wrecks of the scuttled German Fleet offering unique diving challenges, Scapa Flow is also a major oil port serving the Flotta Oil Terminal, and is a prime location of ship-to-ship transfers of crude oil product and liquefied natural gas. The world’s first ship-to-ship transfer of LNG took place in Scapa Flow in 2007. Vikings anchored their longships in Scapa Flow more than a thousand years ago, the facility was closed in 1956. The Viking expeditions to Orkney are recorded in detail in the 11th century Orkneyinga sagas, en route back to Norway Haakon anchored some of his fleet in Scapa Flow for the winter, but he died that December whilst staying at the Bishops Palace in Kirkwall. The enterprise ended in failure and rout at the Battle of Carbisdale, historically, the main British naval bases were located near the English Channel to better face Britains old enemies, France, Spain, and the Netherlands. First Rosyth was considered for the base, then Invergordon at Cromarty Firth, john Rushworth Jellicoe, admiral of the Grand Fleet, was perpetually nervous about the possibility of submarine or destroyer attacks on Scapa Flow. These blocked approaches were backed by minefields, artillery, and concrete barriers, only two attempts to enter the harbour were made by German U-boats during the war, and neither was successful. U-18 tried to enter in November 1914, but a trawler searching for submarines rammed it, causing U-18 to flee, uB-116 made the second attempt in October 1918 but encountered the sophisticated defences then in place. It was detected by hydrophones before entering the anchorage, then destroyed by shore-triggered mines, after waiting for the bulk of the British fleet to leave on exercises, he gave the order to scuttle the ships to prevent their falling into British hands. Nine German sailors died when British forces opened fire as they attempted to scuttle their ship, SMS Emden was amongst the ships the British managed to beach. This Emden should not be confused with her predecessor, destroyed in the Battle of Cocos on 9 November 1914 by the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney, at least seven of the scuttled German ships, and a number of sunken British ships, can be visited by scuba divers. These ships posed a hazard to navigation, and small boats, trawlers and drifters, moving around the Flow regularly became snagged on them with the rise. The Admiralty initially declared that there would be no attempt at salvage, in the first few years after the war, there was abundant scrap metal as a result of the huge quantities of leftover tanks, artillery and ordnance. By the early 1920s, the situation had changed, in 1922, the Admiralty invited tenders from interested parties for the salvage of the sunken ships, although at the time few believed that it would be possible to raise the deeper wrecks. During the next eight years, Cox and his workforce of divers, engineers, in this fashion the submerged hulls were made into air-tight chambers and raised with compressed air, still inverted, back to the surface. Cox endured bad luck and frequent fierce storms which often ruined his work, swamping and re-sinking ships which had just been raised
15.
Orkney
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Orkney /ˈɔːrkni/, also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of Great Britain. Orkney is 16 kilometres north of the coast of Caithness and comprises approximately 70 islands, the largest island Mainland is often referred to as the Mainland. It has an area of 523 square kilometres, making it the sixth-largest Scottish island, the largest settlement and administrative centre is Kirkwall. A form of the dates to the pre-Roman era and the islands have been inhabited for at least 8500 years, originally occupied by Mesolithic and Neolithic tribes. Orkney was invaded and forcibly annexed by Norway in 875 and settled by the Norse, the Scottish Parliament then re-annexed the earldom to the Scottish Crown in 1472, following the failed payment of a dowry for James IIIs bride Margaret of Denmark. Orkney contains some of the oldest and best-preserved Neolithic sites in Europe, Orkney is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, a constituency of the Scottish Parliament, a lieutenancy area, and a historic county. The local council is Orkney Islands Council, one of only three Councils in Scotland with a majority of elected members who are independents. In addition to the Mainland, most of the islands are in two groups, the North and South Isles, all of which have a geological base of Old Red Sandstone. The climate is mild and the soils are fertile, most of the land being farmed. Agriculture is the most important sector of the economy, the significant wind and marine energy resources are of growing importance, and the island generates more than its total yearly electricity demand using renewables. The local people are known as Orcadians and have a distinctive Orcadian dialect of Scots, there is an abundance of marine and avian wildlife. Pytheas of Massilia visited Britain – probably sometime between 322 and 285 BC – and described it as triangular in shape, with a northern tip called Orcas and this may have referred to Dunnet Head, from which Orkney is visible. Speakers of Old Irish referred to the islands as Insi Orc island of the pigs, the archipelago is known as Ynysoedd Erch in modern Welsh and Arcaibh in modern Scottish Gaelic, the -aibh representing a fossilized prepositional case ending. The Anglo-Saxon monk Bede refers to the islands as Orcades insulae in his seminal work Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Norwegian settlers arriving from the ninth century reinterpreted orc as the Old Norse orkn seal. The plural suffix -jar was later removed in English leaving the modern name Orkney, according to the Historia Norwegiæ, Orkney was named after an earl called Orkan. The Norse knew Mainland Orkney as Megenland Mainland or as Hrossey Horse Island, the island is sometimes referred to as Pomona, a name that stems from a sixteenth-century mistranslation by George Buchanan, which has rarely been used locally. A charred hazelnut shell, recovered in 2007 during excavations in Tankerness on the Mainland has been dated to 6820–6660 BC indicating the presence of Mesolithic nomadic tribes
16.
Rosyth
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Rosyth /rəˈsaɪθ/ is a town on the Firth of Forth, three miles south of the centre of Dunfermline. According to an estimate taken in 2010, the town has a population of 12,850, the town was founded as a garden city and was built to form the coastal port of Dunfermline which began in 1909. Rosyth is almost contiguous with neighbouring Inverkeithing, separated only by the M90 motorway, Rosyth railway station is on the Fife Circle Line. Rosyth is within the Cowdenbeath constituency of the Scottish Parliament, currently held by Annabelle Ewing of the Scottish National Party, as well as the Mid Scotland and Fife electoral region. For the UK Parliament, Rosyth is located in the Dunfermline and West Fife Westminster constituency, Rosyth has three representatives on Fife Council, Keith Legg, Sharon Wilson and Pat Callaghan. The area is best known for its large dockyard, formerly the Royal Naval Dockyard Rosyth, the town was planned as a garden city with accommodation for the construction workers and dockyard workers. Today, the dockyard is almost 1,300 acres in size, Rosyth and nearby Charlestown were major centres of shipbreaking activity, notably the salvage of much of the German fleet scuttled at Gutter Sound, Scapa Flow. The associated naval base closed in 1994, and no Royal Navy ships are based at Rosyth, though small ships now return for docking and refit activities. Rosyths dockyards became the very first in the Royal Navy to be privatised when a company named Babcock International acquired the site in 1987. When the final submarine refit finished in 2003, a project to undertake early nuclear decommissioning of the submarine refit, the main decommissioning sub-contractor is Edmund Nuttall, and work began in 2006. The work was completed in 2010, when most of the occupied by the submarine refit facilities had been returned to brownfield status and were ready for redevelopment. The project completed ahead of programme and under-budget, which is unusual in nuclear decommissioning activities, some nuclear liabilities remain, including some quantities of contaminated ion-exchange resin which was the by-product of the former submarine refitting activity. The dockyard is the site for assembly of the two Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers for the Royal Navys future carrier project. Since 2002 an overnight ferry service has linked Rosyth with Zeebrugge in Belgium and this service was discontinued by Superfast Ferries in September 2008, but recommenced in May 2009 under new operator Norfolkline. They ran three sailings a week in each direction, Norfolkline was taken over by DFDS Seaways, who have since reduced the service to freight-only, three sailings a week in each direction. Scottish Enterprise Fife is now working in partnership with private sector organisations to explore the future development of Rosyth. The agency is looking at ways to expand the services to other European. It also wants to create new business infrastructure in and around Rosyth – which in turn will bring economic benefits to Fife
17.
Atlantic Fleet (United Kingdom)
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The Atlantic Fleet was a major fleet formation of the Royal Navy. There have been two formations in the Royal Navy officially called the Atlantic Fleet. The first was created in 1904 and lasted until 1914, the second lasted from 1919 until 1932. On 14 December 1904 the Channel Fleet was re-styled the Atlantic Fleet, the Atlantic Fleet lasted until 1912 when rising tensions with Germany forced the Royal Navy to relook at fleet formations and the Atlantic Fleet became the 3rd Battle Squadron. The Atlantic Fleet was again formed after the end of World War I, the fleet was created upon the disbandment of the Grand Fleet in April 1919, absorbing many, but not all of its elements. HMS Queen Elizabeth became the Fleets flagship and served in capacity until 1924. The fleet never fought in a battle in its short history. The fleets only point of note in history was in 1931, sailors of the fleet openly refused to obey orders over a dispute on pay sparked by the government at the time. The fleets short history ended in 1932, when the Admiralty having been shaken by the events of the Invergordon Mutiny, renamed the fleet, as the Home Fleet
18.
Order of battle at Jutland
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This is the complete order of battle for the Battle of Jutland fought between 31 May and 1 June 1916. The battle involved 249 warships of the British and German navies, the Grand Fleet was the main body of the British Home Fleets in 1916, based at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands and Invergordon on the Cromarty Firth in Scotland. Commander-in-chief, Grand Fleet, Adm Sir John Rushworth Jellicoe, K. C. B, K. C. V. O. in HMS Iron Duke Second in Command, Grand Fleet, VAdm Sir Cecil Burney, K. C. B. Chief of Staff, VAdm Sir Charles Edward Madden, K. C. B, captain of the Fleet, Cdre Lionel Halsey, C. B. C. M. G. Master of the Fleet, Capt Oliver Elles Leggett, flag lieutenants, of these,28 took part, organized into four Battle Squadrons. 2nd Battle Squadron, VAdm Thomas Henry Martyn Jerram, K. C. B, 1st Division, VAdm Jerram HMS King George V, Capt Frederick Laurence Field HMS Ajax, Capt George Henry Baird HMS Centurion, Capt Michael Culme-Seymour, M. V. O. HMS Erin, Capt the Hon. Victor Albert Stanley, M. V. O, 2nd Division, RAdm Arthur Cavenagh Leveson, C. B. HMS Orion, Capt Oliver Backhouse, C. B, HMS Monarch, Capt George Holmes Borrett HMS Conqueror, Capt Hugh Henry Darby Tothill, AdC. HMS Thunderer, Capt James Andrew Fergusson Fleet Flagship HMS Iron Duke, Capt Frederic Charles Dreyer, C. B. 4th Battle Squadron, VAdm Sir Frederick Charles Doveton Sturdee, 1st Baronet, K. C. B. C. M. G. flag commander, Cdr William Milbourne James 3rd Division, RAdm Sir Alexander Ludovic Duff, K. C. B. Chief of Staff, Cdre Edmund Percy Fenwick George Grant, flag lieutenant, Lt Cdr James Buller Kitson Fifth Division, RAdm Ernest Frederick Augustus Gaunt, C. M. G. HMS Colossus, Capt Alfred Dudley Pickman Rogers Pound HMS Collingwood, Capt James Clement Ley HMS St. Vincent, Capt William Wordsworth Fisher, 1st Cruiser Squadron, RAdm Sir Robert Keith Arbuthnot, 4th Baronet, K. C. B. HMS Minotaur, Capt Arthur Cloudesley Shovel Hughes DAeth HMS Hampshire, Capt Herbert John Savill HMS Shannon, Capt John Saumarez Dumaresq, Light cruisers attached for repeating visual signals HMS Boadicea, Capt Louis Charles Stirling Woollcombe, M. V. O. V. O. The main body of the Grand Fleet was escorted by 46 destroyers, HMS Owl, Cdr Robert Gerald Hamond HMS Hardy, Cdr Richard Anthony Aston Plowden HMS Mischief, Lt Cdr the Hon. Cyril Augustus Ward, M. V. O. HMS Midge, Lt Cdr James Robert Carnegie Cavendish second half-flotilla/4th D. F, HMS Broke, Cdr Walter Lingen Allen 3rd Division/4th D. F. HMS Porpoise, Cdr Hugh Davenport Colville HMS Unity, Lt Cdr Arthur Macaulay Lecky 4th Division/4th D. F, HMS Achates, Cdr Reginald Becher Caldwell Hutchinson, D. S. C. HMS Ambuscade, Lt Cdr Gordon Alston Coles HMS Ardent*, Lt Cdr Arthur Marsden HMS Fortune*, Lt Cdr Frank Goodrich Terry † 11th Destroyer Flotilla HMS Castor, Cdre Hawksley first half-flotilla/11th D. F. HMS Ossory, Cdr Harold Victor Dundas HMS Martial, Lt Cdr Julian Harrison HMS Magic, Lt Cdr Gerald Charles Wynter HMS Minion, Lt Cdr Henry Clive Rawlings 2nd Division/11th D. F
19.
Naval order of 24 October 1918
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When the order to prepare for the sortie was issued on 29 October, mutiny broke out aboard the German ships. Despite the operation being cancelled, these in turn led to the more serious Kiel mutiny, which was the point of the November Revolution. One of Wilsons preconditions was the cessation of Germanys submarine war, despite the objections of Admiral Scheer, the Chief of the German Admiralty Staff, the German Government made this concession on 20 October. The U-boats at sea were recalled on 21 October, hippers order was promulgated on 24 October, Scheer approved it on 27 October. The Fleet then began to concentrate at Schillig Roads off Wilhelmshaven to prepare for the battle, the High Seas Fleet in October 1918 was built around the core of 18 battleships and 5 battlecruisers, most of which had been completed before the outbreak of war. The fleet had only three major sorties at full strength into the North Sea since June 1916, 18–19 August 1916, 18-19 October 1916. Acts tantamount to mutiny took place on occasions during 1917. In late October 1918 the British Grand Fleet, based at Rosyth in the Firth of Forth, had 35 dreadnought battleships and 11 battlecruisers. Twenty of these ships had been completed since the outbreak of war, and a third of them were armed with the highly effective 15-inch gun, five of these ships were from the United States Navy and one from the Royal Australian Navy. The materiel problems which beset the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland and beyond, had all been remedied to various extents, moreover, the fleet possessed new weapons for which the German fleet had no match. In the First World War British naval intelligence in general, and it played a very important role in the battles of Dogger Bank and Jutland, in the American entry into the war on the Allied side and the defeat of the U-boats from 1917–18. By late 1917 improvements in German communications security had made intelligence gathering more difficult, between October 1917 and April 1918, the Germans were able to launch three surprise sorties into Norwegian waters against mercantile traffic, on the last occasion employing their whole fleet. Each time the British did not receive a warning in time to mount an effective counter-operation, high-power wireless communications were essential for the control of U-boats at sea, but this also allowed triangulation-based location of the U-boats by the Allies. In addition, U-boats employed a simpler system than that used by the surface fleet, which Room 40. In October 1918 these methods allowed the Admiralty to track the U-boats operating in British Home Waters, other U-boats were to undertake special operations involving British Naval Bases. In addition, U-43, also at sea, was directed to take up a position near the Tyne. Starting on 24 October, the other U-boats began departing from their base at Heligoland to their patrol areas, two of these U-boats were lost. The other submarine to be sunk was UB-116, which sailed from Heligoland on 25 October with special orders to attack the British fleet anchorage at Scapa Flow
20.
6th Battle Squadron
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The British 6th Battle Squadron was a Royal Navy squadron consisting of Battleships serving in the Grand Fleet. In August 1914, the 6th Battle Squadron was based at Portland, HMS Revenge briefly joined the squadron in 1915, before the squadron was broken up. Most of the ships were sent to the Mediterranean, on 13 November 1917, Rear Admiral Hugh Rodman broke his flag in USS New York as Commander, Battleship Division 9. After preparations for distant service, USS Wyoming, New York, Delaware, although retaining their American designation as Battleship Division 9, those four dreadnoughts became the Sixth Battle Squadron of the British Grand Fleet upon arrival in British waters. The 6th Battle Squadron operated from Scapa Flow and Rosyth, British Warships 1914-1919 Ian Allan, London. 1972, ISBN 0-7110-0380-7 McMahon, William E. Dreadnought Battleships and Battle Cruisers University Press of America,1978, ISBN 0-8191-0465-5
21.
Dreadnought
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The dreadnought was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. Dreadnoughts design had two features, an all-big-gun armament scheme, with more heavy-calibre guns than previous ships. As dreadnoughts became a symbol of power, the arrival of these new warships was a crucial catalyst in the intensifying naval arms race between the United Kingdom and Germany. With the launch of a ship, Dreadnought, the scales of naval power were reset overnight. As a result, dreadnought races sprang up around the world, including in South America, successive designs increased rapidly in size and made use of improvements in armament, armour, and propulsion throughout the dreadnought era. Within five years, new battleships had outclassed Dreadnought and these more powerful vessels were known as super-dreadnoughts. The only surviving dreadnought is USS Texas, located near the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site, dreadnought-building consumed vast resources in the early 20th century, but there was only one battle between large dreadnought fleets. In the 1916 Battle of Jutland, the British and German navies clashed with no decisive result, some designs had an intermediate battery of 8-inch guns. Serious proposals for an all-big-gun armament were circulated in several countries by 1903, all-big-gun designs commenced almost simultaneously in three navies. In 1904, the Imperial Japanese Navy authorized construction of Satsuma, work began on her construction in May 1905. The Royal Navy began the design of HMS Dreadnought in January 1905, finally, the US Navy gained authorization for USS Michigan, carrying eight 12-inch guns, in March 1905, with construction commencing in December 1906. The newest 12-inch guns had longer range and fired heavier shells than a gun of 10-inch or 9. 2-inch calibre, there is still debate as to whether this feature was important. At these ranges, lighter guns had good accuracy, and their rate of fire delivered high volumes of ordnance on the target. Naval gunnery was too inaccurate to hit targets at a longer range, by the early 20th century, British and American admirals expected future battleships would engage at longer distances. Newer models of torpedo had longer ranges, for instance, in 1903, the US Navy ordered a design of torpedo effective to 4,000 yards. Both British and American admirals concluded that they needed to engage the enemy at longer ranges, in 1900, Admiral Sir John Jackie Fisher, commanding the Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet, ordered gunnery practice with 6-inch guns at 6,000 yards. By 1904 the US Naval War College was considering the effects on battleship tactics of torpedoes with a range of 7,000 yards to 8,000 yards, the range of light and medium-calibre guns was limited, and accuracy declined badly at longer range. At longer ranges the advantage of a rate of fire decreased, accurate shooting depended on spotting the shell-splashes of the previous salvo
22.
Battleship
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A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the battleship was the most powerful type of warship, the word battleship was coined around 1794 and is a contraction of the phrase line-of-battle ship, the dominant wooden warship during the Age of Sail. The term came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ironclad warship. In 1906, the commissioning of HMS Dreadnought heralded a revolution in battleship design, subsequent battleship designs, influenced by HMS Dreadnought, were referred to as dreadnoughts. Battleships were a symbol of naval dominance and national might, the launch of Dreadnought in 1906 commenced a new naval arms race. Jutland was the largest naval battle and the only full-scale clash of battleships in the war, the Naval Treaties of the 1920s and 1930s limited the number of battleships, though technical innovation in battleship design continued. The value of the battleship has been questioned, even during their heyday, there were few of the decisive fleet battles that battleship proponents expected, and used to justify the vast resources spent on building battlefleets. Battleships were retained by the United States Navy into the Cold War for fire support purposes before being stricken from the U. S. Naval Vessel Register in the 2000s. A ship of the line was a large, unarmored wooden sailing ship which mounted a battery of up to 120 smoothbore guns, from 1794, the alternative term line of battle ship was contracted to battle ship or battleship. The sheer number of guns fired broadside meant a sail battleship could wreck any wooden enemy, holing her hull, knocking down masts, wrecking her rigging, and killing her crew. However, the range of the guns was as little as a few hundred yards. The first major change to the ship of the concept was the introduction of steam power as an auxiliary propulsion system. Steam power was introduced to the navy in the first half of the 19th century, initially for small craft. The French Navy introduced steam to the line of battle with the 90-gun Napoléon in 1850—the first true steam battleship, Napoléon was armed as a conventional ship-of-the-line, but her steam engines could give her a speed of 12 knots, regardless of the wind condition. This was a decisive advantage in a naval engagement. The introduction of steam accelerated the growth in size of battleships, the adoption of steam power was only one of a number of technological advances which revolutionized warship design in the 19th century. The ship of the line was overtaken by the ironclad, powered by steam, protected by metal armor, and armed with guns firing high-explosive shells. In the Crimean War, six ships and two frigates of the Russian Black Sea Fleet destroyed seven Turkish frigates and three corvettes with explosive shells at the Battle of Sinop in 1853
23.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
24.
Admiralty
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The new Admiralty Board meets only twice a year, and the day-to-day running of the Royal Navy is controlled by a Navy Board. It is common for the authorities now in charge of the Royal Navy to be referred to as simply The Admiralty. The title of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom was vested in the monarch from 1964 to 2011, the title was awarded to Philip, Duke of Edinburgh by Queen Elizabeth II on his 90th birthday. There also continues to be a Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom, the office of Admiral of England was created around 1400 although there had already been Admirals of the Northern and Western Seas. In 1546, King Henry VIII established the Council of the Marine, later to become the Navy Board, operational control of the Royal Navy remained the responsibility of the Lord High Admiral, who was one of the nine Great Officers of State. In 1628, Charles I put the office of Lord High Admiral into commission, the office of Lord High Admiral passed a number of times in and out of commission until 1709 after which the office was almost permanently in commission. In 1831, the first Navy Board was abolished as a separate entity, in 1964, the Admiralty along with the War Office and the Air Ministry as separate departments of state were abolished, and re-emerged under one single new Ministry of Defence. Within the expanded Ministry of Defence are the new Admiralty Board which has a separate Navy Board responsible for the running of the Royal Navy. The Army Board and the Air Force Board, each headed by the Secretary of State for Defence, the Board of Admiralty consisted of a number of Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. The Lords Commissioners were always a mixture of admirals, known as Naval Lords or Sea Lords and Civil Lords, the quorum of the Board was two commissioners and a secretary. The president of the Board was known as the First Lord of the Admiralty, after 1806, the First Lord of the Admiralty was always a civilian while the professional head of the navy came to be known as the First Sea Lord. The first real concerted effort to organise the Admiralty was started by Henry VIII. Between 1860 and 1908 there was no study of strategy and of staff work conducted within the naval service. All the navys talent flowed to the great technical universitys and it was perceived by officials within the Admiralty at this time that the running of war was quite a simple matter for any flag officer who required no formal training. The new War Staff had hardly found its feet and it struggled with the opposition to its existence by senior officers they were categorically opposed to a staff. The deficiencies of the system within this department of state could be seen in the conduct of the Dardanelles campaign, there was no mechanisms in place to answer the big strategic questions in 1914 a Trade Division was created. In 1916, Sir John Jellicoe came to the Admiralty, he organized the staff as following, Chief of War Staff, Operations, Intelligence, Signal Section, Mobilization, Trade. This for the first time gave the naval staff direct representation on the Board, the would direct all operations and movements of the fleet, while the would be responsible for mercantile movements and anti-submarine operations
25.
First Lord of the Admiralty
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The Admiralty Commission was dissolved in 1701, but was reconstituted in 1709 on the death of Prince George of Denmark, who had been appointed Lord High Admiral. The office has held in commission from that time onwards, however. The Board of the Admiralty comprised a number of “Lords Commissioners” headed by a First Lord, from the early 1800s the post was always held by a civilian. In 1832 First Lord Sir James Graham instituted reforms and amalgamated the Board of Admiralty, by the provisions of the Admiralty Act of 1832, two Lords in committee could legalize any action of the Board. In 1868 Prime Minister, William Gladstone appointed Hugh Childers First Lord, however these changes restricted communication between the board members who were affected by these new regulations and the sittings of the Board were discontinued altogether. This situation described was further exacerbated by the disaster of HMS Captain in 1870 a poorly designed new vessel for the navy. However by describing the Lords of the Admiralty as the assistants of the First Lord, in 1931 for the First time since 1709 the First Lord was not a member of the cabinet. M. S. Pinafore, is Sir Joseph Henry Porter, KCB, the counterparts shared a known lack of naval background. It has been suggested the character was drawn on Smiths actual Radical predecessor of 1868–71, the Making of the Modern Admiralty, British Naval Policy-Making, 1805-1927
26.
Board of Admiralty
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The Board of Admiralty was established in 1628 when Charles I put the office of Lord High Admiral into commission. This system remained in place until 1832, when the Board of Admiralty became the authority charged with both administrative and operational control of the navy when the Navy Board was abolished. The office of Lord High Admiral was created in around 1400 to take charge of the Royal Navy and it was one of the Great Officers of State. The office could be exercised by an individual, by the Crown directly, in 1679 this was changed, and the number of Commissioners was reduced to seven, who were to receive salaries and need not be members of the Privy Council. The eighteenth century Board of Admiralty usually contained a preponderance of civilians, although there was a naval element and often a sea officer was First Lord. The Lords Commissioners were all active politicians, even the naval members, after 1806 the First Lord was always a civilian and a senior member of the ministry, while the separate post of First Sea Lord was evolved for the senior professional member. Until the absorption of the High Court of Admiralty into the Court of Judicature they nominally retained, as executors of the office of Lord High Admiral, their centuries-old link with that court. When the Navy Board was abolished in 1832 and responsibility for the administration of the Navy passed to the Board of Admiralty. It now consisted of the First Lord of the Admiralty, four Naval Lords, known from 1904 as Sea Lords, and a Civil Lord, with a Parliamentary and a Permanent Secretary. Between 1832 and 1869 following the abolition of Navy Board a number of Civilian Naval Officials were also appointed as members. During the First World War the number of Sea Lords was increased at one time to eight, in 1938 the title of the Board member designated Assistant Chief of Naval Staff was altered to Fifth Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Air Services. For fuller details of Board membership during this period see The Second World War, duties were assigned to each Lord Commissioner by the First Lord and defined in a Minute of the Board, and amended form time to time. The Secretary to the Admiralty to be posted in the room of each Member of the Board, more informally, they were known in short as The Lords of the Admiralty. That, for example, is the term used throughout the well-known Horatio Hornblower series of historical novels. In 2011, currently Queen Elizabeth II bestowed the title of Lord High Admiral on the Duke of Edinburgh. nationalarchives. gov. uk/details/r/C706. © Crown copyright, which is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, London, By His Majestys Statute and Law Printer. Naval Administration, The Constitution, Character, and Functions of the Board of Admiralty, the Admiralty, Reforms and Re-organization, 1868-1892. The Origin and Constitution of the Admiralty and Navy Boards, to which is added an Account of the various Buildings in which the Business of the Navy has been transacted from time to time, London, For Her Majestys Stationary Office
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Navy Board
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The Navy Board also known as the Navy Office was the organisation with responsibility for day-to-day civil administration of the Royal Navy between 1546 and 1832. In addition, the Board co-ordinated provision of victuals for the fleet and it was also responsible for the appointment of junior officers and warrant officers, and had several other duties in addition. The Comptroller of the Navy, was in charge of Naval spending he also acted as Chairman of the Board from 1660, the Surveyor of the Navy, was in charge of Naval shipbuilding, ship design and running the Royal Dockyards. The Clerk of the Acts, was in charge of the running of the Board. As the size of the fleet grew, the Admiralty sought to focus the activity of the Navy Board on two areas, ships and their maintenance, and naval expenditure. Therefore, from the mid- to late-17th century, a number of subsidiary Boards began to be established to other aspects of the Boards work. Theseincluded, The Victualling Board The Sick and Hurt Board The Transport Board, each of these subsidiary Boards went on to gain a degree of independence. The Surveyor of the Navy, the Clerk of the Navy, as defined by a set of Ordinances drawn up under Henrys successor, Edward VI, the Navy Board was given a high degree of autonomy while yet remaining subordinate to the Lord High Admiral. This - at times ambiguous - relationship with The Admiralty was a characteristic of the Board. During the Commonwealth the business of both Navy Board and Admiralty was carried out by a committee of Parliament, following the Restoration, James, Duke of York oversaw the reconstitution of the Navy Board. Alongside the aforementioned Principal Officers further officials were appointed to serve as Commissioners of the Navy, by tradition, commissioners were always Navy officers of the rank of post-captain or captain who had retired from active service at sea. List of Principal Officers and Commissioners 1660-1796 included, henceforward, the Board would consist of the Controller and a Deputy Controller, the Surveyor and around seven other Commissioners to whom no specific duties were attached. The Treasurer, though technically a member of the Board, was seldom in attendance. In actual fact the post of Treasurer was by this stage more than a sinecure, the main work of his department was carried out by its senior clerk. Not every Dockyard had a resident Commissioner in charge, but the larger Yards, both at home and overseas, generally did. From the 1650s the Board, together with its staff of around 60 clerks, was accommodated in a house at the corner of Crutched Friars and Seething Lane. Following a fire, the house was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren and this new Navy Office provided accommodation for the Commissioners, as well as office space. Different departments were accommodated in different parts of the building, the rear wing housed the offices of the Sick, the Victualling Office was also located nearby, on Little Tower Hill, close to its early manufacturing base at Eastminster
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First Sea Lord
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The First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff is the professional head of the United Kingdoms Royal Navy and the whole Naval Service, originally the title was the First Naval Lord. The concept of a professional First Naval Lord was introduced in 1805, from 1923 onward, the First Sea Lord was a member of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, he now sits on the Defence Council and the Admiralty Board. The current First Sea Lord is Admiral Sir Philip Jones, the flagship of the First Sea Lord is HMS Victory. Lords High Admiral were appointed from the 15th century until the 18th, from 1683 to 1684, there were seven paid Commissioners and one supernumerary Commissioner who served without salary. The number varied between five and seven Commissioners through the 18th century, the standing of all the Commissioners was in theory the same, although the First Commissioner or First Lord exercised an ascendancy over his colleagues from an early date. The title of the First Naval Lord was changed to First Sea Lord on the appointment of Sir Jackie Fisher in 1904, in 1917, the First Sea Lord was designated as Chief of the Naval Staff. The title was retained when the Board of Admiralty was abolished in 1964, under the current organisation, the First Sea Lord sits on both the Defence Council and the Admiralty Board. In John Buchans novel, The Thirty-Nine Steps, the First Sea Lord is named as Lord Alloa, the real First Sea Lord at the time the story is set was Prince Louis of Battenberg, coincidentally also bearded. Chief of the Defence Staff Second Sea Lord Third Sea Lord Fourth Sea Lord Fifth Sea Lord Heathcote, the British Admirals of the Fleet 1734 -1995. Prince Louis of Battenberg, Admiral of the Fleet, mackay, Ruddock F. Fisher of Kilverstone
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United Kingdom
Royal Navy
Historic fleets and naval commands of the Royal Navy